but we can surmise that the G80 has the approximate surface area of Rosie O'Donnell.

OMG.. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I'm just glad I had swallowed the water I was drinking before I got to that line.

I still laugh every time I read it.

Oh the tears of laughter. Thanks, Scott, I needed that. :)

84°C.

Kiss my ass.

SGT Lindy,

Year after year, there is someone like you who thinks PC gaming is going to die because the current console on the market is leading. Year after year they are proven wrong once again. This ran all the ways back to the Playstation 1. That was going to kill PC gaming for good.

Guess what, I am still waiting for that to happen. Sure it will happen at some point maybe. Just like the computer cycle of hardware. The Xbox 360 looked amazing when it came out and now? HoHum... The games are not even impressive graphically Right now. Yes GoW looks great (and I own it) but in a few months, meh who cares.

However since all current consoles can now connect to the internet and download content. There will be patches and bugs and all that with consoles. On that note, anyone want to bet me that EA will be the first to offer a bugfix for a console game?

Bottom line is the PC will always rule in every department for quite some time. yes it's nice to never have to worry about system requirements when picking up a new game and if it will work on a console. I have never had to worry about that issue in over 8 years. I don't even think I looked at a system requirement listing on a game box (for a PC) since the 486 days.

I am not full of cash either, I think I upgrade once a year. Bottom line is this. After every new console generation, everyone thinks that PC gamining is dead and it has yet to happen. I see the useless stats that chart the demise, yet every year I seem to have fun playing great games om my PC. I have yet to have a year where I thought "damn, I wish I bought that console for that awesome game" I have yet to see it.

Sorry for the long a** post guys.

LOL at all the fools and their doom theorys, O yeah ATI is finished now, or yeah AMD is done now. Either u guys are 14 and just getting into computers or just really dense. This back and forth business has been going on for years. And will continue!

Now back to topic, very impressive cards from nvidia. They pulled out a 9700pro out of there magic hat.

Now we just wait for Ati's response, and then I plan to look at a DX10 card in the summer when we've had a few price drops and better drivers. Can't wait.

And Nvidia will never merge with Intel. NV is a mini intel. no doubt.

"More importantly, the G80 gives Nvidia a nice lead over rival ATI Technologies , which was recently acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - news - Cramer's Take - Rating) and is not expected to have a comparable product until 2007"

http://www.thestreet.com/_dm/newsanalysis/techgames/10321248.html

What? ATi is not releasing a DX10 part until next year?

Yawns................... 8800GTX is exactly what I predicted, a slightly faster 7950GX2 with DX10 support.

To you the truth, the 8800GTX's thunder was stolen by 7950GX2 and 7900GS SLI.

The new AA methods are promising, but even the 8800GTX struggles using them at extreme resolutions.

Consoles?
Yeah, I agree that games for consoles are increasing, nothing cool for PC for a few months already, so you assume no cool PC games forever?

Why do you think 8800 comes out? get ready for next-gen.
year 2006 q4 - 2007, xbox 360 & ps3 belongs to current-gen. every game have good graphics now, where are we heading? unknown.
that's why we need good hardwares to get ready for those.

my friend laughed at PCI-e when it came out, he said it's too much for gaming, now what? how many AGP cards still on the market?

besides, w/o PC graphic's advancing, where do you think consoles' graphic cards technology came from?

we're heading high-end techs <i>including</i> games, this is tech report, not game report.

I'm amazed. Simply amazed. It's a single card and it keeps up with or outruns dual-card configs from both houses. It's definitely an eye-opener.

However, I'll echo the sentiment that others have said that my <insert card here> card is doing well enough for all the games I'm currently playing...

Another great review, love the Oblivion screen shot.

Why are people so clueless, was just reading that post from that guy on digg complaining about a 700 Watt PSU. Why is it so hard to understand that the videocard won't use 700watts, the only time u might come close to that is during gaming on a SLI rig. And unless your running a Game 24/7 and nothing else on your computer it not a major issues. So sick of seeing moron's going OMG Nvidia says it need a 500Watt PSU.

yeah that is total system usage not just the videocard. Ahhh I wanna beat them with a stick sometimes.

" Back when Sony announced the specifications of the PlayStation 3, everyone asked if it meant the end of PC gaming. After all Cell looked very strong and NVIDIA's RSX GPU had tremendous power. We asked NVIDIA how long it would take until we saw a GPU faster than the RSX. Their answer: by the time the PS3 ships. So congratulations to NVIDIA for making the PS3 obsolete before it ever shipped, as G80 is truly a beast."

-Anandtech review.

LOL!

I guess PC gamers can keep on bragging... this time around catching up to consoles didn't even take a few months ;)

As I played Gears of War tonight on my Xbox 360....I thought to my self PC Gaming is flaming out fast.

It is ironic that PC gaming hardware keeps increasing in power and price and yet PC game software decrasing. What killer new AAA title will you play with this new card??? There are none righ now....and not any on the horizon that would even begin to need this kind of power.

Next week I will pickup Rainbow Six Vegas and Call of Duty 3....two more great CONSOLE games....that dont have a PC version.

Sad that a $600+ video card that is super powerful does not have anything really new and good to use it.

Wow, Guild Wars, FEAR, emulators, etc. runs really well at 1680x1050 on my 7900GT and S754 A64 3400. Somebody wake me up in 2008 or 2009 when I actually need to upgrade anything (other than bigger hard drive).

Just dreaming but what if this thing could fold... @$@##$#$@#

who cares about idle consumption when all this thing should be doing is gaming and folding? ;)

Well ATI has their work cut out.

Finally I get a chance to sit down and read the review properly.

The most impressive part by far, the NOISE levels - all this speed and it's not too bloody noisy! Hooray - let's put a damn END to noisy crap like the 7900GT and 7800GT (I got stung) :(

I want a quiet machine, I don't need silent but quiet would help.

I'd also like them to turn off WAY more of the chip for Windows, so that if my PC is on but the display is off the video card really REALLY ramps down the cooler :/

Anyhow - impressive card, pricey but impressive - good luckto them with such huge chips though - no wonder it's high in price.

totally useless 100th post! (sorry about that)

Well this was twice as fast as my 7900GTX... New king has arrived.. Great review Scott thanks..

Yes, it's taken 680 million transistors to get there....
Hotdam! It'd better go like a mofo.

Damage, I don't think WaltC was looking to place blame or anything. He was probably just looking for conspiracy theoris and didn't seem to be saying TR did a really bad job or anything :)

And Krogoth, stop being an idiot. These cards really are huge leaps ahead of current hardware. The only thing I can figure is you're trying to make yourself feel better for owning a 7950GX2.

Is there a way to reduce power draw at idle by for instance lowering 2D speeds? Or will this not make a difference?

hot damn.

250+ watts at idle.

$500 card + $$$$$$$ in electricity.

I found it a very interesting read and it certainly looks like an intriguing product from nVidia. I'm intrigued as well, though, that you did not present any pictures of the back of the card you tested, which seems interesting in that perhaps it would give away a bit more than nVidia wants known at the moment about the exact number of chips residing under that heat spreader...?....;) Just a thought... ;) A pic of the back of the card usually is commonplace in a review of this type, simply so that we can see some of the traces and how they branch and connect. This can lead to some deductions about the gpu employed on the card, etc. As it is all we can see is a "metal cap" without a clue as to what is under it.

I mean, come on, the term "heat spreader" is anything but a "marketing term" and is far more than a "metal cap," isn't it? It has a definite function and the term "heat spreader" is actually very descriptive of what the "metal cap" actually does. It not only "spreads heat" but it also obscures what is underneath it, unfortunately.

I rather doubt that posting images of the back of the card was something that simply never occurred to TR, so I'm wondering what it was, exactly, that caused you to fail to turn the card over and take a picture of it...? I'm not saying that there is more than one chip under the spreader, mind you, only that the information provided does not illustrate the number of chips under the heat spreader very well--at all, really--except to illustrate how easily two R5xx's could snuggle up under the shown heat spreader without a problem, apparently:

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/geforce-8800/gtx-vs-x1900-bare...

I would kind of like to have this point of view illustrated a little more clearly, if possible.

Bring on the $100 7900 GS

It would have been amusing to see the 5800 Ultra added to the noise graph.

Sure would be an awesome upgrade from my AGP X800XL... LOL... will probably be lookin to see if a new PC build is order now. As for the card eating a bunch of power during idle, i could really care less, i don't know about the rest of you, but i build my desktops for speed, not for power savings. But one think is for darn sure, i doubt you will be seeing this chip inside a laptop anytime soon unless it's like completely crippled. Also can't wait to see what ATI counters with, since they will be releasing a Gen 2 GPGPU, so you would think theirs should be a more mature process that is far more power efficient thanks to it's 80nm fab if power efficiency is something you care about... but idle power consumption shouldn't matter at all to all of you, your machines should all be working full tilt for Folding@home anyways!

One word, no, two words - SUPER FAST. But from a marketing perspective is this the right move? I mean, the sole purpose of these cards is to make money for Nvidia but given all the new gadgets coming out this season, how many of these cards will be sold? The PS3, Wii, 360, Zune, DS and others will take a chunk of people's money this holiday. DX10 will not be out until jan/feb next year. Besides there are no games out there to take advantage of the great technologies in these cards. Wouldn't it have been better to release it around vista time?

It'll be interesting to see the size of the R600 pcb, being 80nm and all.

Wow absolutely stunningly impressive piece of hardware. Oblivion improvement was way more than I expected. I wonder just which part of the architecture helped there?

Too bad about that idle power draw though! Wow! I have serious reservations about running this in my 24/7 home machine..... hmmmm.... I bet it sucks an awful lot more than my X800GTO2 @ stock 400/500. Why can't they get that power draw down? 99% of the chip should be plain off!