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Power Usage

Most impressive, Darth Vadar might say, after seeing these power usage numbers.

A pair of 8800 GT cards uses less power than a single 8800 GTS.

Very nice, Borat might say, after seeing these low PSU requirements.

(We tested the power draw by using a P3 International Kill a Watt enery-usage monitor. We created our 'load' environment by testing during a particularly demanding part of 3DMark06.)

Final Thoughts

It's impossible not to be impressed by the performance of the BFG 8800 GT OC. It's just that simple -- the card is just that good.

When I was in California a few days ago for the unveiling of the G92 / 8800 GT to the tech press, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang took to the microphone for a final question and answer period, at the day's end. One member of the audience had a question for Mr. Huang: "So," the tech journalist guy said, a bit of doubt -- or perhaps it was disbelief -- in his voice. "The 8800 GT is going to offer that much performance, for about $200 bucks?"

Jen-Hsun Huang, showing complete confidence, assured the tech journalist that yes, that was exactly the case: the 8800 GT offers the performance of a top-end card, for a price that many would be able to afford. Mr. Huang went on to add that NVIDIA only gets a chance to make a GPU like this about every four or five years. He said that a combination of many factors only allows for this kind of relative performance, at this relative mid-range price, only every blue moon. He said that the 8800 GT would prove to be one of NVIDIA's most memorable GPU releases.

While Mr. Huang's plainly visible confidence was reassuring, at the time, I wasn't sure whether to believe him. But after seeing all these benchmarks, I can understand why he was so confident -- he was so confident, because exactly what he said was true: the 8800 GT is a hell of a card. As anyone can see by looking at the numbers, it boils down to the BFG 8800 GT OC offering the performance nipping at the heels of 8800 GTX, for the affordable price of around $259 dollars.

If you have anything below the power of 8800 GTS 320 MB video card, consider a BFG 8800 GT OC. The only thing that might cause pause is wondering what ATI/AMD's response will be. I would not count out the red team just yet -- as challenging as it might be, they might be able to offer a competively priced GPU, sometime soon (in fact, if you've been following our news, rumours peg the ATI/AMD card release at very soon).. But that's two big mights, because as it looks right now, the 8800 GT will be tough to beat.

Gamers rejoice. The age of DX10 has now only just begun. The performance of the 8800 GT OC embarrasses the mostly unimpressive 8600 GTS and HD 2600 XT cards, and dethrones the bang-for-the-buck attractiveness of the 8800 GTS 320 MB. This is a true performance card for the gaming masses. This GPU has enough horsepower to get you gaming in DX10, and enough horsepower to deliver any sort of DX9 experience you are looking for.

The card even overclocks well.

It would be impossible for someone to not recommend the BFG 8800 GT OC. The card does it all for around $250. Really.

Unlike any other previous mid-range card, when the first, exclusive-DX10 only game comes out, I'd bet my hat that the BFG 8800 GT OC will be able to still deliver the goods, and get you those good, playable framerates. The SLI potential for this card is also excellent -- with it's single-slot cooler, low power requirements, and good price-point, I expect that hordes of people -- either soon, or sometime down the road -- will want a pair of 8800 GTs running in their case.

Every true PC gamer deserves high framerates -- but not every PC gamer is able to drop $350, $450, or $500 dollars plus on a video card.

But now you don't need to, because the BFG 8800 GT OC is here. Performance has suddenly become affordable; and the next-gen, finally, will start to become the now-gen, for many, many more gamers out there.