PNY 8800 Ultra

Testing

Installation

Installing an Ultra GPU is pretty similar to any other. However, you do need to take the length of the card into account; it being nearly 13 inches in length. Those people with small cases, or those with large front mounted HDD cages may have problems here.

Methodology

Testing for graphics cards involves running several synthetic and gaming benchmarks to determine the cards performance in different environments. The results are then compared to other high end cards.

The software we used to test the 8800 Ultra was as follows: 3Dmark06, 3Dmark05, 3Dmark03, FEAR built in benchmark, HL2: Lost Coast and X3 Reunion.

The settings used for all benchmarks were:

3Dmark0X: 1: All 3Dmark tests were run at default settings.
FEAR: 1: Both main settings at maximum 2: Both settings at max with resolution at 1600*1200.
HL2: Lost Coast: 1: All settings at maximum with no AA or AF 2: All settings at max with 6xAA and 16xAF. Both at 1280*1024.
X3 Reunion: 1: Settings at default 2: Full detail with 6xAA and 16xAF at 1280*1024.
Lost Planet: 1: All settings at full, no AA or AF, HDR at “low”, 1280*720 2: All settings at full, AAxC16XQ, AFx16, HDR at “high”, 1280×720 3: Same as 2, 1600×1200.

The drivers used for this review were the latest (at the time) ones from the nVidia website; 162.18.

All benchmarks were run 3 times and the average score of all the results was used for the graphs.

The test setup used was as follows:

Conroe E6600 @ 3.156ghz
MSI P6N-Diamond
OCZ Flex PC2-6400
Silver Power 600w
BFG PhysX card with custom cooler
Auzentech Prelude

I compared the PNY Ultra to the same card from Gainward, and a 2900XT from Sapphire.

Overclocking

The PNY Ultra’s overclocking ability was on par with ones from other companies we have tested; poor. Considering the Ultra is merely an overclocked 8800GTX, it’s not surprising that it’s difficult to squeeze much more out of it.

Results

In all tests the PNY 8800 Ultra is on par with the Gainward Ultra showing there is little to no difference between the two. For the Lost Planet testing we didn’t have any results to compare to the PNY Ultra so it’s results are displayed on there own to show the affect of AA, AF and higher resolutions on the card.

Cost

The 8800 Ultra from PNY comes in at between £400 and £430 depending on the retailer. This is about £50 more than the 8800GTX by the same company and about £80 more than some of the “Cheap” GTXs from other manufacturers.

Noise

Since the cooling for this Ultra is simply the referance cooler without even a customized sticker on it, I didn’t hold high hopes. When at idle it was actually quite quiet, although as soon as you play a game or do something remotely 3D related, the fan spins up and man is it annoying. It stays this way for a while after closing down the application too.

This card is screaming for an aftermarket cooler; almost literally.

Graphics Cards