EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS (640MB)

Bought my EVGA 8800GTS 640MB card on April9th and have had a couple weeks to mess with it. To describe it in a word; FANTASIC!

All the latest games run smooth as silk with ALL settings set to max! And my system isn't even that great. I have an AMD 4200+ processor which is no where near top of the line anymore, and I get great performance from this card.

I ran 3DMARK 06 before and after installing this card and my score went from 604 with my old card (Geforce 7300 GS) to 8107 with this monster, that's a 13 fold improvement. Unreal!

Only two things to be aware of, it's size and the power needed to run it. At 9 inches long it will not fit in the smallest Micro ATX cases. My case is MATX and it fit with a little shuffling around of wires and moving one of my harddrives to a higher bay. As far as the power supply, 400W is the bare minimum, you will want 500w or more if you have ANY other peripherals (sound cards, etc.) running from the same power supply, and the PSU must have at LEAST 24 amps on the 12v rail and 36amps is recommended. You can find such a PSU e-tailers for $50.

I got my EVGA card through a popular E-tailer for $389.99 with a $30 rebate bringing it home at $359.99. I was very happy to get this kind of power for that amount of money.

While it is true that the 320MB benchmarks very close to this 640MB card for $100 less, it will not be futureproof for CRYSIS and other DX10 games coming out in the very near future like the 640MB version will be.

If you want a graphics card that will remain future proof for at least two years for under $400, there is no other choice.

It was a very quick installation. No messups at all. I decided to test it on Vanguard Saga of Heroes (probably the most graphic intensive game on the market today) and it did NOT disappoint. The graphics ran smoother than ever. The company has a step up program, and a great reputation. If you are looking into an 8800GTS I would recommend you purchase from eVGA over anyone else.