 "Zebronics 8800GTS 320MB")
We have with us, the Zebronics 8800GTS 320MB. This card comes in line with previous DirectX 10 performance monsters like the 8800GTX and the 8800GTS 640MB, to which it shares a lot of similarities. We will be pitching it against the 8800GTS 640 MB from XFX (not the overclocked version, but their regular one at stock speeds). The 8800GTS 320MB from Zebronics sells at Rs. 20,500 and the XFX 8800GTS 640MB is available for Rs. 29,000. There are other manufacturers like Leadtek (sold by Zebronics in India) that sell their 8800GTS 640 MB for Rs. 27,100. Let’s have a closer look at the Zebronics 8800GTS 320MB.
About the Card
The 8800GTS 320 MB has the same clock speeds as it’s 640MB elder brother i.e. 500 MHz for the core and 1600 (800) MHz for the memory. It also has the same number of unified shaders or stream processors (96) as on the 640 MB. Basically, that translates into the same graphics core as on the 640 MB version. The only place they differ is the amount of local memory or frame buffer. Local memory would play a crucial role at higher resolutions using complex image enhancements like anti-aliasing. It would be interesting to see how the difference in performance matches to the difference in price and whether the 320MB version is a worthy alternative.
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Package Contents
Along with the card you get a ‘Molex to 6 pin PCIExpress connector’, component and composite video-out cable, driver CD, a quick installation guide, Spell Force2 game and last but not least a webcam/digital camera worth Rs.2 000, which was not sent along the card for review.
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Our Test Rig
| Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP, SP2
| System memory: 2.0 GB Corsair DDR-2 Select Value 667 MHz |
| CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ |
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| CPU speed: 2400 MHz |
| HDD: Western Digital Raptor 74 GB 10000 RPM |
| Monitor: Benq FP241W
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| PSU: Asus 550 Watts |
| Driver version: 97.02 Nvidia (English) |
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Performance
The 8800 series from Nvidia is pretty much capable of handling high resolutions with a healthy dose of AA and AF. So we have tested the card at two resolutions: 1680 x 1050 (Native resolution of 20 to 22 inch LCDs) and 1920 x 1200 (Native resolution of a 24-inch LCD). We have played with the AA and AF settings to a level where we can get playable frame rates and that starts at around 40fps.
3D Mark 2006
The scores are almost level. The tests were done at the default resolution of 1280 x 1024. This shows that at comparatively lower resolutions the difference in memory doesn’t really show on performance.
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Games
Company of Heroes: We have used the in game benchmark of Company of Heroes. The game supports wide-screen resolutions. Below are the settings that we have used.
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