Brilliant product from Gigabyte (Gigabyte GV NX88T512HP)

Member Name: aaronphil

Product:	Gigabyte GV NX88T512HP
Date:	28/07/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low noise, plenty of RAM and a great GPU

Disadvantages: Massive heat-sink and boot problems

I upgraded my 8600GTS OC today for this high-end graphics monster.

Well maybe the beginning sentence was a bit OTT but its bloody good. Any nVidia card from 8600 upwards is where it's at and this is where you can be sure to play many games maxed out.
So this 8800GT is a big jump from 8600 though and I have had some problems first off, especially with power as my measly 350W might just run an 8600 it gets a bit arsy when you try to run an 8800 with a heat sink the size and weight of a milk tanker. So a new PSU me thinks and for those of you not too sure what to get I would recommend a 500W or higher because although you only need 450W you can guarantee that when you upgrade again you'll have to shed out for a new PSU.

So after wasting half of the review on how to run this lets get straight to the action.
What do you actually get? Well a graphics card of course! Oh and a rubbish free RPG game named Neverwinter Nights 2 (as you can see I haven't played this). You also get a 6-pin PCI-E to 2x4-pin Molex power adapter and a HDTV dongle thingamajig ...and don't forget the outdated driver CD (no doubt have to download the most recent ones) and a manual.
So overall quality of the product, well it seems to be built pretty solid and unlike most the heat-sink doesn't feel as if it could fall off at any point and it's a hefty thing too.
The box has all these interesting feature boxes telling me it's a 'TurboForce edition' and that it uses 'Lower ESR solid capacitors', whatever that means. Oh you also get the usual nVidia feature logos like 'SLI Ready' 'PureVideo HD' and 'Essential Vista' with the only thing standing out is the SLI feature which enables you to connect two graphics cards together to get a hell of a lot better graphics experience.

When you actually get into the box you get the usual rubbish described before and then the actual card nicely wrapped in anti-static packaging.

So you've got this fitted into your machine now what, well after installing the drivers you're ready to go (don't forget the PSU). It runs COD4 and MoH: Airborne maxed out which is no big deal because an 8600 can do that no problem but the best is that it runs Far Cry 2 maxed out which is brilliant. I haven't tried Arma 2 yet mainly because I haven't got a Dual Core processor but if I can demo it then I think it should run.

So overall would I recommend it, hell yes. If you still have an 8600 or less get this because you'll need it for the new games coming out this fall (autumn). Excellent build quality for under £100 from a mediocre brand.

Edit: Ok I've now reduced my reliability due to a problem I've now found. Basically when turning on my PC it keeps trying to boot and never actually does. Only remedy I've found is to remove the graphics card, turn on, turn off and re-insert the card. Quite a common problem aswell and I fear there is no fix. Shame but I would still recommend a 8800/9800 for most gamers.

Summary: Ideal for the new games coming up this autumn

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