The lifespan of contemporary video cards for gaming barely last six months before the next big thing comes along, making them obsolete. Revolutionary has become the most overused word in marketing for cards that offer little more than incremental improvements in performance and visual quality over the previous model. That changed when NVIDIA introduced the GeForce 8800 series last November, a GPU more advanced and powerful than anything else before it. The GeForce 8800 not only promises unprecedented performance and visual fidelity in DirectX 10 games under Windows Vista, but does the same for existing titles under Windows XP and DirectX 9.0. - BRnR

EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB SLI Ready Review

There were all kinds of rumors and speculation floating around on the internet about NVIDIA's flagship GeForce 8800 GTX before it made its debut. Everything from the amount of heat it would produce, to its size and power consumption, were on forums and blogs all over the web. Most of it was wild speculation. Some of it was close to the truth. When the card was finally unveiled, even the most jaded and cynical editors, journalists and enthusiasts were greatly impressed. Redesigned from the ground-up to tap into powerful, new features of DirectX 10 while pushing the boundaries of performance in current DirectX 9.0 games.

When you hold EVGA's e-GeForce 8800 GTX in your hand for the first time, from the wicked, stealth black finish to its weight and length, you know that this is one major kick-ass product that means business. Like all of NVIDIA's flagship video cards of late, EVGA's e-GeForce 8800 GTX is equipped with a double wide cooler that will take up the expansion slot next to it when installed. The cooler's large, quiet fan pushes heat from the card out the back of the case through the vented expansion slot bracket. The GeForce 8800 cards are also fully HDCP capable, and will allow you to watch Blu-Ray or HD DVD movies.

What really makes the GeForce 8800 GTX special is its new Unified Shader Architecture for DirectX 10. A key element of that architecture is the 128 stream processors inside every GeForce 8800 GTX that can execute vertex, pixel, geometry and even physics instructions as needed. Previous GeForce GPU's relied on separate, dedicated shader units under DirectX 9.0 to handle vertex and pixel processing. When game scenes are rendered, the amount of complex vertex and pixel processing involved is not monolithic but dynamic, varying from one second to the next.

The GeForce 8800 GTX is undoubtedly one of the most impressive products NVIDIA has shipped to date. It can handle the most demanding, current DirectX 9.0 titles at resolutions, antialiasing and eye-candy settings that leaves previous generation cards gasping for breath. Visual quality is simply superb. And of course, it's ready for those highly anticipated DirectX 10 titles like Crysis and Alan Wake under Windows Vista, which promises visuals that are even more incredible. Hopefully, there will be DirectX 10 updates for some of the more recent, popular games in the near future as well.

Finally, in order to get the most of the e-GeForce 8800 GTX, you need a fairly powerful system. The faster your processor, the less likely it will be a bottleneck. So if you're ready for some serious Extreme High Definition gaming now with an eye on the future, the EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX will give you the most incredible and immersive widescreen gaming experience ever, backed by one of the best companies in the business.