For the last two months there's been buzz in the industry and across the internet that both NVIDIA and ATI were going to be releasing new cards in November. Both of these companies are trying extremely hard to target the lucrative market of consumers who are looking for great performance at a sub-$300 price point. ATI launched the opening salvo with their Radeon HD 2900 PRO but supply shortages dampened people's enthusiasm towards it. NVIDIA has now come into the fight with all guns blazing, today marks the official launch of their GeForce 8800 GT cards. Many expected NVIDIA would release a minor refresh in order to offer a good price and performance ratio. - Hardware Canucks

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT SuperClocked Board Review

What we didn't expect was an entirely new card and that is exactly what NVIDIA has done with the GeForce 8800 GT. Unfortunately, we hear that supply will be a bit tight within the first two weeks following the launch and initially only the 512MB version of the cards will be available with the 256MB version coming to us in mid to late November. One way or another, at a price of around $250 for a non overclocked version of this card, the GeForce 8800 GT has the potential to take the graphics world by storm if its specifications can translate into real world performance. Once again, this will be a hard launch.

While this fact has flown under many people's radar, November is supposed to mark the release of the new and improved GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB as well. Yet, from the rumors we have heard, the new and improved GeForce 8800 GTS may be launching in limited numbers today. Believe it or not, from the information we have seen, there is absolutely no way to determine the new 96+ stream processor GeForce 8800 GTS from the older, now end of life one. So watch out which GeForce 8800 GTS you pick up if you swing that way. The best thing to do is to refer to the manufacturer's product page.

Today we are going to be looking at the EVGA e-GeForce 8800GT 512MB SuperClocked edition which is pre-overclocked and offered at about $250. With this card you get a 50MHz overclock on the core, an additional 100MHz on the memory and the shader clock is bumped up 125MHz. These are by no means trivial overclocks but EVGA will also be offering their additionally overclocked KO and brand new, insanely overclocked SSC edition in the very near future. As with all of EVGA's cards, the box of this one is quite plain but we prefer it to having a gaudy package with comical characters plastered all over the place.

We may as well just come out and say it, what we have here is the pinnacle of modern graphics card design and ingenuity. NVIDIA has released a product that is absolutely stunning in every meaning of the word and with the e-GeForce 8800 GT SuperClocked edition, EVGA has done nothing but improve on it every step of the way. What they have done is made an excellent graphics card even better by overclocking it while maintaining their lifetime warranty and adding a pretty good software package to boot. The frame rates this card put out are like nothing we have ever seen in at this price point.

So, here we are in the conclusion and we have to say that it was worth every sleepless second. EVGA has a hell of a card here and their price for a pre-overclocked GeForce 8800 GT beats the prices set by many of their competitors for stock speed cards. Add to that their lifetime warranty and their very unique step-up program and their card truly is a diamond in the rough. Bravo EVGA and bravo NVIDIA for showing us the way!