You did your research well the last couple of days and you've discovered that the GeForce 8800 GT continues to be one of the best value for money cards when it comes to good mid-range performance. The thing is, you wouldn't mind kicking it up a notch in the memory department if you had the choice. Well, we might have found the card for you today. ASUS has recently released a GeForce 8800 GT that is packing 1GB of GDDR3 memory. However, it's not uncommon for a bump in memory which does nothing more than make you feel a bit better about your system. There's only one way to find out if the extra memory does anything for your gaming experience, run it through a multitude of tests. - TweakTown

ASUS Extreme N8800 GT 1GB Graphics Card Preview

The box with us today is something that we've seen a bit lately when looking at some of the ASUS mid-range offerings. Across the bottom we can clearly see the model along with the fact that it comes with 1GB of memory, while the top give us the ASUS logo. We've got some more logos above the model number with another mention of 1GB of GDDR3 memory being included. Above that we have a spot that ASUS generally leaves for one of the main features on the product. In this case it's the extra memory included on the card. Turning the box over and we're greeted with some of the features it has to offer.

ASUS has opted to use the exclusive Glaciator heatsink and fan combination which looks good. We also see towards the back of the card another heatsink that helps keep some of the other warmer components as cool as possible. While we don't have any memory sinks, with the fin design on the cooler the air is pushed directly out of the heatsink and over the memory modules. As far as card features go we see nothing more than what's found on a standard GeForce 8800 GT or any other mid-range NVIDIA card. We have a single PCI Express connector, while if you peak over the cooler you find a single SLI connector.

An overclocked GeForce 8800 GT and a GeForce 8800 GT 1GB version sit at around the same price level. The one to buy is really going to come down to personal preference. We are not a huge fan of large amounts of memory on cards that aren't at the very top of the high-end scale. Really, what the extra memory gives you is a bit of bragging rights, but most of the time if you're talking to somebody who knows their technology they will know that you're simply paying more for no real benefit. Of course, you could then fire up something like RivaTuner and start messing around with the clock speeds.

What the ASUS Extreme 8800 GT 1GB edition does offer over the overclocked card is an extra 12 months warranty, an aftermarket cooler that does a better job of keeping the core cool along with a funky little CD wallet. Performance on the card is of course good, it performs like a GeForce 8800 GT should, but it doesn't offer the increase that you might think it will. Fortunately, with the other bits and pieces that ASUS has strapped on to the card make the justification for buying the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB version from them not too difficult. You're getting a better quality cooler, and there's no denying that more memory isn't going to hurt.