3DMark06

The funny thing about Futuremark’s 3DMark06 graphics performance benchmark is that it actually is quite a terrible test. When it was first released, graphics cards struggled to perform well in the SM3.0 and HDR test, and CPUs offered little help in this task. However, with the launch of graphics cards like the 8800 series and even the X1950XTX from ATI, it has become quite clear that the rigors of 3DMark have been conquered quite handily by today’s video card technology. Evidence of this is found in the HEAVY CPU limitation that is observed on systems that make use of 8800 series graphics cards. A quick visit to Futuremark's ORB database reveals that the only extraneously high results are generated on computers with extremely heavily overclocked quad-core processors from Intel. Our own tests exhibit this as well.


The ONLY thing that allows 3DMark06 to be a useful benchmark this far into the game is the fact that it is so widely used. There is no other benchmarking standard so commonly referenced, and there is no other score that is hailed with such reverence. Whether the test is good or not is irrelevant thanks to the countless individuals who consider it the holy grail of benchmarks and need to see 3DMark06 results in order to be satisfied with a video card review, no matter how not in-depth said review is. You can see from our results that the most significant performance jump occurs between the overclocked and non-overclocked versions of the 8800Ultra SLI setup. Adding an entire new video card to the system only results in a performance increase of 2242 3DMarks, whereas overclocking the processor by about 800MHz boosts the score more than 2800 3DMarks. To be honest, seeing a score of over 18,000 in 3DMark06 on a system you are working on has some sort of invigorating effect, but the score really does not mean that much. Of course there is still something to be said about increasing graphics horsepower in 3DMark06, otherwise there would be no difference between a single card and SLI, however, the test is just becoming far too CPU limited to be a viable source for determining graphics card performance for much longer.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Despite the updated cooler, the 8800Ultra runs pretty hot. Granted, the G80 is quite an efficient little chip, so the maximum temperature we reached was still well under what we would consider unacceptable, but temperatures were certainly not much better than those achieved with the standard 8800GTX cooler. Heat is probably not a big issue for the people who will actually consider buying this card, however. Rumors slate the MSRP of the card somewhere in the neighborhood of $829, which is nearly double that of the similarly performing 8800GTX. That said, the 8800Ultra certainly does outperform the 8800GTX at stock speeds. However, and 8800GTX overclocked to 630MHz on the core will most assuredly take back the crown. But then you have an overclocked 8800GTX against a stock 8800Ultra. So how does the 8800Ultra overclock anyway? We’re so glad you asked.

After testing the overclockability of this card during the brief period of time we had with it, it left us with the impression that the G80 cores used on the 8800Ultras are bin 0 chips. This means that they basically are the crème de la crème of G80 cores – they have more headroom than the rest. We were able to overclock our Ultras to 700MHz on the core with ease, and the memory of course pushed to its rated 2200MHz without a second thought. However, tremendous overclocking ability must be something any prospective buyer would expect after paying $829 for a card that truly does not seem to offer anything significant over the 8800GTX.

We have heard from NVIDIA that this card has an optimized BIOS that allows it to surpass anything the 8800GTX is capable of. We also know that 30-40% performance increases as a result of a driver update are not unheard of. With any luck, we might be able to test these cards with the brand new ForceWare driver that is due out very soon. If performance jumps significantly and the BIOS optimizations prove to be worthwhile, who knows, maybe this card could be worth the money.