BFG 8800 Ultra OC Video Card Review

High-end video cards are a great way to get fast frame rates and all the eye candy on your favorite video games. Today we are looking at the highest of the high-end video cards from NVIDIA, the 8800 Ultra. This particular 8800 Ultra is from BFG and is called the BFG 8800 Ultra OC. Read on to find out how well the BFG 8800 Ultra OC performs.

Gallery

6 images

Benchmarks

Features & Specifications
BFG is well known for overclocked already fast NVIDIA graphics cards and making them into speedy monsters. The BFG 8800 Ultra OC is no exception, BFG overclocks the core frequency to 630MHz, the memory clock to 2220MHz giving 106.6GB/s of memory bandwidth, and overclocked the shader to 1566MHz. The other features of the BFG 8800 Ultra OC are the same as every other 8800 Ultra or 8800 GTX.

Test Machine
The test system used for this review has the following specifications:

• CPU- Intel QX6700
• Mainboard- XFX 680i
• RAM- PNY XLR8 2GB PC2-9384
• OS- Windows XP Pro SP2
• Display- Dell 30” UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC

Testing & Benchmarks
To give the BFG 8800 Ultra OC a workout I used 3DMark06, FEAR, Battlefield 2142, and Quake 4. These games are still all very popular and constitute my normal test regime. The first test up is 3DMark06.

3DMark06
I ran 3DMark06 at default settings in the application and default settings in the NVIDIA control panel. The 3DMark06 results were as follows:

• Total 3DMarks- 12966
• SM2.0- 5356
• HDR/SM3.0- 5458
• CPU- 4212
• Return to Proxycon- 44.440
• Firefly Forest- 44.829
• Canyon Flight- 52.010
• Deep Freeze- 57.147
• CPU1- 1.396
• CPU2- 2.034

To compare I recently reviews an overclocked PNY 8800 GTX that scored 12639 3DMarks & the XFX 8800 Ultra that I recently reviewed scored 12510 3DMarks.

FEAR
The next test up for the BFG 8800 Ultra OC is FEAR, which I ran at 2560 x 1600 with all settings on max, 16x AF, 4xAA, and soft shadows on. The FEAR in game test loop recorded the following frame rate data:

• Min- 27
• Avg- 49
• Max- 107

The percentages showed that at this very high screen resolution 41% of the time frame rates were between 25-40 fps, 59% of the time frame rates were above 40 fps.

I also ran the FEAR performance test at the same settings, but dropped the screen resolution to 1920 x 1200. The frame rate results were as follows:

• Min- 42 fps
• Avg- 83 fps
• Max- 199 fps

It is easy to see from the results above that 100% of the time, frame rates were greater than 40fps.

Battlefield 2142
After The FEAR tests were done I fired up Battlefield 2142 with a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536, all settings on high and 4x AA. I used Fraps to record frame rate data while playing the single player map “Fall of Berlin.” Fraps recorded the following frame rate data:

• Min- 64 fps
• Avg- 72.237 fps
• Max- 89 fps

Quake 4
The final gaming test for the BFG 8800 Ultra OC was with Quake 4. I ran Quake 4 at 1920 x 1200, ultra settings and 16x AA with multi-core on. I used Fraps to record frame rate data to record while I played the opening parts of a new game. Fraps recorded the following frame rate data:

• Min- 10fps
• Avg- 24
• Max- 57

I was a bit surprised by these numbers for Quake 4, I ran the tests several times and the numbers are correct. The game did not seem to run that slow during play, at any rate the results are what they are.

Verdict

Conclusion

Pros

• Great performance
• Overclocked and still has a lifetime warranty

Cons

• Expensive at a price of around $879

Verdict
The BFG 8800 Ultra OC performs very well and is significantly faster than stock clocked 8800 Ultra graphics cards. BFG has an excellent choice here for gamers looking to step up to the fastest graphics card in the line-up.

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