MaximumPC 2007 06

R

umors were swirling at press time that Nvidia was poised to introduce an

even lower-cost version of its powerful 8800 GPU, but the least-expensive

8800s we can review today are like this PNY model, which couples the 96 pixel-

shader 8800 GTS with a puny 320MB frame buffer.

A host of manufacturers sells cards based on Nvidia’s reference design, but

these cards can differentiate themselves in just a few ways: Price is the most obvi-

ous and most attractive (to the consumer, anyway), but there’s also factory over-

clocking, exotic cooling, warranty coverage, and merchandise bundling.

Factory overclocking is beneficial because the higher clock speeds are

covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. On the other hand, Nvidia makes GPU and

memory overclocking a snap with its nTune tweaking software. On the other other

hand, the card’s manufacturer might not be

sympathetic if you fry your card while probing

its outer limits. PNY didn’t take any chances: Its entry features the typical stock-

clock rates of 513MHz for the core and 792MHz for the GDDR3 memory.

We’ve yet to see any exotic cooling solutions on 320MB 8800 GTS cards,

including this one, but several manufacturers do offer lifetime warranties on

their cards. The definition of “lifetime” varies, so you should make sure you

understand each manufacturer’s definition of this term along with all the other

legalese in its warranty. PNY covers this card with a three-year warranty, which

it extends an additional two years if you register your card on the company’s

website. Depending on how often you upgrade your videocard, three to five

years might be a “lifetime.”

PNY offers a better warranty than some manufacturers, but the XLR8’s

$300 street price is a trifle high for a stock-clocked 8800 GTS with 320MB of

memory. In our book, that’s enough reason to deny this card a Kick

Ass award.

—Michael Brown

PNY XLR8 GeForce 8800

GTS 320MB

A great card, but we think you can do better

T

eam Flash can’t compete with Team Magnetic on desktop computers, but

the flash guys may have finally found a competitor it can conquer.

Unfortunately for Verbatim, its new 12GB micro-drive USB thumb drive

is the victim. The Store ’n’ Go USB HD Drive uses Cornice’s Dragon-2 12GB

miniature hard drive. This sixth-gen drive features lower power consumption, a

40 percent smaller size, and a 300 percent capacity increase. It also features a

motion sensor, so it won’t die if you drop it while it’s running.

The Store ’n’ Go’s performance wasn’t stunning against flash drives—but

it wasn’t atrocious either. It was the slowest in all our real-world tests using

small text files, medium-size image files, and large files in both read and write;

however, it didn’t always lose by huge margins. The 4GB OCZ Rally 2 key, for

example, took 2:54 (min:sec) to write 1.9GB of large files while the Store ’n’ Go

took 2:59. The Verbatim also took slightly longer than the other keys we tested

to write 10,000 small files. The Store ’n’ Go is like a slow USB key in write

performance, and its read times edge into the mediocre range. Using synthetic

benchmarks, we saw about 10MB/s read and write speeds—which is what

Verbatim rates the key for.

Performance isn’t the only factor here though. There’s also the gigabytes-

per-buck balance, and that’s where Team Flash scores decisively. Compared to

the last five keys we reviewed, the Store ’n’ Go is a bit pricey. The 8GB Corsair

Voyager (since renamed Voyager GT) costs about $12.40 a gig, while the Store

’n’ Go runs about $13.10 per gig. What’s more, the 16GB version of the Voyager

runs just $8.75 a gig (it is, however, slower).

That doesn’t leave the Store ‘n’ Go in a great position. It’s slower than

all of the flash keys we’ve reviewed, and its per gigabyte cost is higher. The

flash guys aren’t winning any other battles, but they sure as hell win

this one.

—Gordon Mah UnG

Verbatim 12GB Store

’n’ Go USB HD Drive

Have the hard drive guys finally lost the portable storage battle?

74 MAXIMUMPC june 2007

reviewsTes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

6

12GB Store ’n’ Go

9

PnY Geforce 8800 GtS

$330, http://www.pny.com

$180, http://www.verbatim.com

Magnetic storage

no longer has the

capacity or price

edge.

when we checked street prices, the factory-overclocked

eVGa card we reviewed in May was selling for just $5 more

than this stocked-clocked PnY model.

Best individual card scores are bolded. All benchmarks run with 4x AA and 8x aniso. FEAR tested with soft shadows on; Quake 4

tested in high quality. Cards were installed in an EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard with a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800

CPU and 2GB of Corsair DDR2 RAM.

BenchMarks

PNY XLR8    8800    GTS  EVGA   E-GEFORCE   8800    GTS     PNY CARDS   IN  SLI

(STOCK  CLOCK)   (FACTORY   OVERCLOCKED)    

3DMark06 GaMe 1 (FPS) 17.2   17.7 28

3DMark06 GaMe 2 (FPS) 16.6   17.8 30.1

Quake 4 (FPS) 74.4   79  121.1

Fear (FPS) 35    38  58