BFG 8800 Ultra OC Graphics Card Review

Today we are going to look at the BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card. It does not take a genius to figure out that the BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card is overclocked out of the box. This is the highest performing of the air-cooled 8800 Ultra cards that BFG produces. Read on to find out how well the BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card performs.

Features & specifications

Like all the other NVIDIA 8800 Ultra graphics cards, the BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card has 768Mb of RAM and is fully DirectX 10 compliant. The RAM is GDDR3 and runs at a clock speed of 2220MHz with a core clock running at 630MHz. the shader clock moves up to 1566MHz to round out the clock speeds. All other features of the BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card are identical to the 8800 GTX cards I have reviewed as well as being identical to the 8800 Ultra cards I have looked at from other manufacturers. The BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card is also HDCP compliant as well. For full specifications check out the BFG website.

Test Machine

Before we get into the performance of the BFG 8800 Ultra OC graphics card, let’s have a look at the specifications for the test machine used in this review.

• CPU- Intel QX6700
• Mainboard- XFX 680i
• RAM- PNY XLR8 PC2-8500 2GB
• Display- Dell 30” 3007WFP-HC LCD
• OS- Windows XP Pro SP2

Benchmarks & testing

I still have not made the move to Vista so I can add DirectX 10 demos to my review regime at this time due to drivers. I have tried Vista, but the drivers for NVIDIA cards are still sketchy and crash with far too much regularity for my liking. Therefore, I will be using my standard tests for the BFG 8800 Ultra OC of FEAR, Battlefield 2142 and 3DMark06.

3DMark06

The first test up for the BFG 8800 Ultra OC is with 3Dmark06 which was ran at stock settings in the application and the NVIDIA control panel. The test 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

FEAR

The next test up for the BFG 8800 Ultra OC is with FEAR. I ran FEAR maxed out with 4x AA, 16x AF, with soft shadows on and a screen resolution of 2560 x 1600. the frame rate data was as follows:

• Min- 27
• Avg- 49
• Max- 107

The percentages show that at these settings 41% of the time frame rates were between 25 and 40 fps and 59% of the time frame rates were greater than 40 fps.

Battlefield 2142

The final test up for the BFG 8800 Ultra OC was with Battlefield 2142. I ran BF 2142 at a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536, all settings on high with 4x AA. I used Fraps to record frame rate data while playing a single player map called “Fall of Berlin.” The frame rate data was as follows:

• Min- 64
• Avg- 72.237
• Max- 89

Final Thoughts

After testing the BFG 8800 Ultra OC it certainly performs well. The only bad thing you can say about the graphics card is that it costs a lot with an MSRP of over $829.99. That said if what you want is the best performance out there for your PC games, the BFG 8800 Ultra OC is one of the best cards your money can buy.