Cost

The 8800 Ultra from Gainward comes in at between £400 and £430 depending on the retailer. This is about £50 more than the 8800GTX by the same company and about £80 more than some of the "Cheap" GTXs from other manufacturers.

Noise and Cooling

Surprisingly the Ultra isn't that noisy and the levels could easily be called comfortable during idle and full load. However, during 3D apps. the card does emit a slight whine which can heard when the case panels are off but with them on it was almost inaudible.

Cooling wise the Ultra does run quite hot with an idle of around 60 degrees though the fan speeds up after that and full load only reaches around 75 degrees which is more than acceptable for a card with this noise level.

Conclusion

Although the 8800 Ultra does have the best performance of any graphics around at the moment - almost across the board, it's just so damn expensive. Two of these babies will set you back over £800; not that two are needed of course apart from for uber resolution gaming. However, although performance for this card is great, it's let down by a poor bundle and although the cooler is quiet it doesn't cool enough to give you much overclocking room. For raw speed the Ultra can't be beat, but if you value the health of your wallet get a GTX and overclock it; the performance difference will be negligible.

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Thanks go to Gainward for providing us with this card.