Despite its horribly confusing naming scheme, Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTS 512 is a good product at face value, as it delivers unprecedented performance at the price point Nvidia is trying to hit. However, the problem Nvidia has is that if it doesn't manage to hit the price point it's given to us and the price edges up towards the £250 mark, it brings the GeForce 8800 GTX back into play.

That said, if the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 hits the ~£220 retail price we've been given, it will hit a sweetspot that will make it a viable alternative to a stock-clocked GeForce 8800 GT and should make it much better value than most of the pre-overclocked 8800 GTs out there. We said the GeForce 8800 GT delivered performance that rivalled the GeForce 8800 GTX, but the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 manages to take the fight to the GeForce 8800 GTX and in many scenarios it's actually faster.

It's worth making it clear that the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 is not a GeForce 8800 GTX killer and the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra will still continue to rule the roost at high resolutions with anti-aliasing enabled. However, what Nvidia has done is made a similar level of performance available to those with monitors around 1680x1050 at a much lower price point -- if you're looking at playing games on a 1920x1200 (or higher) screen, we'd still recommend the 8800 GTX.

Ultimately the decision of whether to buy the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 will come down to how much retailers want to charge for it. That's something that Nvidia unfortunately cannot control, but it could easily be both the making of this product and its downfall too.