XFX 8800 GTX XXX Edition Graphics Card Review

Introduction

Today we are looking at XFX’s overclocked edition of the GeForce 8800 GTX, the XXX. If you thought the standard GTX was fast you havent seen anything yet. Armed with an additional 55MHz core and 200MHz memory speeds, you can practically hear the card begging you for more.

XFX was the first company to release their overclocked 8800’s and they are certain to have your mouth watering. What’s more is they also have an 8800 GTS XXX running at 550MHz core and 1.8GHz, dialed up a full 50MHz and 200MHz respectively. However, we’re focusing solely on the big dog 8800 GTX XXX and a no holds barred gaming experience. Just like a sexy bartender you’d like to get triple X with serving up free Corona’s as fast as you can drink them, it’s everything you could dream of.

Unfortunately though the Coronas are the only thing youre getting for free, at about $635 from your favorite e-tailer this might be the most expensive XXX show youve ever paid for. The XFX 8800 GTX in overclocked form justifies the higher price with, of course, higher performance. The XXX edition picks up where NVIDIAs standard 8800 GTX dropped off, upping the core speed of the reference model from 575MHz to 630MHz and memory speed from 1.8GHz to a full 2GHz. It comes with the same blistering performance in DirectX 9 gaming and full compliance with Microsofts imminent release of DirectX 10 which will deliver the ultimate 3D experience. The same 768MB of memory with a 384-bit bus lives under that sleek black heat sink, which still occupies two slots. Fan speeds do not seem to have changed at all, the XXX edition is still extremely quiet in both 2D and 3D operation; however, those three slots at the end are pumping a lot of heat into the rest of your PCI and PCI-E cards. Gone are those awesome looking black PCBs, the standard green boards are the only option at this time. The DVI ports on the card are both Dual Link, supporting up to 2560×1600 resolution, so you can drive both of those massive 30 LCDs without any worries.

The bundle is no-nonsense; youve got the manual and install guides, two DVI to VGA adaptors, and the TV out cable. Personally, this fits my tastes just fine because I dont see a reason to include some game or software that likely will never find its way on to my PC and if it keeps the price down all the better.

The box art that XFX has come up with is a nice black and white box with the XFX bear done up in armor. It is a design that is easily distinguishable for anyone familiar with past XFX products and is not overdone with a dizzying array of colors and graphics. The graphics card name is clearly displayed in the middle of the package so as not to confuse it with a lesser model.

Now that we know what separates the XXX Edition from the reference 8800 GTX lets see how it stacks up where it really counts, performance.