8800GT Powerfull weapon

MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E OC



As far as we can tell, MSI is first out of the gates with a factory overclocked GeForce 8800 GT card, the NX8800GT-T2D512E OC. The NX8800GT-T2D512E OC relies entirely on the NVIDIA reference board design with the obvious addition being that it's overclocked out-of-the-box, running at 660MHz core, 1650MHz on the shaders, and 950MHz memory (1.9GHz effective). These speeds are 9% faster than the stock 8800 GT on the graphics core and shaders, and 5% faster memory.






In order to keep price down, MSI skips including a game bundle. As a result we've been told that the board has an MSRP of $249. If this price holds true at retail, this card is certainly priced to move. Strangely enough, the board only shipped with one DVI adapter (perhaps to further help keep price down?). MSI also includes a power adapter, S-Video cable, and component video output cable for hooking the card up to an HDTV.

XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition

Arriving right around the same time as the MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E OC was the XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition. The Alpha Dog Edition is XFX’s entry level GeForce 8800 GT 512MB SKU and relies on the standard 8800 GT reference board design and stock clock speeds.

Inside the card’s packaging were quite a few accessories beyond the graphics card. For starters XFX includes a copy of Company of Heroes on DVD-ROM. Also included with the copy of Company of Heroes is a CD containing the latest patch you’ll need to play the game with DirectX 10. While this is a very neat tie-in idea, Company of Heroes is a year old now. XFX also offers a newer DX10 game as a bundle, Lost Planet, but apparently this didn’t make it over to the Alpha Dog Edition. Funnily enough, XFX also includes a tag you can hang on your door that reads “I’m gaming, Do Not Disturb”.

Here’s a word of advice though, use the tag on your significant other at your own peril.

To finish the Alpha Dog package off, XFX also includes two DVI adapters, an S-Video cable, and a component video output block. The XFX GeForce 8600 GT Alpha Dog Edition carries a $249 MSRP.

If the stock speeds aren’t good enough and you want a little more performance, XFX will continue to provide their Extreme and XXX Edition SKUs. The XFX GeForce 8800 GT Extreme will run 40MHz faster than the Alpha Dog Edition at 640MHz. XFX’s product literature for the 8800 GT lists a “TBD” for the Extreme, but unless XFX has tinkered with the speeds in the board’s BIOS, the stream processors on the 8800 GT normally run 2.5 times faster than the graphics core, yielding a clock speed of 1600MHz (640MHz core x 2.5) for the stream processors. We did get a confirmed speed of 950MHz (1.9GHz effective) for the memory. Extreme boards will sell for an MSRP of $279.

At the top of the heap for XFX is the GeForce 8800 GT XXX Edition. The XXX board runs at even higher speeds, XFX’s specs list a 670MHz graphics core and 975MHz memory (1.95GHz effective). Again, XFX lists a TBD for the shader speed, but we’re going to assume that XFX is sticking to the 2.5 ratio and that the shaders will therefore run at 1675MHz. If these speeds pan out, this would make the XFX GeForce 8800 GT XXX one of the fastest 8800 GT boards on the market. Getting your hands on all this performance will set you back $299.

System Setup

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800

EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard

2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB
ATI Radeon HD 2900 GT 256MB
PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 Pro 512MB
Catalyst 7.10

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT
ForceWare 169.01


300GB Western Digital Caviar SE

Windows Vista 64-bit


Benchmarks

Company of Heroes 1.71 (running DX9)
F.E.A.R. 1.08
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Call of Duty 4 Demo
Half-Life 2 Episode Two
Lost Planet DX9
World in Conflict
Unreal Tournament 3 Demo
Crysis Demo

F.E.A.R. Performance