XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition 256MB Review - PAGE 2

Brace yourself for a big surprise: the XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition 256MB looks very similar to the other 8800 GT 512MB video cards we have reviewed: about 9 inches long, and fairly thin. (Okay, maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise.)

But there are a few differences with this sleek monster -- a few nice touches that separate this XFX 8800 GT from the others I've seen. Probably the most notable is the plastic stabilizing bar, that runs along the top of the card. Additionally, following XFX's color combinations, this 8800 GT's PCB is black (as opposed to the regular green), and the DVI ports are green. Beyond these cosmetic changes, the XFX 8800 GT also has a superior fan: while it is not a very far departure from the single-slot, reference board design, the XFX fan has more vanes (15  compared to the standard 13), and a wider hub (about 3 centimeters compared to the standard 2 and half) which suggests a more powerful electric motor, which would result in a higher RPM to cool the card.

This faster fan does have a downside though: it seems little bit louder than the other 8800 GT fans that I've heard -- maybe making this video card less attractive for any possible HTPC's.

XFX introduced their new  'Alpha Dog Edition' branding with the 8800 series of cards. Furthermore, you can purchase a 'standard' Alpha Dog Edition, or get a even further overclocked 'XXX' edition of this card -- which is the one we will be testing here today. The reference clocks for the 65nm GPU GeForce 8800 GT 256MB are 600 MHz for the core clock, 1.5 GHz for the shader clock, and 1.4 GHz for the memory clock. According to the program RivaTuner, the XXX edition of the XFX 8800 GT 256MB has been overclocked to 648 MHz for the GPU, 1.620 GHz for the shader clock, and 1.6 GHz for the memory clock. These are some pretty nice overclocks -- the XFX 'XXX' defintely is not just a sticker that they throw on the box.

Same as the 8800 GT 512MB cards, the GDDR3 256MB version has 112 stream processors, a 256-bit memory interface, PCI Express version 2.00 compatible, SLI capable, supports Direct 10 (but not 10.1!) and Shader Model 4.0, can support resolutions up to 2560x1600 and 16x anti-aliasing, and has NVIDIA's VP2 PureVideo technology, which improves high-def playback, offloading most of the digital decoding from the shoulders of your CPU, and instead, onto your video card's capable GPU.