No matter how you stack it, PC hardware makers will always produce a best of class product which, irrespective of price puts them in a performance leadership position. We see this in CPU's and lately in GPU's in the form of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 Ultra. Interestingly enough, this GPU was released right before the ATI R600 launch back in May and is essentially an overclocked GeForce 8800 GTX with an updated cooler. While this may seem on the outset as no big deal, it is a huge deal to NVIDIA's performance capital to show the gamers and its shareholders that it is maintaining leadership from its competition. In fact this is currently the fastest graphics card available, but is it worth the cost? - Boot Daily

XFX XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB Video Board Review

Keep in mind the GeForce 8800 GTX GPU has the most shader units, fastest clock and highest available memory and it doesn't take much coxing to get even better performance from it in the presence of extra cooling. XFX's Extreme version of this Ultra card is clocked at a whopping 675MHz for the shader clock and 2.3GHz on the 768MB of on-board RAM. There are other versions of this card from XFX which have slightly slower clock rates and carry the Ultra and Ultra Extreme monikers. Not only does the GeForce 8800 Ultra keep NVIDIA solidly with a performance crown, it ushers the best single and SLI performance going.

We know it costs a lot of money, but what is money when it comes to getting the best? Add to the fact that it’s only about $75 dollars more than a GTX and you can more easily justify stepping up to it. NVIDIA has done a lot to ensure its drivers have been released timely while overall support and performance has slowly been increasing as well. The more current NVIDIA drivers include an easy-to-use control panel which allows end-users to adjust varying degrees of visual quality and the core clock and memory clock speeds. During our tests we found the highest usable speed on the core clock is 680MHz.

ATI has no doubt had its fill lately being beat by NVIDIA at every turn and whilst we're the first to admit the Radeon HD 2900 XT isn't in the same price point as the GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra, it is currently the fastest silicon we have from ATI. That said, one would have to ask oneself as to whether or not $600 is worth the extra performance, only you can answer that for yourself. It's my assertion that while the Ultra is a very high-end, high-priced card we have no doubts of its place in the market and know for a fact many folks will pony up the money to get one. In light of the fact you can get a GTX for only about $75 less.

XFX has good availability from a wide range of online retailers and offers an unparalleled warranty. We've been testing their cards for years now and can attest to their long-term durability, commitment to performance and good levels of support. This is your card if you're seeking the fastest single card performance and have the internal space inside your PC for it.