We has published several articles covering the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card series, but today we bring you our first article on a production card from the folks over at XFX. The retail cards from XFX do differ from the reference design that we originally looked at a couple weeks ago. In fact, XFX currently offers four GeForce 8800 GT 512MB video cards and the only difference between the cards is the clock frequency that they operate at. The version that we will be looking at today is a non default model, which runs with a clock rate of 625MHz and a memory clock of 1.8GHz. This is a 25MHz increase on the core, which should improve performance when gaming. - Legit Reviews

XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Alpha Dog Card Review

When we first sat the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB graphics card next to the reference NVIDIA card something just didn't look right. XFX implimented a larger fan and also increased the opening in the cover to let more cool air in. The slits on the sides of the cover have also been increased to improve airflow around the capacitors and other heat producing components. The changes to the cooling really paid off as the XFX GeForce 8800 GT was 15°C cooler at idle and 8°C cooler at load thanks to the increased airflow. Not bad considering the XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog is running overclocked!

There is a single SLI connector on all of the GeForce 8800 GT cards, which makes it possbile to do SLI. It should be noted that when NVIDIA does 3-way or 4-way SLI down the road that the GeForce 8800 GT and GeForce 8800 GTS cards will not be supported since it has just one connection. Since most of our readers update their system on a regular basis this shouldn't be a concern. Since the G92 core on the GeForce 8800 GT requires more power than what the PCI Express slot can deliver on the motherboard, so an additional 6-pin PCI Express power header is located on the side of the card.

The XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Alpha Dog performed just slighty faster than the reference GeForce 8800 GT that we previously checked out a couple weeks ago thanks to the 25MHz higher core clock frequency. The XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB graphics card was also able to drop the temperatures across the board thanks to the improvements to the cooling fan and fan cover. It's hard to say anything bad about the GeForce 8800 GT in general other than the supply is limited and that they are hard to find. If you can find the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Alpha Dog series in stock you should seriously consider it.

The bundle of the Alpha Dog comes with Company of Heroes, which is a fun game if real-time strategy games are your thing. If not, you have a game title you can give to a friend or use as a coaster. It would be nice if companies included a game for each genre, but that would likely add to the cost of the bundle. The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Alpha Dog video cards ranges in price from $270 to $290 with the price difference being which frequency you want to get. The card we reviewed today is the 625MHz core clock and 1.8GHz memory clock version, but they have two faster if you want a little extra performance boost.