The hot new graphics cards right now are based on the the affordable GeForce 8800 GT chipset from NVIDIA. We recently received an XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog edition graphics card to check out. This card came in at standard GeForce 8800 GT clocking with 256MB of GDDR3 memory. We will take a look at this card, run it through benchmarks with some of the latest games, and then compare it to another GeForce 8800 GT that we have looked at recently. How does it stack up? The smaller amount of memory appeared to have made a drastic difference in a few cases. Overall, though, this is an impressive card and with a very attractive price tag which wil please a lot of buyers. - nV News

XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition Card Review

The GeForce 8800 GT chipset is awesome. It compares well to the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra, but comes in at a much lower price point. The biggest difference between the XFX GeFroce 8800 GT Alpha Dog edition in this article and the GeForce 8800 GT reference below is the 256MB instead of the reference 512MB. It turns out that the those missing 256MB do make a difference when comparing actual game play between this card and one with 512MB. The card itself conforms to a single slot, which is a departure from a lot of the previous cards that usually take up two slots for the card, the heatsink and fan.

This is a welcome change for anyone lacking space in their case. We were thinking the fan would sound something like an airplane taking off in my case, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that, at stock, it was as quiet as some aftermarket fans. This is due to the fact that at stock, the speed of the fan is at 29% of maximum. It's quite a bit louder at 50%, and unbearable at 99% fan speed. This does come handy when you are thinking about overclocking the card as the higher fans peed will be eble to keep the card cool, though you will have to take into account the extra noise it will generate.

The GeForce 8800 GT's are awesome cards, but this one seemed a bit underpowered at times with the lower amount of memory. It's a great card if you don't plan on using some features like high levels of anti-aliasing. Unfortunately, enthusiasts have come to expect their latest generation cards to be able to turn those types of features. At at a price point coming in about $60 cheaper than the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB version, this card is perfect for the budget gamer.