If the GeForce GTX 280 AMP! edition from Zotac wasn't enough MHz for you, we might have the card for you today. XFX is back once again, carrying with it some pretty mean speeds on the new GeForce GTX 280 XXX edition. The GeForce GTX 280, while being a very good card in the sense that it performs similar to the dual GPU version in form of the GeForce 9800 GX2 card for the same price, it hasn't wowed people as much as we had hoped due to the card again not feeling like a true next generation offering in the performance department. With that said, the new GeForce GTX 280 does carry with it some cool technology that we haven't seen before, and certainly does have its benefits in certain fields. - TweakTown

XFX GeForce GTX 280 XXX 1GB Version Card Review

Straight away the XFX GeForce GTX 280 box really stands out with the giant lime green glow looking pretty good. In the background we have the wolf like figure showing with GTX in large letters on the front and below that the version number. Across the top of the card we can see both the XFX and NVIDIA logos. To the top right corner we can also see that a full version copy of Assassin's Creed is included in the box. Across the bottom of the box we can see it's of course PCI Express 2.0 and comes with 1GB of GDDR3 memory. Above the memory we can see some more NVIDIA logos along with the fact we have a 670MHz core.

Turning the box over, we have a picture of the card along with some of the key features it offers. We have a bit of a blurb on the left of the card and a bit more detail on the features that the card offers. Upon pulling the card out of the box, that lime green glow really stands out on the card and the sticker of choice makes the card look simply awesome. Compared to the Zotac AMP! edition we looked at the other day, there isn't any other changes. XFX of course have opted to use the standard cooler which isn't unusual this early in the game. As the weeks and months go on, hopefully we see some companies begin to mix it up.

What was really cool about the XFX card is when you turn it around, they have another sticker. In the event that your case has a window, you can display the card you have loudly and proudly. This really is just smart marketing as it lets people know the brand you have in your system and often makes them want it too. As you would expect, looking around the video card we have our two SLI connectors across the top while the back of the card shows a single PCI Express connector. As mentioned earlier, the XFX GeForce GTX 280 is the superior XXX model and that as such means it's overclocked out if the box.

We can see on the box that the core comes in at 670MHz which is 70MHz up from the standard 600MHz core clock. The shader clock moves from 1296MHz to 1458MHz and the 1GB of GDDR3 memory comes in at a whopping 2500MHz. XFX has done a good job with finding a very high clock on the memory, but it would have been nice to see the core be bumped to 700MHz out of the box. A little overclocking saw the card had no issue at 700MHz, so it does come as a little surprise that XFX didn't aim for the 100MHz overclock on the core. It's good to see that XFX has also taken the time to include a recent full version game.

The package on the whole is pretty standard with the normal cables and paperwork, but the little sign to hang off your door knob is a nice extra which we also saw in the XFX GeForce 9600 GT Alpha Dog. Unfortunately this all comes at a price, and the XXX edition from XFX is one of the more expensive GeForce GTX 280's on the market. That's no real surprise though, since it's also one of the highest clocked at the moment, but do it yourself overclockers will probably find themselves looking for a cheaper option. The good thing about the XFX offering, however, is that you're guaranteed a 2500MHz memory clock, pretty attractive.

XFX has done a good job with the GeForce GTX 280 and the massive overclock gives it another speed bump. While we continue to feel disappointed with the fact that we don't have a huge boost in performance over the last generation GeForce 9800 GX2, the fact remains that NVIDIA has been able to place the power of the two cores into a single one while adding new technologies such as CUDA and PhysX. Hopefully we begin to see some games under NVIDIA's way it's meant to be played umbrella make use of physics and really begin to offer gamers a completely new gaming experience.