XFX GeForce 7800 GTX Extreme Edition bundle
XFX's GeForce 7800 GTX Extreme Edition arrives in fancy X-shaped packaging, which is no synonymous with the company's top-end cards. It's decidedly cool and definitely more stylish than boring rectangular boxes.
The back, as you can see, has a see-through portion where the card would normally be if it wasn't in our test system. You can see the same speed graphic on XFX's packaging, as well.
XFX's bundle, unsurprisingly, is similar to Leadtek and BFG's. XFX also bundles in a complete version of Far Cry, yet does the sensible thing and use a single DVD instead of 5 CDs, a la BFG. There's also full copies of older title such as X² - The Threat and Moto GP 2. The latter two have been included in XFX bundles for quite a while now, and the Extreme Edition 7800 GTX, we reckon, deserved an individual bundle. It's the fastest card out of the trio but it is also the most expensive, retailing at around £450. The driver CD contained only a set of 77.50 NVIDIA drivers and Coolbits, the basic NVIDIA-based overclocking utility that installs into the control panel.
XFX goes with CyberLink for the rest of the software, and included is a rather old 30-day trial of PowerDVD XP v4.0. That's rather stingy on XFX's part. Handling all things VIVO is another trial software from CyberLink, PowerDirector 2.55 Pro. A trial version of PowerVCR rounds off this multimedia package. We can't fathom why a £450 package doesn't include full versions of basic software. XFX, for better or worse, also includes a bunch of old-ish demos on the driver CD, as well as a manual in pdf format. Brightening up the bundle, however, is the inclusion of an XFX-branded version of Tenomichi's 3D Edit v3, a handy video-capturing utility that incorporates a real-time shading program that, alongside the horsepower of XFX's GeForce 7800 GTX card, adds on-the-fly 'special effects to your captured video. It's a unique product that deserves special mention, we feel.
It seems as if XFX and Leadtek share a common cabling supplier. Both packages use the same set of input/output connections. All in all, a reasonable bundle that's letdown by trial versions of basic software.
