Card appearance and thoughts
Looks like any other NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card, doesn't it?
XFX is rather cosy with NVIDIA and has selected the finest G80 GPUs available, pre-screened to operate at way above default frequencies. The appropriately named GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3 XXX (PV-T80F-SHD9) is the fastest of XFX's trio of 8800 GTX cards. It's specified to run at 630MHz core and 2000MHz memory (GDDR3), up from the 575/1800 clocks of every reference model.
There's one speed that XFX isn't disclosing in its literature, however, and that's the speed of the shaders, which remains at the default 1350MHz. So whilst the GPU and memory clocks make it, currently, the fastest GeForce 8800 GTX available, overall performance can still be bettered by an AIC with increased shader clocks. EVGA, anyone?
Brave owners of the regular XFX GeForce 8800 GTX card can take the plunge and flash their card(s) with the XXX BIOS. Just don't blame us if you're left with an expensive doorstop afterwards.
A side-on shot illustrates just how big GeForce 8800 GTX cards are. This one measures in at a reference-like 267mm and features NVIDIA's excellent double-width cooler that's almost silent in 2D and only produces a low hum when the GPU is subjected to maximum load.
The design utilises a heatpipe approach, to move the transferred heat away from the GPU and to the fins liberally spread on the back of the 'sink. The integrated fan then pushes air through the heatsink and out of the back of the card. In that process, it keeps the aluminium fins cool and allows the heatpipe to work its magic time after time.
And that's where the hot air spews out from. Both DVI ports are dual-link-capable, supporting monitors with 2560 x 1600 resolutions.
You've seen this picture before, we bet. 681 million transistors help to make up the GeForce 8800 GTX and, as a result, it chews through watts. That's why NVIDIA and its partners use two PEG connectors to draw additional power from your PSU. Common sense dictates that you invest a high-wattage, high-quality PSU if running two of these cards in SLI. NVIDIA has an information page detailing which PSUs have been officially certified for dual GeForce 8800 GTX operation.
The 'golden' fingers on the top-right of the above picture is how you'd physically connect up two of these cards, motherboard- and wallet-permitting, and run SLI. You need to hook-up just one on each card for the current implementation and the second is reserved for, well, future use. Three-way SLI sounds good to us.
