Date:
Monday , December 17, 2007
Author:
Matthew Krysiak
Editor:
Brent Justice
Google +1

XFX 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition

Want to know how the new 256MB GeForce 8800 GT compares to this season’s most exciting new video cards? We evaluate a brand new XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB XXX Edition in comparison to the 512MB 8800 GT as well as an ASUS Radeon HD 3850 TOP and Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 in Crysis, UT3 and COD4.

Introduction

We have a very informative evaluation to keep you busy over the holiday season. Among four video cards we will find out which is the better value for gaming so you know what to ask Santa for this year. We are looking at a new exciting edition to NVIDIA’s lineup this season, the GeForce 8800 GT with 256MB of RAM. This new model is based on the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GPU.

The new 256MB version uses the same 65nm GPU and runs at the same 600 MHz core clock speed and 1.5 GHz stream processor clock speed. However, for the 256MB model local RAM has been cut from 512MB to 256MB and the memory frequency has also been reduced. The 512MB 8800 GT runs at a 1.8 GHz memory frequency, but the base specification on the new 256MB models runs at 1.4 GHz. This reduction in both memory capacity and memory frequency will surely cut into gaming performance when compared with the 512MB 8800 GT. Thankfully add-in-board partners will be offering video cards with overclocked GPU and memory frequencies, one of which we will evaluate today from XFX.

Along with the new XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition we will be evaluating a new ASUS EAH3850 256MB TOP video card and a new Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB. The ASUS EAH3850 256MB TOP is overclocked from ASUS over base 3850 specifications and the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB runs at stock frequencies. We will also be using an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in our highest-playable game testing and we will also use it for some apples-to-apples testing with the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition. Each video card above is explored in greater detail on the following pages with pricing and specifications.

We will be using three of the latest and most anticipated games of the year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the latest in the Call of Duty line; Notice the Modern Warfare, that means no more BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) say hello to the M4 Carbine. Of course Crysis, which brings all current generation video cards to their knees with its spectacular graphics and destructible environments. Finally we will be using Unreal Tournament 3, which has a lineage back to 1999; its back with more guns and better graphics.

Article Image

Focus

On the following gameplay evaluation pages there will be two graphs under each table. The first graph will compare the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition and the ASUS EAH3850 256MB TOP since they are close in price range. The second graph will stage the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition against its bigger brother, the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and its competition, the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB. This will offer a full view of Radeon HD 3850, Radeon HD 3870, 256MB 8800 GT and 512MB 8800 GT gameplay performance comparison. The four most exciting new GPUs of this year all compared in the hottest games of this year for your viewing pleasure.

We will also be doing an apples-to-apples comparison with the XFX GeForce 8800 GT 256MB Alpha Dog XXX Edition and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. For this, we will be overclocking the 512MB 8800 GT card to the same clock speeds of the XFX. The goal will be to see if 256MB of RAM is bottlenecking the GeForce 8800 GT GPU.

Finally we will see just how much overclocking potential there is for those looking to get the most out their video card. So what are you waiting for? Hit the yellow “Next Page” button.