For Nvidia the year 2007 was rather successful with the introduction of many new series and various models, covering all range of users, from the typical one to the enthusiast. The recent update of the G92 GPU bring us the GeForce 8800 GTS with 512 MB of memory that promises high performance at an affordable price. The prices of the new cards ranging from $299 to $349 and the most noticeable update is the new PCI Express 2.0 support and the second-generation of NVIDIA's PureVideo HD. Compared to the original GeForce 8800 GTS 640/320MB cards with 96 stream processors, the new version gives a further boost in performance with 128 stream processors. In other words, you can expect a performance loss with the lower priced 8800GTX. Those figures sound very good to my ears. But how this card stands compared to the recently released 8800GT series? We will find out today in this review...

- XFX 8800GTS 512 Alpha Dog Edition (PV-T88G-YDD9)

The XFX 8800GTS 512MB is an improved version of Nvidia's generic 8800GTS with a massive of 678MHz core, 1700MHz of shader and 986MHz  of memory clocks that place it above the 8800GT and close to the 8800GTX series. More-over it has 512MB of on-board memory with 256 bits of bandwidth.

Below is a table that illustrates the major features of the 8800 series in terms of core/shader/memory clocks and interface bandwidth.

- Retail package

The XFX's 8800GTS 512MB retail package is rather small and follows the usual design of XFX for their graphics card models. There are several logos in front that separate this product from others with the most noticeable being the "Alpha Dog Edition" label meaning higher clocks than the generic 8800GTS 512MB cards.

Opening the retail box unveils its contents, everything is well organized.

The XFX 8800GTS 512 includes the usual for a graphics card, one D-Sub15-to-DVI converter and an S-Video cable. Two discs are included, one with drivers and one with the "Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions" retail game! The bundle also includes the 'Do Not Disturb' door knob hanger like the other Alpha Dog series cards, pretty cool!

The XFX 8800GTS 512 follows Nvidia's reference cooling solution with a dual slot design. The graphics card is 23cm in length so be careful, there might be some issues with crammed cases.

SLI is possible with the addition of an extra 8800GTS 512MB card...

You need a 6pin power supply to operate this graphic card.

After installing the graphics card we can find more details about its main features and specifications. The GPU core runs at 678MHz, while the memory at 986MHz and the Shader clock at 1700MHz . Compared to the generic solution, it has a small advantage, but not much, at least according to our taste... Nevertheless, this card should perform very good when it comes to overclocking since it's manufactured with a 65nm process, but later with that...

- Full specification