The XFX 8800 GS 680M 3845MB XXX Alpha Dog Edition is a fearless beast. While the reference cards run at 550MHz core, 1357MHz shader and 800MHz memory speed, the XFX card is significantly overclocked, and it definitely reflects on the performance. Well, you don’t name a card "Alpha Dog" just for kicks. 680M, as seen in the name, stands for 680MHz core speed, while 384MB means 384MB of GDDR3 memory running at 800MHz. Apart from the serious core overclock, the Shaders also got a boost and now run at 1700MHz.



Technically speaking, Geforce 8800 GS is not that much different from 8800 GT or 8800 GTS, as they share one heart – the 65 nanometer G92. The actual difference is the memory interface; 8800 GS has a crippled 192bit version, while 8800 GT and GTS have a 256-bit interface. Due to this, the memory numbers are somewhat odd and you’ll see them in 384 and 768MB versions. There are 96 Shader processors, which means that 8800 GS has 6 out of 8 Shader clusters enabled and 12 ROP’s, while 8800 GT has 16 ROP’s and 7 clusters.



Like the rest of  Nvidia’s G92 pack, the Geforce 8800 GS is a DX10 card with Shader Model 4.0 and PCI Express 2.0. It has a 6-pin power connector and the fan is a bit wider than the one on 8800 GT cards, but it’s still single slot. Driver version 169.23 that came with the CD couldn’t make the fan RPM auto adjustable, and it was quite loud. Still, as loud as it was it definitely got the job done – it cooled the card to dazzling 72 degrees Celsius. Nvidia promised a WHQL certified driver for Monday, and it will probably take care of this excessive noise.



XFX uses an Evercool two-ball bearing fan, model EC 5015TH 12B-B, that blows cool air onto the copper fins. The entire cooler base is made out of copper and the fan is placed on the cooler base.



The memory modules are in direct contact with the cooler, and there are six modules in total.



These Qimonda HYB28H512321BF-14 memory modules each packing 64MB of GDDR3 memory are overclocked from 700MHz (1,4ns) to 800MHz.



The card has two dual-link DVI outs with HDCP, but before we move on to the results you can check out the famous XFX packaging design.

Testbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Supplied by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Supplied by Intel)

Memory:

OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Supplied by OCZ)
        while testingCL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black ( Supplied by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Supplied by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Supplied by Artic Cooling)
 

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

Futuremarks



The pre-overclocked XFX card running at 680MHz has a higher core speed than any Nvidia card on our test today, but the crippled G92 core is not good enough to beat GT or GTS versions. 96 Stream processors, a 192-bit memory interface and 384MB of memory have made this card visibly slower than the 8800 GT. In Futuremarks, the XFX 8800 GS XXX has shown that it is superior to the same card at reference speeds, as well as the cheaper HD 3850 that only has 256MB of GDDR3 memory.


Gaming

In Company of Heroes, XFX 8800 GT XXX is almost on par with HD 3870, mostly due to greater core speeds, so we see a difference of only a couple of frames. 8800 GS at default speeds is clearly inferior to XFX so we see the difference of up to 15%.

Geforce 8800 GS outperforms its competitor, the HD 3850, in this game.

ATI still performs badly in Crysis, whereas XFX as well as default 8800 GS cards painted a quite nice picture for Nvidia. Everything went smoothly until we turned antialiasing on at 1600x1200. That simply choked the weakest G92. This is not a resolution you should play Crysis, especially if you’re using HD 3850 or 8800 GS. At the same resolution with no antialiasing, XFX 8800GS XXX scores 24.6 fps, a result that even beats HD 3870 cards.

F.E.A.R. is a game that runs great on ATI cards, and you can see that on higher resolutions both the HD 3850 and the 8800 GS are embroiled in a really close fight. The XFX card is a bit better than the reference 8-pin 8800 GS, and at 1600x1200 without antialiasing it outperforms HD 3850 by 13fps (HD3850 has 256MB GDDR3).



Unlike F.E.A.R., Half Life 2 Episode Two makes ATI’s cards look really bad. Although this is an ATI game, something just does not feel right. We repeated the test a couple of times, even tried different configuration, but alas – the 8800 GS is as good as HD 3870. At higher resolutions, HD 3870 might fare better, but it disappointed on the resolutions we’ve tested it on. At 1600x1200 XFX 8800GS XXX outperformed HD 3870 by 12% and HD 3850 by 35%. Reference 8800 GS lost to XFX 8800GS by 7%, but it still managed to outperform HD 3870.

In this game, we see that XFX 8800 GS XXX is a worthy adversary to HD 3870 at lower resolutions. Since this is a mid-range card, resolution of 1020x1440 where XFX loses did not worry us, but we’re more interested in 1600x1200 where it performs on par with HD 3870.


Conclusion
 

The pre-overclocked XFX Geforce 8800GS XXX card runs at 680MHz core and 1700MHz for Shader processors. 8800 GS XXX core speeds are the highest among the cards we tested today, but the crippled G92 core is just not enough to fight 8800 GT or 8800 GTS cards. 96 Stream processors and 192-bit memory interface with 384MB of memory made this card clearly inferior to 8800 GT.

You can buy this 384MB GDDR3 card for €165 here, and it’s a good choice if you want a low-priced, but good, Nvidia card. Geforce 8800 GS’s fiercest competitor is ATI's HD 3850, but XFX’s overclocked version has made it clear that some extra invested cash will definitely positively reflect on the performance.