XFX 8800GS/9600GSO XXX 384MiB review

This is were the card comes, the usual fancy XFX stuff, it's the XXX version which means a core speed of 680MHz and 1600MHz for the RAM. The standard version packs only 580MHz for the core and 1400MHz(not quite decent) for the RAM. The amount of RAM is a paltry 384MB, enough for most games, just not for Anti-aliasing or Anisotropic filtering, especially with big resolutions.
The G92 based 9600GSO is based on the same card - with a change of sticker - so you can expect the same performance as from this card.

The main point of this review was to find out if the crippled 8800GT, that is the 8800GS/9600GSO, can find a way to get the performance of the more expensive model.

Let's take a look at the rest:



Nothing worth notice here. Nice of them to pack a PCI-e power adapter. Remember to plug this to two different wires coming from the PSU and not at two molex connecters from the same wire - if you do this, you'll allow the power to be more evenly distributed, causing less heat build up, which might be problematic during overclocking or with more powerful cards than this one, possibly resulting in something melting or even burning.



A shot from the cooler without the plastic. It's a very simple design which needs a "beefy" fan for enough cooling.


A better glance at the PCB shows two phases for the GPU power supply and one for the memory. Not bad, could've packed three for the GPU, in my book. The inductors are of a better design than most that ship with standard 8800 PCBs. MOSFETs like these are easier to cool - when using alternative cooling - then the ones in the original design.

Test bench

The test machine is composed of:

• AMD X2 6000+
• Jetway M25GT6, nForce 550
• 4GB DDR2-667
• Samsung 320GB HDD
• Philips 32" HDTV
• Windows XP

The standard benchmark of Crysis was used, with Physics set to Low always, independent of the graphics settings benchmarked(Medium, High).

Test Results

Overclocked frequencies are of 736 / 1836 / 2GHz for the XFX card and 734 / 1836 / 1900MHz for the Zotac. The memory of the 8800GS provided a surprising result.






Noise and temperature


Not surprisingly, the XFX is the card with better temperatures. This comes at a cost: it's noisier card.
The standard cooler in the Zotac can be safely put in a media center PC without anyone crying foul - the same cant be said for the 8800GS from XFX: it's among the noisiest cards to pass me by. Really noisy. The Zotac is practically whisper quiet.
As for electrical noise, it produced far less than the Zotac while in load, being a not so high pitched noise at the same time - a noise a lot more bearable then the standard design from Zotac.

Conclusion

I didn't actually do any testing with AA of AF, since most benchmarks on the web already show that the card can't handle it. It still handles Crysis quite well on 1920x1080, albeit only pleasantly at Medium detail, about the same as the 8800GT- which stays a lot closer to the 30FPS barrier though.
It's a very good card, not for big adventures. 1600x900 is close to 1680x1050 and runs fine at that resolution, one much used right now - above that, it might not be the card for you.

I like the card a lot, but had to switch to an alternative cooling solution as it was making my ears "hurt"; if that's a concern, do buy a 8800GT with the standard single-slot cooler, it's a lot more silent.
On the other hand, the PCB is better designed providing considerably less electrical noise from the inductors of the Zotac. At least for the RAM, higher overclocks were also attained showing promising results for extreme overclocks. The ideal card based on the G92 is one with this PCB and an after-market cooler.

If you like to overclock, this card might be for you. You can save some bucks while keeping almost the same amount of performance as a stock 8800GT.