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XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition Review
[Abstract]
IntroductionAt the beginning of each new product line from chip makers like ATI or NVIDIA, there is almost always a homogeneous look to all the graphics cards across manufacturers. From their a...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Conclusion
Concentrating on the hardcore enthusiasts and gamers who do not mind shelling out top dollar for the best is a viable business strategy. Quite a few vendors have taken this option, along with charging a premium for their enthusiast friendly products. Not all have been as successful though, because for technologically savvy users like hardware enthusiasts, vendors must have the goods to back up their marketing and live up to its own hype. If not, they can usually expect a backlash from the community and the marketing dollars would then go down the drain. Going by what we have seen of the XFX GeForce 6800 GS 256MB XXX Edition, we have to say that the card truly lives up to the 'Defenders of the Gaming World' image that XFX is trying to cultivate and maintain.
The XXX edition of the XFX GeForce 6800 GS does not disappoint with its overclocked performance. |
Rightly, given its prominence in XFX's marketing campaigns, the overclocking aspect is very important. The overclocked frequencies helped the XFX card to emerge unchallenged as the leader in our benchmarks, but mind you, the competition consisted of normal reference cards that were obviously outmatched. Doing our own overclocking, we managed to hit 520MHz for the core and 1250MHz DDR for the memory using its default cooler, which were pretty good figures. The resultant benchmark scores for 3DMark05 were also the highest we have seen from a GeForce 6800 GS we have tested. This is one overclocked card capable of taking on the GeForce 6800 Ultra. Noise and temperature measurements unfortunately suffered a bit from the demands of a warmer processor. However, that is usually the price paid for overclocking so it came as no real surprise. As a final nod to the gamer and enthusiast community, the game included is FarCry, an excellent title that tests the limits of modern graphics cards and one that you might actually want to play and keep.
What turns out to be quite surprising is the attractive price of a retail XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition from online merchants like Newegg, where it can be found going for as low as US$215. This places it around that of a typical GeForce 6800 GS, which is very worthwhile considering the high default overclock of the XXX Edition. In fact, we were expecting it to be priced at a premium for the higher clock speeds. Unfortunately, while the pricing on these online retail sites are very competitive, it may not hold true for different geographic regions, due to the various layers of middlemen involved. In most cases, opting for local availability may turn out to be more expensive but sometimes, a necessary evil, if only to secure a local warranty and after-sales services. Nevertheless, the overclocked performance of the XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition is commendable and its excellent pricing from certain sources means that this card should be high up on any enthusiast's shortlist.
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