NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS Refresh: Asus and XFX

Next up we have XFX’s GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition.  In stark contrast to Asus’ gigantic brightly-colored packaging, XFX’s offering ships in a relatively small box, about the size of a typical shoe box, that’s mostly black with green accents.

The XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition’s bundle too is quite different than the Asus card.  Included with the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition we found your typical assortment of manuals and documentation, an S-Video cable, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, a driver disc, and a thankfully another disc that contained a full version of the DX10 game Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.  Lost Planet hasn’t won any game of the year awards, but it is a great title to show-off the capabilities of the card nonetheless.

The final addition to the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition’s bundle was a slick "I’m Gaming – Do Not Disturb" placard.  Needless to say, this little addition made it immediately onto the door to BW Labs 3.0, much to the dismay of the Mrs.

      

     
The XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition - Sans Justin Timberlake

Physically, the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition is identical to NVIDIA’s reference design, save for the custom XFX decals on the card’s fan shroud and fan barrel.  Like the Asus EN8800GTS TOP though, the XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition is overclocked right out of the box.  XFX configures this card with a 678MHz core clock speed and a 986MHz memory clock.  A non-Alpha Dog reference clocked version is planned as well.  The Alpha Dog carries an MSRP of $379, while the reference clocked version's MSRP is set for $349.