Customer Reviews

XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Ready Video Card (Dual DVI/S-Video)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First things first: This is the XFX Alpha Dog edition. The PVT it gives says it is the stock XFX but the one I got in the mail was the Alpha Dog.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 computer with the Q6600 and the 8600GT graphics. I bought this as an "upgrade." First things first, I had to upgrade my power supply from the stock 350watts to a 500watt PSU. This graphics card has a power supply plug on the end of it. The card is INCREDIBLY LONG ... So much so you better make sure you have space for it if you have a small box. For the Dell Inspiron 530 - had to take out a hard drive to get it in the case.

Now for the actual review. I'm an Eve-Online player. I went from 170FPS (8600GT) to 410 FPS (8800GT) in station with Eve Classic. I went from low 50 FPS (8600GT) to 210 FPS (8800GT) with Eve Premium. Yeah, there is a HUGE difference... The graphics are so much better than the 8600GT as well.

The downsides (reason for 4 stars): This card runs INCREDIBLY hot - so hot I can't even touch it for a second. The card is upside down in my case so it blows hot air to the bottom and just recirculates it. I had to install a case fan and leave a PCI slot open to blow the hot air out. I HAVE NOT had the card freeze but if you don't have good case ventilation that might be an issue for you.

The XFX GeForce 8800GT video board is just so over the top in value! This is one of those purchases where you say to yourself "why didn't I buy this sooner?".

My previous video board was an EVGA GeForce 8600. The difference between these two boards, for example, in viewing and playing a game such as Hellgate: London is like comparing a drawing done with a crayon to a high resolution photograph. Without any performance tweaking other than installing the 8800GT, the frame rate in that game went from 7 frames per second to 42 frames per second. So not only was there a massive visual improvement, the speed of game play was also greatly enhanced.

The Alpha Dog graphic theme of the board, rendered on the box and the board itself looks very professional. In the box there is also an "I'm Gaming Do Not Disturb" card to hang on your door.

Although it is not documented on the XFX web site, you do need to have a 400 watt or higher power supply unit (PSU) with a PCI-Express power cord to plug into this board. I have an HP Pavilion with a quad core cpu and 3G of RAM that only had a 300w PSU. I purchased a Raidmax 650w modular PSU just to install this board. Uninstalling your present PSU is very straight forward. Simply unplug all the PSU connections in your PC, take out the four screws holding your PSU to the case and remove it. Reverse that procedure to install your new PSU. When you are shopping for a new PSU, get a modular one so that you only use the cables you need inside of your PC, which will help keep it cooler.

While the XFX GeForce 8800GT video board does have its own cooling fan, with the large fan on my new PSU as well as the case fan on my PC, I have not had any overheating issues and I tend to run my PC 16 hours a day.

This is a great board, and I highly recommend it.

First off I would like to state I have built countless PC's however I got a HP m9000t at an incredible discount.

This card does fit in this smallish form-factor micro-atx case HOWEVER requires removal of hard-drive cage (some work) and disconnecting a few cables to the motherboard. Find another card if you are not comfortable messing around such a cramped case.

This card is 3 to 4 times as powerful as the 8600 GT (on my rig) that shipped with the PC but turns an almost silent PC to borderline loud.

Also the boot time went from 1 min 30 sec to 4+ min; might be a driver issue. Cannot seem to resolve.

If you have the room in a standard ATX case it is a great buy otherwise be prepare to "make room."

It's an awesome graphics card. I upgraded from a 8600GT Nvidia 256MB to a 2600XT Radeon HD 512MB and finally to the 8800GT Nvidia 512MB. I tried giving ATI GPUs a chance but it just didn't work out and I didn't see a performance boost. This card by far outperforms anything I've owned before. My PC's basic specs are Intel Core 2 Duo 2.20Ghz, Corsair 3GB RAM, Raidmax 530W PSU, and a 20" Widescreen flat-panel from Dell. I play my games on native resolution which is 1680x1050 for me.

As for what games I play: Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal, and some others. On Call of Duty 4 I now have everything at high settings with no stuttering or artifacts running at a smooth 60FPS. Crysis I play on medium settings and get an acceptable 30FPS, if I turn it up to high settings the FPS drops to 20. On CS:S I'm getting between 80FPS-100FPS with everything on high settings.

A few things of importance for potential buyers: this card is approximately 9" long so make sure your case has sufficient depth, also this card requires a PSU of at least 500W to be on the safe side. I'm very satisfied with this card and if I could I would buy another one for SLI but sadly my case only has one PCI-Express x16 slot.

This card is simply amazing! It's possible to play any game with all settings on high at 1280x1024 resolution and 2x anti aliasing. It can't get any better. Perfect if you play with these settings. Going any further does not provide any noticeable or practical difference on image quality as far as I can tell. More than happy here.

So to start off, the Nvidia 8800GT as of May 08 is THE chip to get for performance at this price range. I was able to play Call of Duty 4 with this thing on my Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz + 4GB ram without any problems or any lag at 1600 x 1200 with all eye candy turned on. Thats all I needed it to do. It did falter a bit with Crysis, but I was not surprised by that.

Now for the bad. This XFX 8800GT is loud.

I had been staying away from XFX cards for the last 2 years because my last XFX card gave a high pitched squeal that caused me to go out and buy an after market cooling solution. I tried my luck this time because the price was right and the minute I hit the power button and the fan spun to what was obviously 100% and stayed there, I knew I had the same problem.

Probably not an issue for some people but my computer is mostly silent except for this card. I will have to send it back to Amazon.

I am amazed with how well this thing works. I just built my first computer and this was my graphics card. This thing along with 4G ram at 800mhz can run Crysis on very high with no lag at all. I couldn't believe how well it ran the game and how amazing it looked. It is much cheaper than the GTS or GTX and can run Crysis on very high, so why not buy the GT. Save $100-400 and go with the GT. Couldn't be happier.

My "old" card wasn't all that old but I convinced myself that I needed a new one. That's the problem when you build your own computer. It is never finished. :) My last card was an EVGA which I picked due to their excellent reputation of standing by their products. I went with XFX this time for the same reason plus the price on Amazon. Free shipping and no sales tax saved me a lot of money. I also liked the fact that this came directly from Amazon and not a certain company they sometimes deal with which has a terrible reputation for screwing people over on rebates that they run through their own site. Forget that!

The card arrived in perfect shape as has everything I have ever ordered from Amazon. There was a problem with the cooling fan being the static older version so I requested a new one from XFX. They had me taken care of in just a few more days. Talk about great customer service. The new fan went right on, the card was installed, and I was off to play the free game they included of Company Of Heroes. The card also came with a free coupon for a chicken sandwich at MacDonalds.

Everything works fine and I am very happy. Except....I can think of a few more items I would like to change on my computer. Haha.

Great performance, great price on Amazon. Installed without any problems and works great with Vista. Have a 45 nm Dual Core Processor, 4 GB RAM and this card and scored 5.9 on Vista bench. Highly recommend!

This card is excellence for the price. Take up only on slot and I believe it take less power than some other cards in its class. Performance is the best in its class. But the biggest problem with this card is it is very NOISY. The fan seems to run only at one speed, and it is set on LOUD.

I will contact the manufacture to see if that is normal, but I have heard from others of the same problem with this card.