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XFX Alpha Dog 8800GS XXX Edition Review
With 64 additional Shader Processors and 64-bit wider memory bus, the NVIDIA 8800GS looks like promising as a replacement for the 8600GTS. The question begets: Is it really worth the upgrade from the G84 or is NVIDIA trying to liquidate excess G92s that don't the cut to become 8800GTs?
Overclocking the overclocked
By hacking a few configuration files, we were able to use RivaTuner to overclock the already overworked 8800GS even further. So, does the fewer shaders make for better clocking? We'll let you decide if the result shows it.
We squeezed out an additional 20MHz on the GPU, 50MHz on the Shaders and 246MHz on the memory to get 12461 points on 3DMark 06.
The overclocking may seem marginal but it does deliver 1,300 more points in 3DMark06!
Power Consumption
Better performance almost always means higher power consumption. We tested the 3 cards on the same system (excluding LCD) plugged into our new digital power meter at idle in Windows and also with the GPU loaded with RTHDRIBL to see how the 8800GS fares.
Things don't look too rosy for the 8800GS at idle. The card draws nearly 20W more than the Radeon HD3850.
The gap widens slightly at load to a 25W difference.
