XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme

Overclocking:

After some tweaking, we finally got XFX's GeForce 8800 Ultra running stable at 661MHz core and 2358MHz on the memory. At higher GPU clocks, the driver would crash and reset itself and at higher memory clocks, we suffered from a lot of tearing in all of the games we tested.

The increases aren't all that impressive and, if we're honest, this particular XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme is a poor overclocker. Even if we took the fact that this isn't XFX's fastest GeForce 8800 Ultra into account, it's still a poor overclocker and this card looks to have only just made it into this particular speed bin.

Another way to look at this is that XFX will use the cream-of-the-crop GPUs it has for its 675M XXX part, so if you want higher overclocks, you're going to have to buy the faster card - it's merely a case of XFX doing good business.

Conclusion:

For the most part, XFX's GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme performs almost exactly the same as EVGA's e-GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked card, despite the slightly different clock speeds. While it doesn't have an edge over EVGA's card, it's can still be regarded as one of the fastest graphics cards we've ever tested - the fact that XFX has an even higher-clocked version than this just is the icing on the cake.

But that's not all though, because XFX went so far as to include a few cherries on top of the cake too; the price is what makes this card more attractive than any other GeForce 8800 Ultra on the market at the moment. Despite having the essentially the same performance as EVGA's card, XFX manages to undercut EVGA by almost £40.

Of course, EVGA's graphics cards have a much longer warranty than XFX's cards, and there is also the handy EVGA Step-Up programme that may attract you too. However, the question is whether those perks are things that you're interested in paying a £40 (nine percent) premium for. That will be dependent on how soon you plan to Step-Up to a faster card in the first 90 days of purchase (if EVGA releases something faster), or alternatively how long you're planning to keep the card.

Thus far, there has been no indication as to when we're going to see Nvidia's next flagship GPU and partners are unlikely to release any faster GeForce 8800 Ultras, so the Step-Up programme is null if you were to purchase in the next couple of weeks. Secondly, if you're one of those that upgrades every two years (or even every year) a two-year warranty probably isn't going to concern you all that much if you sell the card onto someone else, because both warranties are non-transferable in Europe.

Were the difference in price only £20 or so, I'd plump for the EVGA because of the perks that come with it, but right now, I think XFX's card is about as good a value for money as you're going to get on a GeForce 8800 Ultra. And if you want to overclock, XFX's 675M XXX (and soon 685M XXX) card is another £20 on top of this. With that card, you're guaranteed similar speeds to what we achieved with EVGA's card after overclocking out of the box.

Final Thoughts...

XFX's GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme is probably the only 8800 Ultra that represents reasonable value for money at the moment. Until now, GeForce 8800 Ultras from Nvidia's board partners have been priced well out of the reach of most hardcore enthusiasts and thus have only been a viable purchase for those with more money than sense. Thankfully, XFX has delivered a GeForce 8800 Ultra with decent clock speeds and a very aggressive price and until other board partners follow suit, XFX's GeForce 8800 Ultra 650M Extreme is the pick of the bunch.

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