PNY XLR8 8800GTX 768MB PCI-e
Speed the graphics in your system with this high end graphics board

By Andy Taylor

PNY has been in business since 1985 with its product line of memory modules launching around 1991. Now 16 years later, PNY products can be found on big box retail shelves, smaller mom and pop stores as well as Tiger Direct and New Egg which are pricing this product with the consumer in mind for the holiday season. PNY has a strong reputation in the world of tech, supplying products such as flash media, peripherals, graphic boards and memory modules.

In talking with gamers, what so many gamers would like when it comes to gaming on the PC is the ability to play today's titles with all the elements of the game turned up, no lag, large screen sizes and the option to upgrade the system over time. Lets face it, take a good look at the titles on the shelf and online stores and you'll find that many game manufacturers are pushing the envelope when it comes to graphics and immersing yourself into the games. While just upgrading the graphics board won't be the end all in a better gaming experience, combined with a great motherboard, processor, fast and reliable memory and fast refresh monitor can satisfy most gamers whether casual or "have to have every game" player.

To understand the work of the graphics card, it's best described, in terms of gaming, as the device which presents the game with all the features the game designer intended. Smoke effects, lighting textures and visual candy that aid in immersing the gamer into the artificial world on the screen in front of them. Advance in even the operating system for PC gamers has adjusted the capabilities of the systems. Some of the cutting edge games of the holiday season, which not only look great on Windows XP machines now have more features available to be seen with Windows Vista and Direct X 10.

When building or upgrading a system, the graphics board can be just as important a part as the system processor. When all the elements of a fine tuned gaming rig are in line, the gamers edge goes to the top end system. Of course, skills are needed to play today's titles and the way to get them is with a developed machine.  

On the KOLD TV Segment, we wanted to take a look at some of the latest titles for the holiday season but knew we really needed to see them in DirectX 10 to get the most out of the titles. We looked at a variety of graphics boards on the market and was impressed with the packaging, looks and reputation of the PNY line of cards. It is obvious they understand the gaming market and have packaged together a NVIDIA SLI - Ready GeForce 8800 graphics processing unit with the needed accessories to connect the card to the screen.

The graphics card we are looking at features the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX GPU. The PNY System is the XLR8, pronounced X-cel-er-ate, Performance Edition and features a whopping 768MB GDDR3. The GDDR3 memory is specific to the handling of the graphics on this board. This Ultra Cool looking board features a mounted cooling system to keep the GPU and graphics memory at performance temperatures. Dual DVI connectors allow for multi-monitor setups. Your maximum screen size when connected to an analog source is 2048x1536 with Digital measuring in at 2560x1600.

Having a power supply rated at 450w or better would be the smart choice with this baby as two 6 pin PCI-E connectors are required. The card can also be run in SLI (Scalable Line Interface) mode which allows for the addition of a duplicate graphics card for getting even more throughput out of the cards to the screen. With the SLI setup, cards share the processing of shading, lighting and effects and get the job done faster. A beefier power supply will be required in SLI mode as PNY recommends at least a 750w for this feature.

The PNY GeForce 8800GTX PCI-e 768 is far and above the fastest performer we've got our hands on. This is designed for the gamer that wants the most for their hard earned money. With the aggressive pricing in place with Newegg and Tiger Direct, this card which has a MSRP of around $529 can be picked up for $450 - $475 depending on the dealer. For more info take a look at http://www.xlr8gaming.net

PNY also sent us over a nice partner to go with the 8800GTX graphics board. In a spiffy box, similar to the packaging on the GTX, was PNY XLR8 2GB of DDR2 memory running at PC2-9384. Attached to the modules is a custom heat sink to not only look great, which it does, but also give cooling of the memory to a larger area. Nvidia SLI certified motherboards with EPP features will find even greater performance with the inclusion of this memory and the EPP feature enabled. EPP represents Enhanced Performance Profiles and can control timing and other features important to tweaking system speeds. This product sells for around $255 - $270 again, depending on the dealer. While PNY is offering many items for the holiday season under $50, http://www.pny.com, the memory card and graphics combination will keep the gamer busy for months on end.

For More Information
Visit the XLR8 Website
http://www.xlr8gaming.net

Click here to watch our video from
Tech Tuesday where we look the PNY XLR8 8800GTX

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