PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked Graphics Card Review

PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked Graphics Card Review

Not too long ago I reviewed PNY’s first overclocked graphics card, the PNY XLR8 8800 GTX Overclocked. Today we are back with another overclocked PNY card, the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked. The PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked is the top-of-the-line graphics card that PNY makes, yet carries an MSRP of $759 making it one of the cheaper 8800 Ultras that you can buy. Low cost doesn’t necessarily mean best performance, but the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked hold’s its own against the BFG 8800 Ultra OC that I recently reviewed.

Features & Specifications

PNY clocks the core on their card at 648MHz, the memory is clocked at 2.2GHz and the shader clock is 1512MHz. Naturally the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked is fully DirectX 10 compliant, HDCP capable and uses all the same features from NVIDIA that the other 8800 Ultra graphics cards I have reviewed take advantage of. For full specification data, check out the at PNY.

Test Machine

The test machine I used for this review has the following specifications:

* CPU- Intel QX6700
* Mainboard- XFX 680i
* RAM- PNY XLR8 PC2-9384 2GB
* Display- Dell 30” 3007WFP-HC LCD
* OS- Windows XP Pro SP2

Benchmarks & Testing

To benchmark the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked I am using 3DMark06, FEAR, and Battlefield 2142. The first test up is 3DMark06.

3DMark06

I ran 3DMark06 at default settings in the application and default settings in the NVIDIA control panel. The 3DMark06 test results are as follows:

* Total 3DMarks- 13100
* SM2.0- 5411
* HDR/SM3.0- 5529
* CPU- 4232
* Return to Proxycon- 44.729
* Firefly Forest- 45.451
* Canyon Flight- 52.613
* Deep Freeze- 57.969
* CPU1- 1.401
* CPU2- 2.045

To compare the BFG 8800 Ultra OC that I recently tested scored 12966 3DMarks, giving the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked a slight performance lead. The PNY 8800 GTX Overclocked I reviewed scored 12639 3DMarks.

FEAR

The next test up was with FEAR which I ran at a screen resolution of 2560 x 1600, 4x AA, 16x AF, soft shadows on and all settings at max. the FEAR in game test loop gave the following performance information:

* Min- 28
* Avg- 50
* Max- 109

The percentages show that 59% of the time frame rates were 25 – 40 fps and 61% of the time frame rates were greater than 40 fps.

Battlefield 2142

The final test up for the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked was with BF2142. I ran the game at a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 with all settings on high and 4x AA. I used Fraps to record frame rate data on a single player level called “Fall of Berlin.” Fraps recorded the following frame rate data:

* Min- 57 fps
* Avg- 68.548 fps
* Max- 93 fps

Final thoughts

I was impressed to see the PNY XLR8 8800 Ultra Overclocked best the performance of the BFG 8800 Ultra OC, even if it was by only a few points in 3DMark06. PNY is selling the card for $759 right now, which is a good price for a 8800 Ultra, much less one that is overclocked and performs this well. The usual suspects when it comes to overclocked video cards like XFX, BFG, and EVGA need to watch out, PNY is on the move into the overclocked graphics card realm with some great products.