An interesting product announcement hit my inbox just now that I thought I would share with you all.  From PNY, a new 8800 GTX “Limited Edition” card that is highly overclocked will be available NOW or very soon.  Here are the specs:

  • 621 MHz core versus 575 MHz stock
  • 1.45 GHz shader core versus 1.35 GHz stock
  • 2.0 GHz memory speed versus 1.8 GHz stock
  • 96 GB/s memory bandwidth versus 86.4 GB/s stock
  • 39.7 billion pixels/s fill rate versus 36.8 billion pixels/s
  • MSRP of $579.99

Considering that the recently released GeForce 8800 Ultra has a 612 MHz core clock, 1.5 GHz shader clock and 2.16 GHz memory clock but has an MSRP of $829 or so, this PNY graphics card is going to look like a steal at that price. 

What was more interesting to me though was in the photo of the card PNY sent along:

New NVIDIA 8800 GTX to use both 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe Power - Graphics Cards 3 

At first glance there is nothing particularly interesting about the card itself until you look at the power connections:

New NVIDIA 8800 GTX to use both 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe Power - Graphics Cards 4

Zooming in we see that there are still two power connections on the card but one of them is a standard 6-pin power connection and the other is the new 8-pin power connection that we know is going to be required on the upcoming R600 boards from AMD. 

Up until now, I have heard NOTHING from NVIDIA about a move to this type of power connector and even their 8800 Ultra card continued to use two 6-pin power connectors.  The new 8-pin power connection allows 150 watts of power to be drawn over it rather than the 75 watts the 6-pin connectors can draw even though there is the same number of electrical connections on them; that is a product of standards and backwards compatibility.  Is it possible then that PNY needed that extra power to OC their boards that high? 

Hopefully we can get a test sample in soon to see for ourselves.  The rest of PNY’s press release follows below.

PNY TECHNOLOGIES HEATS UP ITS XLR8 PERFORMANCE EDITION GRAPHICS CARDS WITH AN OVERCLOCKED, LIMITED EDITION GEFORCE 8800 GTX


PARSIPPANY, N.J. — May 8, 2007 — PNY Technologies®, Inc. today announced the availability of a new, limited edition, overclocked (OC) XLR8(TM) graphics card based on the NVIDIA® GeForce® 8 Series of GPUs.  The XLR8 GeForce 8800 GTX OC features overclocked core and shader clocks as well as memory for increased graphics performance.  The XLR8 GeForce 8800 GTX OC fully supports Microsoft® DirectX® 9 (DX9) and DirectX 10 (DX10) for current and next-generation PC gaming. 

“PNY’s XLR8 8800 GTX OC offers high-end enthusiasts a better mix of performance and price than other graphics cards in this class,’ said Nicholas Mauro, senior marketing manager for PNY Technologies consumer graphics cards and memory.  “We will continue to grow our high-end graphics card line up with a full range of product, so gamers of all levels will have more choices to select a card based on their particular needs and budget.’ 

• XLR8 GeForce 8800 GTX OC by PNY Technologies — Features 768MB of high-speed GDDR3 frame buffer memory and a 621 MHz core clock versus the standard 575 MHz.  The overclocked card also offers a shader clock of 1.45 GHz versus 1.35 GHz standard and a memory frequency of 2.0 GHz versus 1.8 GHz standard providing a memory bandwidth of 96 GB/sec. versus 86.4 GB/sec. standard and a fill rate of 39.7 billion pixels/sec. versus 36.8 billion pixels/sec. standard.  The card is available now in limited release from leading online retailers for an MSRP of $579.99.  

PNY’s XLR8 GeForce 8800 GTX OC runs with the PCI Express® bus architecture and supports NVIDIA SLI(TM) technology for up to 2x the performance of a single graphics card.  Outputs include two dual link DVI-I connectors + HDTV/S-Video.  Other features that come with all of PNY’s GeForce 8 series of graphics cards include: 

• NVIDIA® unified architecture with GigaThread(TM) technology
• Full Microsoft® DirectX® 10 Shader Model 4.0 support
• 16x full-screen anti-aliasing
• True 128-bit floating point high dynamic-range (HDR) lighting
• NVIDIA® Quantum Effects(TM) physics processing technology
• HDCP Capable
• NVIDIA® PureVideo(TM) HD technology*
• OpenGL® 2.0 support
• NVIDIA® ForceWare® Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
• Dual-link DVI-I outputs support 2560×1600 resolution displays (at 60Hz)
• Built for Microsoft Windows Vista(TM) Premium

PNY offers a five-year warranty (three year standard with two-year upgrade upon completion of registration form on PNY Web site) and toll free tech support at 1-888-316-1193.