XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Fatal1ty video card review

Here at Elite Bastards, we're well used to seeing various PR claims drop into our mailbox on a daily basis - "Industry leading", "World's first", "World's fastest"... So it goes on.  Being (quite rightly) cynical types, we often dismiss such sound bites for the attempts to drill up excitement that they are, before moving on to the next item demanding our attention.  Sometimes however, such press releases catch our eye, and some further investigation piques our interest yet further.

So it was when a press release for XFX's Fatal1ty-branded GeForce 8800 GTS graphics board found its way to us, complete with comparisons to a Ferrari and the aforementioned "World's fastest" claim.  Intrigued by this, I read on and began to understand exactly why XFX's confidence in this part was so high - Never mind the fact that Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel's name adorns the box, the core, shader and memory clock speeds listed for the board were, quite frankly, insane.  A typing error surely?

Actually, no.  We now have the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Fatal1ty sat here in the Elite Bastards review dungeon, and a cursory evaluation of the part soon revealed that those clock speeds were absolutely, 100% genuine.  Had we gotten all excited over nothing, or does this board really deserve a "World's fastest" tag?  Never one to turn down the opportunity to play with the world's fastest anything, we delved straight in to find out.