Overview

There are three primary reasons why gamers around the world make XFX their brand of choice. First, there is XFX’s unmatched performance, utilizing NVIDIA and AMD-based processing units, which consistently outperforms the competition at every level. Second is XFX’s impressive product quality and 5 star support, which includes our optimized driver selection and live help. And third is XFX’s “For Gamers By Gamers” approach to its product research and development.

Why Buy XFX?

• Consistently high customer satisfaction ratings on product dependability and quality
• Global presence with more than 15 years’ experience in the gaming industry
• ISO 9001:2000-certified factories that are dedicated to building XFX video cards. Most other brands do not have their own factories and thus their own standards for quality
• Knowledgeable technical support staff that is readily available to help
• An exceptional selection of factory over-clocked graphics cards as well as custom designs that offer high performance and proven reliability
• A Fatal1ty Series of professional level graphics cards

Things to Consider

If you’re new to computer gaming, purchasing a graphics cards to play the latest games can be a daunting task. However, we’re going to dramatically simplify your decision by explaining the two most important product considerations and how they impact your gaming experience:

Speed

Speed is usually your top consideration. Keep in mind that the faster the graphics card, the higher the price. But why is having a fast graphics card important? There are a few reasons:

• Speed directly affects the smoothness of your game play. A slow card delivers pixilized graphics, game delays and game lags that affect the quality of your game play. At its worst, a slow card can halt a game or crash your system.
• Speed delivers realistic graphics. Slow cards degrade graphic details such as lighting and texture to keep the gaming running at a playable speed. Up the speed of the card and you’ll see better shadows, increased depth and more realistic movement.
• Speed enhances the game experience. It’s more fun for the player if the game plays like it did in the store demo.

So how do you choose the right speed for you? Easy. Look at your games.

• Make your decisions based on the games you are playing or are interested in playing. Most games specify right on their packaging or user guides, the type of graphics card that is recommended for optimal performance. This recommendation will give you a base level for the MINIMUM card speed you’ll need to enjoy the game.

Memory

Remember this: memory is the most important consideration when selecting a graphics card. Most games list a minimum graphics card memory requirement on the box. If your current graphics card does not meet the memory requirement, the game won’t even allow you to install it until you meet the memory requirement. We recommend that you buy something with more memory than you currently need, which will help ensure that your graphics card will be compatible with future games.

Price

Graphics cards come in a wide range of prices. So how much should you spend? Simple: At a minimum, just enough to get the base card that you need to play the games you like. However, we recommend that you think about the future. The games that are releasing today have greater graphic requirements than some of the older games, which mean they require a faster card. That said, buy a graphics card that is slightly faster than what you currently need.  

After that, it becomes a factor of how much you want to improve the game’s performance or enhance the realism.  Consider models that offer the flexibility to "upgrade" to SLI (if you are using or plan to use an SLI motherboard).  SLI-ready cards allow you to add up to 1 or 2 cards to your system to further increase your performance, one card at a time.

Experienced gamers know what they want—and so do we. Here are a few of the features we think are important for you to consider:

PCB Wafer

A long underestimated aspect of any graphics card is the thickness of the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) wafer. The board component of the graphics card (PCB) is referred to as the “wafer” because, like a wafer cookie, it is comprised of numerous layers. Typically, this thickness is approximately five to eight layers. Unlike XFX, many of the  lower priced graphics card brands cut costs by using fewer layers. How does this affect performance? Thicker cards allow for better dissipation of heat and reduced warping potential. Most people assume that all of the heat dissipation occurs through the heat sink or fan, when in fact the entire card dissipates heat, which means that thicker wafers ease the pressure on the cards’ heatsinks.

Memory Isn’t an Apples-For-Apples Comparison

Memory speed and size might seem standardized, but it’s not. The setup of the actual memory chips can dramatically affect processing. For example, a 512MB graphics card could be made up of any number of configurations of chips, from 2 large 256 MB chips to 64 small chips. Typically, it costs more to have more chips, but this also increases the pipelines being utilized to process the buffer data.

Fan Ball Bearing & Rotation Speeds

Typical fansinks have a rotation speed of 60 rpm and consume 5voits of power. They are usually on a shared power bridge with the GPU. However, XFX uses independently powered fans, thus enabling us to increase the voltage to our fans without draining critical power from our GPUs. Our fansinks typically have a rotation speed of 190 rpm, yet are also incredibly quiet thanks to our use of aircraft-grade ball bearings that are perfectly polished to provide minimal friction. We also utilize a hermetic seal that eliminates dust buildup, which also can adversely affect fansink performance.  Several models also feature variable fan speeds which optimizes performance based on thermal temperatures.