PNY is pushing its latest GeForce 8800 series graphics cards under a new XLR8 performance brand that manages to capture a couple of well-worn enthusiast clichés with just four characters. If there's one thing enthusiasts need, it's more capital Xs and numbers masquerading as letters.

Of course, we tend to scoff at most branding exercises, so it's not surprising that XLR8 isn't resonating with us. The fact that the card doesn't offer much in the way of actual acceleration doesn't help, either; this is a standard GeForce 8800 GTS running at 513MHz core and 1.58GHz memory. For some reason, those stock clock speeds warrant a "Performance Edition" moniker that PNY proudly scribes across the card's heatsink sticker.

XLR8 branding is really all there is to the sticker, which looks like it was ripped from an iPod nano commercial. Not that looks matter much. Even with a case window, admirers are going to have a hard time seeing the heatsink sticker when the card in installed in a tower enclosure. Board vendors might as well put their logos along the top edge of the card, since that's all you're really going to see once the card is installed in a system.

Interestingly, the PNY card is one of only a few in this round-up to come on a green printed circuit board. Either Nvidia has more than one contract manufacturer, or they've switched board colors somewhere along the way.

Sifting through the array of goodies PNY has included in the box reveals a standard collection of adapters and an S-Video cable. A video output dongle is also included that provides component, composite, and S-Video outputs in a single block.

Things are pretty simple on the software front, with a driver CD and download coupon for System Mechanic 7. Since this is the least expensive card of the bunch, we don't mind the lack of bundled extras. We don't even mind the fact that there's an extra step if you want to maximize your warranty coverage. The card is covered by a standard three-year warranty, but users can add two years to that just by registering their card with PNY. Registration effectively brings the XLR8 card's warranty up to five years, which might not match the lifetime terms offered by some manufacturers, but should last the useful life of the card.