The thing which caught my attention on XFX 8800GT was Zalman cooler and fortunately there was no premium for that.
(The card build quality is quite solid. XFX has used all Japan made solid state capacitors and a Ferrite Core Choke as well.) 
Being a happy user of XFX 9600GT, that overclocked like hell (725/1750/2000 from stock 650/1600/1800), I was quite sure that this 8800GT will hopefully overclock pretty well, just like my XFX 9600GT if not better. The only thing that bothered me was GPU rams, which have no heatsinks on ‘em. I was worried that this will become a problem once I start overclocking the rams. Although the mosfets were also without heat sinks but I was pretty sure that it would not pose any problem. Anyway I bought that card and installed it into my system as a primary GPU and put my old 9600GT as a secondary GPU in PCI-E x4 slot.
I was very hopeful that I would be able to squeeze the performance of stock 9800GTX out of my 8800GT and could save couple of thousand bucks. Although there is a difference of 16 stream processors between 8800GT and 9800GTX besides higher clocks of GTX (675/1688/2200), still sufficiently higher clock rates of 8800GT can compensate for this reduced stream processors. So I began my endeavor for the max overclock. After stress testing the card at stock speeds, I was quite skeptical about its overclocking potential as the GPU core was hitting 80C, not what I was expecting from a Zalman cooler. I knew that 8800GTs with stock cooler tends to get that hot but any aftermarket cooler should have performed much better. Anyway, I upped the clocks to 700/1750/1900 from 600/1500/1800 and now the card was hitting 88C under load. I was able to up the memory further to 2000MHz but having a bit of stability issues when playing Crysis at 1680x1050, all settings high but no AA/AF. I was bit disappointed so I removed the card and decided to remove the Zalman cooler and re-apply my favorite ARCTIC COOLING MX2 thermal paste. I had couple of Thermaltake GPU ram copper heatsinks lying around which I used for cooling memory as these were quite low profiled (8mm high) and fitted perfectly under the low profiled Zalman cooler. I also used Micro cool chip sinks on the mosfet area as well just to make myself more comfortable.
(After installing Thermaltake copper and Micro Cool aluminum sinks)
After reinstalling the card I checked the temp again which now have come down to 71C under load at stock. I then again overclocked the card to 700/1786/2100MHz and it was perfectly stable under all tests. Maximum temp was 79C, recorded through GPU-Z, only during crysis bench test and RTHBL GPU stability test. Playing COD4, Far Cry2 and DMC4 wasn’t able to increase the GPU temp more than 72C. Now this is something what I was looking for.
I think i can now say that the performance is almost comparable to any stock 9800GTX. I don’t have any 9800GTX at hand to compare the results but by looking at the reviews of 9800GTX on different sites I am quite confident that I am not wrong here. I am posting my 8800GT results below for you people to evaluate. I am providing the charts from other websites for making the comparison easier. Do keep in mind the test set-ups of those while comparing.
My System Specs:
CPU E7200 CORE 2 DUO @ 3.18GHz
XFX 8800 GT @ 700/1750/2100MHz
CORSAIR DDR2 @ 802MHz
WIN XP PROFESSIONAL SP2
NVIDiA GeFORCE DRIVER 178.24
RIVA TUNER 2.11 was used for overclocking the GPU.
Besides gaming, I used Rthdribl for stress testing the GPU. Rthdribl is a "Real-time High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting" demo. DirectX(R) 9.0 high-precision texture formats and version-2.0 of Pixel Shader represent real-time true HDR rendering.
Following charts have been taken from Hardware Canucks. The resolution and specs may not be exactly the same but are quite identical and more than enough to evaluate the performance. Do keep in mind that all the below tests were performed on better CPUs then mine and at these settings GPU performance can be affected due to the type of CPU. BFG 8800GT OCX used by Hardware Canucks was a factory overclocked card with the clocks @ 700/1728/2000 MHz. I found this review to be the best for comparison due to BFG 8800GT OCX.
BFG 8800GT OCX & 9600GT OCX Video Card Review - Page 2 - Hardware Canucks
Hardware Canucks System Specs:-
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9770 @ 3.852Ghz
Memory: G.Skill 2x 2GB DDR2-1000 @ 1052Mhz DDR
Motherboard: DFI LanParty DK X38 T2R
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
XFX 8800GT ZALMAN
CRYSIS DEFAULT GPU BENCHMARK @ 1680 x 1050, ALL SETTINGS HIGH, NO AA
AVG FPS = 33 (28 FPS @ STOCK GPU)
GPU TEMP 79C (LOAD)
HARDWARE CANUCKS
XFX 8800GT ZALMAN
DMC4 @ 1680 x 1050, ALL SETTINGS VERY HIGH, 4xAA
AVG FPS = 100.43 (86 FPS @ STOCK GPU)
FPS measured and recorded through FRAPS 2.9.4 while playing LEVEL 7
HARDWARE CANUCKS
XFX 8800GT ZALMAN
COD4 @ 1680 x 1050, ALL SETTINGS HIGH, 0xAA, 16XAF
AVG FPS = 93
FPS measured and recorded through FRAPS 2.9.4 after 10 mins of play.
HARDWARE CANUCKS
XFX 8800GT ZALMAN
3DMARK06 @1280 x 1024
13013 (STOCK- 11908)
HARDWARE CANUCKS
FAR CRY2
XFX 8800GT ZALMAN
FAR CRY 2 SMALL RANCH @ 1680 x 1050, ALL SETTINGS VERY HIGH INCLUDING PHYSX, NO AA/AF
AVG FPS = 43 (38 FPS @ STOCK GPU)
GPU TEMP 72C (LOAD)
This is from Guru3D
Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor @ 3.0 GHz (FSB 1333)
Windows Vista 32-bit
DirectX 9/10 End User Runtime
NVIDIA GeForce 180.42
CONCLUSION
Given the lower price of 8800GT as compared to 9800GT, especially where i live in, 8800GT is still a worthy component for main stream gamers as it provides the best bang for your buck.
