• XFX GTX280 video card
• Driver CD
• Assassin’s Creed
• RGB Cable
• Audio cable
• DVI to D-sub adapter
• Door Hanger

XFX decided to go all out with their bundle for the new card by including a top release game, Assassin’s Creed. This game was released a couple of months ago on the PC and is pretty darn good. The game has you take the role of Altair, an assassin in the times of the Crusades 1191 to assassinate 9 historical figures (hence the name of the game.) I prefer manufacturers to include games as it shows off the new card.

The Driver CD contains the latest drivers that XFX has access to at the time of the printing of the CD. NVIDIA gave us a copy of 177.34 Forceware drivers to use during testing and that is the set I used in this review. One thing to note is it is extremely likely NVIDIA will launch the card to retail with an updated Forceware driver different from the one I used for testing. Also of note is that PhysX is not enabled in this driver, but will be in a short while.

The box itself is a work of art in many respects. XFX decided to spend time with a stylized version of their Bulldog mascot using lines instead of being rendered. There is a GTX logo directly in the middle of the Bulldog’s mouth, the XFX logo and the NVIDIA logo on top of the Bulldog picture. The right hand side of the box has a picture of Assassin’s Creed which is included in the bundle. The rest of the front has the basic specifications of the card.

The rear of the box has detailed specifications of the card including the number of SPs, a description of the PhysX technology and features like Folding@home, and HybridPower. XFX has taken a screenshot of They an upcoming game and also given the Ratings for Assassin’s Creed that are found on the retail box of the game. Note that PhysX drivers are currently not available at launch but will arrive shortly after bringing support for PhysX enabled games to all GeForce 8 and 9 video cards as well as the GTX280.

The included hardware bundle is modest in most respects. The inclusion of the Door Hanger “I’m gaming Do Not Disturb” has been a XFX trademark inclusion of their bundle for a while now. The DVI to D-sub adapter is a bit ubiquitous as any enthusiast with this card will likely have DVI or HDMI connectors on their monitors. The GTX280 has a HDMI port on the top of the card with the ability to run audio from that port so an audio cable is included.