|
Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2400 Golden Sample: When GT Is More than Ultra |
|
Written by Mavke
|
|
Friday, 15 October 2004 |
X-Bit Labs has send word
about their Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2400 Golden Sample review. The
Taiwan-headquartered Gainward is known for its desire to produce non-standard
graphics cards. You may recall the famous CoolFX card series on nVidia's chips with a
water-cooling system, as an example. Right now this series is represented by
models on the whole spectrum of graphics processors, from GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
to GeForce 6800 Ultra. Quite naturally all these devices feature high
overclockability, but they are rather costly, too. Only a well-to-do overclocker
can afford a top-end water-cooled graphics card from Gainward.
 Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2400 Golden Sample: When GT Is More than
Ultra
So, the PowerPack! Ultra/2400 Golden Sample graphics card from Gainward did well in my overclocking tests – the good overclockability of the graphics
processor seems to have not been hindered by the rather average overclockability of the memory chips. Our thanks go to nVidia who developed a graphics processor that can optimally use the available bandwidth of the graphics memory bus. Gainward too receives our thanks for culling the best GPU chips for the Golden
Sample series and for installing an efficient cooling system that frees you from bothering about the temperatures of the graphics card's components at
overclocking.
The performance of GeForce 6800 GT graphics cards allows running the most advanced computer games, but may be not enough to run the hardest games like Far Cry or Doom 3 at their highest settings. In this case overclocking may help.
Overclocked to the level of the GeForce 6800 Ultra, the graphics card enjoys a performance bonus of about 10-15%. At the maximum stable frequencies the card
performed about 25-30% faster. By the way, these maximum frequencies are above those of the GeForce 6800 Ultra by about the same value as the frequencies of
the Ultra are higher than those of the GT.
So, the card from Gainward is good almost in everything, there's only one downside: top-end products on graphics processors of the new generation are still rare and cost a lot. A sky-high price can spoil all the fun from any
graphics card.
|
NiBiTor v4.5a
