With NVIDIA deciding to lift the restrictions on pre-overclocking their latest GeForce 8800 series graphics cards, we knew it wouldn't be long till we saw companies release their special overclocked editions. The first into the our labs comes from Gainward in the shape of the Golden Sample series. It's been a while since we have seen anything from Gainward but what a card to come back with, the GeForce 8800 GTS is extremely popular around the world thanks to its excellent performance, huge amount of memory and feature list and they've only improved on it by overclocking it from the factory. A great return of Gainward with their Golden Sample series. - TweakTown

Gainward BLISS 8800 GTS Golden Sample Review

It's time to move on and have a look at the card and see if there was anything different when compared to our standard GeForce 8800 GTS. Looking straight at it you can tell that the reference cooler is being used with Gainward choosing to place their sticker over the front of it to let you know what brand you have. To be completely honest, if it didn't have a sticker on it like all other GeForce 8800 GTS cards, you wouldn't know what brand it was. Looking around the card it is of course all very standard, with the reference PCB and components, so nothing special so far for the Golden Sample edition.

Like we have mentioned previously this particular card from Gainward is a Golden Sample which means it comes overclocked out of the box. The default core and memory speed on the GeForce 8800 GTS is 500/1600MHz clock speed. Gainward has bumped this up and we get a core speed of 550MHz and a memory speed of 1.76GHz effective. The good news is that while most pre-overclocked cards normally come with an inflated price tag, the Golden Sample is able to be had for around $38 more than the standard clocked models. It isn't bad but the deal would have been sweeter if a full game had been included.

NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS just got a little bit better thanks to Gainward with their Golden Sample graphics card. We understand that overclocking isn't a hard task but that's just us. Overclocking isn't for everybody and if it was companies like Gainward and BFG wouldn't have much joy selling pre-overclocked cards. It's nice to know that for a few extra dollars you can open the box, place it in your system, and be slightly faster than your mate down the road with a standard GeForce 8800 GTS. The biggest problem that we have really has nothing to do with the card.

The package really should have had a little something extra and video cables are really a pretty standard item these days, not choosing to include them was like XFX not choosing to include the PCI Express power adapter in their GeForce 8800 GTS. While a lot of people might have them, there is still going to be a portion of people who don't. They should always be included. The other thing we would have liked see was the inclusion of a full version game. With that said, we seem to see this more and more, with the market being so cut throat companies are choosing to lighten the package to make the price more attractive.

While it might seem we are being a bit harsh, we aren't trying to discourage anyone from buying the Gainward BLISS 8800 GTS Golden Sample. Out of the box performance it is going to beat any stock clocked card, which is a simple fact. The pricing as well is another fantastic key point of the card, it is only slightly more expensive then not only the stock clocked GeForce 8800 GTS from Gainward but also stock clocked cards from other companies. And in some cases it actually comes in cheaper compared to some brands that are running stock speeds.