Since the release of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 series, NVIDIA has proven that they are kings of quantity and quality. Gone are the days of speckled texture processing, along with spiking and dropping frame rates. Here are the days of unmatched performance. NVIDIA did good with their new architecture. But the release wasn't for everybody, only people who could afford the ultra high performance. Only now have they rolled out a potentially mainstream card, the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB graphics card. At three hundred or so bucks, it's not cheap, but if it's three quarters as good as its closest brethren, then it's got to be worth the money. - TheTechLounge

Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB OC Card Review

The PCB and layout are strictly reference, which is fine, though someone looking to show off his or her hardware might take some issue with the plain green. Hopefully, the healthy stock overclock mitigates the utilitarian aesthetics. And the overclocking is significant, up from 500MHz on the core to 575MHz, and from 1600MHz to 1800MHz on the GDDR3 memory. The heatsink's sun floating art is the only visible deviation from the stock design. This, realistically, is a very good thing, as the stock heatsink is nothing if not excellent and effectively silent, even though it always operates at full speed.

Using RivaTuner we did some simple overclocking. Stability was tested by running some benchmark suites right along side ATITool's artifact scanner until it detected errors. The final results had to stand up to an hour of that on top of Orthos keeping the whole computer nice and toasty. Remember, overclocking results are unique to each individual card, and your mileage may vary a bit. The OverClock edition moniker sounds a little Engrish, but is it ever apt. There is a huge amount of headroom with this Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS OC edition, a factory overclocked card.

Without getting close to a thermal barrier this card exceeded the overclock by an additional 90MHz on the core and 115MHz on the memory, running at an incredible 665MHz core and 1015MHz on the memory. That's quite a decent overclocking result, and game play reflected the bonus like a mirror. Foxconn's GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB OverClock edition is available in the same price range as other GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB cards, so unless the looks of the thing and the bundle are an affront to your sensibilities this shouldn't be a hard decision to make.

Combining best in class performance with incredible overclocking headroom, there's really no other $300 card that competes. So if you have the money right now, and need a video card right now, get this one already. The DirectX 10 support is just frosting on the cake. That isn't to say this is the video card for everyone. It is one of only three DirectX 10 cards on the market. The real bulk of DirectX 10 compatible hardware is just around the corner, and there's the promise that when ATI begins to retail their parts that NVIDIA is going to cut their prices for competition's sake.

This card does seem like a quick and dirty attempt at a mainstream product rather than a clean addition to the series. Again, this card is a powerhouse. If you have any reservations about dropping the cash, however, it may pay off to wait and see what the next month or so will do for the video card market. But as it stands today, you simply will not find a better video card for the money.