Up Close, a Gainward Spotlight...

You should by now have some main impressions of the GeForce 8800 GT card, and for us that means it is time we dig a bit deeper into the Gainward BLISS 8800 GT 1GB Golden Sample and check out the card a bit more closer in detail. We will start with the front and move slowly to the back. We might not have mentioned this, but the Golden Sample edition is built upon the reference design set by NVIDIA, which is actually case for most manufacturers. But when looking at the reference design the main difference that you can see immediately is the Gainward silent cooling solution. We will actually take a closer look and highlight some of the vital features, and some of the benefits...

As already mentioned the Gainward BLISS 8800 GT Golden Sample edition doesn't feature the standard cooling designed by NVIDIA, but comes with a more advanced solution. To move away from the traditional reference design, Gainward has opted to go one step further by looking at a 3rd party cooling system. While the reference cooling is doing a great job, you could always do better and more silent. In that aspect Gainward looked at the current market and which cooling products are available for the GeForce 8800 series. In the end they relied on their own innovation to come up with a new cooling design of their own with heatpipe technology. And let us mention that previously also NVIDIA frequently used heatpipes on their reference cooler designs. The main focus of Gainward was to keep the noise level low and still able to overclock the card at a nice level.

The cooling solution from Gainward is a great alternative choice which could make the difference. Although the design is news and an innovation from Gainward it hasn't showed yet what it is capable of but does rely on the quite favorable heatpipe technology. We don't see why this cooler shouldn't be quite better then the reference design, especially since it is known that the reference cooler is running at low speed on the reference GeForce 8800 GT card to keep the noise low. The Gainward cooling design is equipped with a low noise fan and adjustable fan speed. The fan will circulate the air through the aluminum fins of the heatsink. All this together is the driving force behind the Gainward cooler of the Golden Sample series.

The Gainward solution looks awesome as a whole and does without a doubt stand out in the crowd. The design looks good, feels good and has the edge over the reference cooling solution. Next to the black heatsink you can see the Gainward logo in full detail as well as the Gainward name. The cooler is bigger than the reference solution from NVIDIA but it does have its advantages as it is more effective and to that extend keeps the G92 chip at lower temperature. Next to that this also means that these BLISS 8800 GT 1GB Golden Sample edition cards take up some extra space. Although the new mainboards envisage this by having left more room available between the PCI Express expansion slots. But still you might actually need to take this into account when you are thinking about going down the SLI path.

The full height of the cooler becomes only clear when we look at the card from the side. It shows that the cooler is actually taken up more space, and is a dual slot solution, which is something you should be aware of when going for the Gainward BLISS 8800 GT Golden Sample edition graphics card. The cooling system isn't like the blower style that NVIDIA is using quite frequently. Though the fan system does work well since it draws the air through the top of the heatsink. The large heatsink has slim fins to expand the cooling volume which is profitable at reducing the heat faster. The combination with the dual heatpipes, linked to the heatsink does make a difference. In fact each heatpipe is connected to the heatsink with the fan pushing the air through the fins.

The cooling solution is designed quite simply, though a bit different due to the use of the dual heatpipes. The copper base that has direct contact with the GPU transfers its heat to the dual heatpipes which are passing the heat over to the aluminum heatsink. This means that the sole will always be hotter than the base, and both are cooled individually. Both heatsinks are heating up during work, indicating good heat transfer via the respective dual heatpipes. A good design focused around the heatpipe technology to make the difference. And don't forget that this is a design solely coming from Gainward, which they made a certain investment for their Golden Sample edition and came up with an innovative silent cooling solution. A great choice of Gainward which we can certainly appreciate!