It's been an while since we've seen anything from Gainward and the main reason for that is it had been a while since we had seen anything from NVIDIA. Now that NVIDIA has some new models and companies have had the chance to attack them with some new cooling and what not, it's time to see what some of these NVIDIA only partners are capable of. Let's be honest though, they have got their work cut out for them. You just have to look at companies like HIS and Sapphire and see what they've brought to the market when it comes to ATI only partners. The NVIDIA crowd have some big shoes to fill and to be honest, it's looking good. The question now is however, can Gainward do the same or better? - TweakTown

Gainward GeForce GTX 470 Golden Samples Preview

Using a Gainward graphics card, you feel a bit dirty due to that red PCB. We love it though, and it's a bit of a trademark. It's funny that you instantly associate that red PCB with ATI, but underneath the custom dual fan cooler is just an NVIDIA graphics chipset. And a quick spin around the video card doesn't initially find any surprises with two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors and two SLI connectors, yet when we get to the output department we've got two dual link DVI connectors and a HDMI and DisplayPort connector. So it is well fitted for any display you are thinking to link with it unless you are still suffering with an analog monitor.

Let's be honest, it wouldn't be a Golden Sample unless the card was overclocked out of the box. So Gainward has taken the time to round off some of the numbers and give us quite an attractive overclock which is the highest to date. The core comes in at 650MHz which is a nice jump from the default setting. What this has in turn done is pushing the shaders to 1300MHz. If that wasn't enough, Gainward has then rounded the 1280MB of GDDR5 memory off to 3400MHz effective. The overclock should yield a nice performance increase. Fingers crossed we are able to see some decent figures. At the moment it looks like we are onto a winner.

Why wouldn't you just want this Gainward GeForce GTX 470 Golden Sample? Its cooling is superior to the reference card in every way. We're now at a point where it is not even worth considering cards that use a reference cooler unless they are cheap. Three companies have now already shown us superior cooling solutions for very little price increase. If that wasn't enough though, the Gainward out of the box performance is fantastic. The overclock that Gainward has offered us with a 650MHz core is fantastic. It helps boost overall performance by an good chunk. If you are not interested in overclocking, this is a fantastic option for people.

The Gainward GeForce GTX 470 Golden Sample is a fantastic card and reminds us why we love the Golden Sample series so much. Looking at NVIDIA partners, it's one of our favorites and has been around for years now. This is one GeForce GTX 470 that's worth keeping an eye out for. We love what Gainward has done with it and the chances are you will as well. The inclusion of the new cooler on top of the overclock is what seals the deal and turns the card from a good one to a great one. The Golden Sample name has never been tainted with a model that shouldn't have it and they have always gone beyond our senses.