Gainward Ultra/3500PCX XP Golden Sample (GeForce 7800GTX)
At the Paris presentation of GeForce 7800GTX which we attended, NVIDIA swore that it would no longer allow such a shortage of new-generation cards which we all saw in the previous round with NV40 and R420. Moreover, they promised to supply the novelties to the retail shelves on the very day of announcement and even presented a large list of shops which are fully ready for the influx of buyers wishing to immediately spend their money for the new card. For our lives, we have heard a lot of hyping promises and phrases, so we took statements like these with a large extent of skepticism.
Now after the time that has passed since the announcement we can assert that NVIDIA was indeed absolutely ready not only for the demonstration of the card at the presentation but also to hand out limited quantities of working samples to the editors of leading editions, but also to the launch of large-scale sales everywhere. The partners were merely waiting for a say-so in order to please and astonish the public with their G70-based products, and today we are delighted to review the first batch-produced new-generation solution - GeForce 7800GTX by Gainward.
Certainly, most of the first batch-produced cards do not appear to be something original and sometimes differ from the reference with only a sticker on the cooling system and some proprietary utilities and games in the package bundle. This also applies to the Gainward solution because by the appearance it is almost identical to NVIDIA's reference card, but nevertheless Gainward has definitely introduced some corrections.
Gainward has been widely known on the market as a faithful partner of NVIDIA. The company policies in the production of video cards is interesting enough and stands out with a fair amount of audacity, because the main stake was put by Gainward on the so-called "exclusive solutions", which allowed the company to take a firm place in the niche "expensive nonstandard high-end products".
We can of course argue for a long time regarding the viability and correctness of such a path bringing in the results of various marketing research. But all have "a right to live" - no only giants of the market like ASUS, but also low-profile manufacturers like Gainward. This company has been doing well so far, and despite anything it is still pleasing us with not only its ordinary products but also with nonstandard and high-end solutions. We all know that the market should be presented ideally by all, in order to satisfy the demands of even the most exigent consumer.
By the way, the sensible marketing policies of the company has brought its deserved fruits. For a long time, Gainward used to be referred to the category of those manufacturers whose advantageous solutions were known to merely a narrow circle of "advanced users". Now, things have changed, and even those who are not experts at the market are very well aware of the Gainward brand and the company itself which produces not simply expensive products but those which are worth their price.
First of all, among solutions like these are Golden Sample and Goes Like Hell series which stand out with their manufacturer-guaranteed increased frequencies - not merely raised or overclocked but equipped with video memory faster than on other similar cards. And of course what makes the company produce stand out among the others is that specially selected chips of superb overclocking capability are used.
The advantage of such "official" overclocking is in that the company originally fully guarantees a trouble-free operation at specified frequencies, unlike many other manufacturers who are not liable for the overclocking capability of their solutions except when it is expressly specified. In the case with Gainward, the specified frequencies are normally set with the proprietary utility ExperTool which is a bundle item in each Gainward board, then using the Enhanced Mode (Safe Mode means reverting to the default frequencies, but in our view this option is absolutely redundant). In this case, it is a Gainward PowerPack board. Ultra/3500 PCX XP Golden Sample started up immediately upon overclocking once the drivers have been installed.
Finally, Gainward is the first company to install water-driven cooling system (Cool FX series) on batch-produced solutions. For instance, during the GeForce 7800GTX presentation in Paris the company demonstrated two video cards 7800GTX CoolFX series equipped with the proprietary water-driven cooling system. The system of water-driven cooling presented in Paris was originally designed for the SLI-configuration and is compatible to 2õ7800GTX.
That is, it would be not quite correct to position Gainward produce as "unwarrantably expensive". All in all, it has something to offer worth of extra money to pay for, and the arguments in favor of that are above. Once we talk on money terms, there are not as many cards in the high-end sector as in the middle-end, the criteria of "substantial price difference" are other than accepted in the mainstream and low-end where Golden Sample GLH is sometimes not the most expensive option.
Today, we are reviewing the very ultrahigh-end, the most recent batch-produced solution on the base of NVIDIA's new-generation G70 chip, or to be more precise - the Gainward Ultra/3500 PCX XP Golden Sample. We are going deep into a card whose nominal frequencies have been essentially overstated relative to the reference (430/1200MHz) and amount to 470/1300MHz.
 |
Top Stories: |
 |
 |
|
MoBo:
| |
|
|
VGA Card:
|
|
|
|
CPU & Memory:
|
|
