Conclusion

So, the PowerPack! Ultra/2400 Golden Sample graphics card from Gainward did well in my overclocking tests – the good overclockability of the graphics processor seems to have not been hindered by the rather average overclockability of the memory chips. Our thanks go to NVIDIA who developed a graphics processor that can optimally use the available bandwidth of the graphics memory bus. Gainward too receives our thanks for culling the best GPU chips for the Golden Sample series and for installing an efficient cooling system that frees you from bothering about the temperatures of the graphics card’s components at overclocking.

The performance of GeForce 6800 GT graphics cards allows running the most advanced computer games, but may be not enough to run the hardest games like Far Cry or Doom 3 at their highest settings. In this case overclocking may help.

The diagrams below show the performance gain I received by overclocking the graphics card in all the tests:

Overclocked to the level of the GeForce 6800 Ultra, the graphics card enjoys a performance bonus of about 10-15%. At the maximum stable frequencies the card performed about 25-30% faster. By the way, these maximum frequencies are above those of the GeForce 6800 Ultra by about the same value as the frequencies of the Ultra are higher than those of the GT.

So, the card from Gainward is good almost in everything, there’s only one downside: top-end products on graphics processors of the new generation are still rare and cost a lot. A sky-high price can spoil all the fun from any graphics card.