So, are these frequencies – 430/1200MHz – the maximum you can squeeze out of this Golden Sample from Gainward? Let’s check it out. I remove the plate with the fans and do the same with the GPU heatsink, replacing it with a GPU block from the Thermaltake Aquarius II water-cooling system:

This allows me achieving 450/1200MHz frequencies – 20MHz more of the GPU clock rate. With the stock cooling system on, the heatsink on the memory chips was cooled by the standard fans. Removing the cooler I didn’t specially provide for cooling of the memory chips – they became hotter of course, but still remained stable at the same 1200MHz frequency.

The following diagrams show you the temperature measurements with the water-cooling system installed. First, at the standard frequencies of the card:

The temperature of the GPU is of course smaller than it was with the standard cooling system, while the PCB became 10°C hotter – heated up by the memory chips and the power elements of the voltage regulators.

At the maximum overclocking (450/1200MHz) the temperatures of the GPU and PCB were:

The temperature of the GPU increased by 2°C and of the PCB by 3°C at the maximum frequencies. Those 54 degrees centigrade are rather hot, but as you remember, I performed my tests in an open testbed without installing any additional blowers. In a good system case the graphics card will be cooled down by the system fans, and if you have a bad case, just install one low-speed fan to blow at the card.

I checked out the performance of the graphics card at the increased frequencies in Far Cry (my own demo record on the Carrier level), Doom 3 (the standard demo1 record) and 3DMark05.

I offer you the results of the Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2400 Golden Sample in four modes: at the standard frequencies, at the frequencies of the GeForce 6800 Ultra, at the maximum frequencies with the stock cooling system and at the max frequencies with the water-cooling system. I won’t compare this card to others, as there are a lot of such comparisons around the Web. Knowing the value of the performance gain you can easily relate the results of the Golden Sample to other graphics cards.