[Review] Limited Edition Gainward Geforce 9800GT 512MB DDR3 Coolice Vmod Edition
Many would have noticed in recent times that major brands have started to embrace the Overclocking community in a big way. Never before was there so many options in the bios for tweaking and pushing systems to the limits, so many pre-overclocked versions, different stock cooling configurations. A few major brands have even gone as far as creating an entire division to overclocking hardware. Therefore some of us have wondered when will factory volt-modded hardware be released. And we shall wonder no more. As what i have here to today is a groundbreaking product line created in conjunction with Gainward's Malaysian branch and one of Malaysia's top overclockers Coolice, who is also a good friend and benching partner of mine. What we have here today is the Limited Edition Gainward Geforce 9800GT 512MB DDR3 Coolice Vmod Edition. There is only 10 of these cards in the world at the moment. But i got news that if the response to the card is good, more will be made.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...tleHearder.jpg
Before we start with the review here are some information about Gainward.
http://www.gainward.com/images/template/logo.gif
Quote:
Gainward Company Profile
Foundation: 1984
Activity: Manufacturing & selling VGA cards
Belongs to PALIT Group (WW leader in VGA industry)
European Gainward: 20 employees
Our Offices:
Taipei (Taiwan) Headquarter.
European HQ in Munich Germany.
Sales office in China.
Sales office in Russia.
Sales office in Italy.
Sales office in UK.
Our Factories:
Shenzen (China).
Wugu Taipei (Taiwan).
Gainward Unique Design
Efficient cooling system developed by our engineers.
Dedicated software “Expert Tool” for over clocking.
Extreme over clocking « GOLDEN SAMPLE / GOES LIKE HELL »
Better connectivity with multiple video outputs.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02428copy.jpg
The card arrived in a standard cardboard box. Printed on it was Gainward's new logo design.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02379copy.jpg
The back of the box has all the standard details on the card and the chip and so on.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02430copy.jpg
The card is packed well. With a layer of bubble wrap and a sponge/foam on the side.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02432copy.jpg
The bundle is preety basic. Which is good as it reduces costs.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02382copy.jpg
We now take a look at the card.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...9copyfinal.jpg
Other than the non reference cooler, the rest of the card is pretty much the same as the Nvidia reference board.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02410copy.jpg
The back.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02396copy.jpg
The standard that mosts cards have now days. Two DVI ports and a Svideo Output.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02398copy.jpg
A nice big heat sink on the VRM's to keep them cool and the 6 pin power port. Also u can see the resistor of the v-mod and the jumper which are located on either sides of the pci-e power port.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02402copy.jpg
The card supports SLi. Not triple SLi though.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02405copy.jpg
2 Phase for GPU and 1 Phase for Memory. Not bad. Also in view is the vmod.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02412copy.jpg
These screws hold the Ram Sink and Heat sink on the card.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02419copy.jpg
Removing 4 screws. and we get a naked core.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02421copy.jpg
After some cleaning. We get the G92 Core. Rev A2.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02413copy.jpg
The heat sink is of a very simple design. But yet effective, being able to keep the vmoded core cool.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02418copy.jpg
Heat sinks need airflow for them to work, and the air pusher of this sink is made by Everflow and uses 0.15Amps.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02422copy.jpg
A couple more screws removed and the ram sink comes off.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02424copy.jpg
Revealing its Qimonda chips underneath.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...C02426copy.jpg
The card barring it all naked.
Test Setup
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33Ghz @ 3.50Ghz .
Asus P5k3 Deluxe
SuperTalent PC10700 DDR3 @ 1400MHz Cl7-7-7-16-1T
Western Digital 320GB 16MB
Pioneer DVDRW Sata
Vantec Ion2 500
Xigmatek S963
Windows XP SP2
3d Mark 2001
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...1stockcopy.jpg
3d Mark 2003
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...3stockcopy.jpg
3d Mark 2005
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2.../3d05stock.jpg
3d Mark 2006
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2.../3d06stock.jpg
Test Setup
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33Ghz @ 3.50Ghz .
Asus P5k3 Deluxe
SuperTalent PC10700 DDR3 @ 1400MHz Cl7-7-7-16-1T
Western Digital 320GB 16MB
Pioneer DVDRW Sata
Vantec Ion2 500
Xigmatek S963
Windows XP SP2
Fear
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...arCharts-1.jpg
Prey
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...Chartscopy.jpg
Crysis
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...ryisCharts.jpg
Call of Duty 4
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...Eview/C0D4.jpg
The card still had a decent amount of headroom for a card that comes higher clocked than other cards in the same range.
Coupled with a 5.5 GHZ e8600 Core 2 Duo. We have the fastest 3dmark 05 and 3d Mark 06 score for 9800GT on Hw Bot Rankings. ( at the time of writing )
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...iew/3d05OC.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...3d06occopy.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...w/OC9800GT.jpg
Value
The Pricing for this card is not officially out yet. I will update the review when it does. Therefore i cant comment on the value.
Pros
- Good Cooling
- Vmoded from Stock
- Solid performance
- Good Overclocking Headroom Left
Cons
- Not Much Really
Authors Note
Overall the card has very reasonable performance and it overclocks well. I would love to have had the chance to do some dry ice cooling runs, but due to our contributers terms i was not allowed any physical damage to the card. With those mods and extreme cooling, I'm sure i could have broken the 20000 points barrier on 3d Mark 06. A thumbs Up From me.
Thanks To NetRaid Malaysia for the card
