GeForce 8800 Roundup

Zitat

On the GTS front, I was first torn between the BFG and Foxconn cards. The Foxconn's factory "overclocking" and bundled game controller weigh heavily in its favor, and it is $10 cheaper than the BFG. However, Foxconn's warranty spoils the deal—a measly two years of coverage in a market filled with lifetime warranties is a joke. So surely the BFG, with its lifetime warranty, excellent tech support, and freebie t-shirt and mouse feet, would win me over. But not quite. You see, the BFG card is also the most expensive GeForce 8800 GTS of the bunch, but it runs at stock speeds, and our card's memory didn't overclock nearly as well as that of the others.

As it turns out, I was looking in the wrong direction all along. PNY's XLR8 GeForce 8800 GTS may lack the flash of bundled extras, higher stock frequencies, or a lifetime warranty, but for just $385, it's a heck of a deal. The money you save can purchase extras you actually want. As our overclocking results show, the fact that PNY doesn't offer faster clock speeds out of the box doesn't mean you can't get there on your own. Couple that with a three-year warranty that goes up to five years with registration, and you have our first Editor's Choice.

Finding the pick of the GeForce 8800 GTX litter was considerably easier. MSI gets knocked out of the running early for providing only a three-year parts, two-year labor warranty—Serious Sam II doesn't even come close to making up for that, although the NX8800GTX is the cheapest GTX in the round-up by $10. At over $620 online, OCZ's GeForce 8800 GTX is simply too expensive for a reference card running at stock speeds with few intriguing extras. We're happy to see OCZ back in the graphics game, but we think they can do better, especially for a card that commands a higher price premium than the EVGA ACS³.