NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB:

Core Clock: 550MHz
Shader Clock: 1300MHz
Memory Clock: 1600MHz
Warranty: Lifetime (10 years in Europe)
Price: £194.90 (inc VAT)

BFGTech has packed its GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB in the same style box as the 8800 GTS 640MB and 8800 GTX watercooled Edition we’ve looked at recently. The only real differences are the slight informational changes and the character on the box is also coloured green this time around. The 8800 GTS 640MB had a grey character, while the 8800 GTX watercooled Edition had a blue character – I guess it’s just a way of differentiating the different products, nothing more. Everything you need to know is clearly printed on the box, as has become the norm with BFGTech cards these days.

Inside the box, the card is well-packed inside an anti-static bag and a padded plastic sleeve to ensure that the card doesn’t get damaged during shipping. The bundle is typical of recent BFGTech cards we’ve looked at, but there are a few omissions – there are no Teflon Slick Pads or the standard BFGTech case stickers included this time around. Thankfully though, BFG has included the oh-so-awesome fun stickers that always give us a quick chuckle in the office. (OK, who wants some OMGWTFBFGSAUCE? – Ed.)

On top of the fun stickers, you get a pair of over-sized DVI-to-VGA converters, an HDTV dongle with component-out, a PCI-Express power adapter, a BFGTech T-shirt, various bits of literature and BFG-related marketing material including a quick install guide and a driver/utility CD with a soft copy (PDF) of the full manual.

You’d be right if your first thought was something along the lines of “this looks exactly like the 8800 GTS 640MB reference card” because it is exactly that. Of course, there’s a BFGTech sticker on the top of the heatsink – this time around, the company has gone with a glossy finish on it. There’s also an OC sticker on the centre of the radial fan too – this is obviously to signify that the card is overclocked.

The shader clock has been increased from 1200MHz to 1300MHz, while the core clock has been increased to 550MHz from the default 500MHz. Interestingly though, BFGTech has chosen to leave the memory clocked at the default GeForce 8800 GTS frequency of 800/1600MHz. Aside from these changes, you’d be pushed to find any visible differences between this and the BFGTech 8800 GTS 640MB, which we looked at in December, without removing the heatsink.

Warranty:

One area where BFGTech excels above most other NVIDIA board partners is with its warranty service and after sales support. The company offers a ten-year warranty with all of its cards in Europe, and a lifetime warranty to its customers on the other side of the Atlantic. The reason for the lower warranty term in Europe is EU legislation, but that shouldn’t worry you.

BFGTech also offers its customers free 24/7 technical support, albeit on an American 1-800 number (it’s free via SkypeOut), although if you don’t have SkypeOut or don’t live in America, BFGTech also offers free 24/7 support via email too. In the past, the downside of BFGTech’s RMA process was the fact that all RMA’s were handled by the company’s US office. BFGTech has now opened an RMA Centre in the UK, meaning that there will be much shorter turnaround times for UK customers.