NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked

Core Clock: 575MHz
Shader Clock: 1350MHz
Memory Clock: 1700MHz
Warranty: 10 years (parts and labour) in Europe & EVGA 90-day Step-Up programme
Price: £223.24 (inc VAT)

EVGA’s e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked card will probably be one of the fastest GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB cards released, with impressive clocks of 575MHz core, 1350MHz shader clock and a 1700MHz memory clock. Indeed, we’ve only seen Foxconn’s card clocked higher thus far.

The company is primarily a US partner, but as recent as last year, the company opened a European office and now sells its products through many of the UK’s top online retailers. Its products carry impressive warranties that match everything that BFGTech offers, and then goes beyond that by giving the customer the option to upgrade to something faster in the first 90 days of owning their EVGA product.

The selection of included extras is typical of what we’ve come to expect from EVGA these days. On the connectivity front, there is a pair of DVI-to-VGA converters, a PCI-Express power cable, an S-Video cable and a component cable. The bundle is rounded off with a couple of EVGA case stickers, a user’s guide and a driver/utility CD. The card itself is packed securely inside a vacuum formed plastic mould that protects the card during shipping.

There’s a theme starting to emerge here as NVIDIA’s partners aren’t differentiating their designs from one and other all that much. All of the cards we have here have used NVIDIA’s reference GeForce 8800 GTS cooling solution. It’s hard to say that this is a bad thing though, because the reference cooler is generally pretty good and there’s nothing to complain about on the noise front.

In addition, EVGA has used the same green PCB as the other cards too. That’s a shame because this is arguably the one card that would have really benefitted aesthetically from a black PCB. The black PCB would have looked incredibly cool with the black EVGA artwork on the heatsink cover.

Warranty & Support:

In the UK, EVGA offers a 10 year warranty (equivalent to lifetime) and it follows the same terms as the US lifetime warranty. You can find full details of the warranty programme on the EVGA home page. In addition, EVGA also has a lively message board, where you can ask EVGA representatives about anything you'd like to know before or after purchasing an EVGA product.

One thing that sets EVGA above other NVIDIA partners is its support programme. When you purchase an EVGA video card, the company gives you the chance to step up to something better in the first 90 days after the initial purchase. In order to qualify for this, you must purchase your EVGA video card from an authorised reseller – purchasing a card from eBay or another auction site does not qualify you for the Step-Up programme. You can read the full terms and conditions on EVGA's website.

Providing you meet EVGA's very reasonable terms and conditions, you will get the full amount you paid knocked off the cost of the card you're upgrading to. Obviously, you can't keep stepping up to something faster – EVGA allows you to complete one Step-up on each video card purchase; the Step-up doesn't count as a purchase.