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Gainward's "Golden Sample"
branded cards have been known to be some of the best
overclocking cards on the market, and these three were not
different.
Across the board we saw gains
of a few hundred points when we overclocked the cards.
We were able to hit a stable core and memory speed of
270MHz. / 573MHz. with the GF3 Ti / 550, 224MHz. / 458MHz.
with the GF3 Ti / 450 and the GF2 Ti / 500 hit an awesome
288MHz. / 518MHz. Overclockers of the world will not
be disappointed with the Gainward line of Titanium cards.
I shudder to think of what the Gainward GeForce 3 Ti / 550
will do when coupled with a heavily overclocked Athlon XP
2000+ or a 2.0GHz+ P4!
The GeForce 2 Ti/500
XP Golden Sample
We are going to
rate each of these boards individually, taking their
target market into consideration. Although the Gainward GeForce 2 Ti / 500 was the "low-end" card in this
review, it should by no means be overlooked. Its a
high performing product with Video-In and Video-Out
capabilities, a good software bundle and coming in it at just
under $130 on Pricewatch, it's not very expensive at
all. The GeForce 2 Ti may be lacking some of the
more advanced features of the GeForce 3 GPUs, but if
you're running DirectX 7, or some other "older" games it's
a great choice. Dollar for dollar, its one of the most powerful cards
you can buy. We give the Gainward GeForce 2 Ti /
500 a HotHardware Heat Meter Rating of...
The GeForce 3 Ti/450
PowerPack Golden Sample
The
"mainstream" card in the group, the Gainward GeForce 3 Ti
/ 450, also succeeds at catering to it's target market
perfectly. While you can overclock any card to a
certain extent, Gainward guarantees a certain level of
overclocked performance for the same price as any other
GeForce 3 Ti / 200 (around $160 with TV-Out). The
quality and performance is top-notch and should provide
acceptable gaming performance for quite some time, for a
very reasonable investment. We give the Gainward
GeForce 3 Ti / 450 a HotHardware Heat Meter rating of...
The GeForce 3 Ti/550
PowerPack
Lastly we come to the pinnacle
of Gainward's consumer level video cards, the GeForce 3 Ti
/ 550. If you're looking for a pure gaming card, you
can make no better choice than the Gainward GeForce 3 Ti /
550. Like the Ti / 450, Gainward offers a card that
is guaranteed to overclock to a certain level, at the same
price point as competing products (around $320).
Until proven otherwise, I'll be recommending the Gainward
GeForce 3 Ti / 550 to anyone who asks me for input on what high-performance gaming
card they should buy. In addition, this card
has found a new home in this reviewer's personal gaming
rig. We give the Gainward GeForce 3 Ti / 550 a rare
Editor's Choice award and a perfect HotHardware Heat meter
rating of...
Get it on in the HotHardware Conference Room!
We Need Some More Action!
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