A Closer Look:

For those who have looked closely at the pictures, you may have noticed that the graphics does not come with the single fan reference cooler found on stock cards. ASUS has opted to upgrade the card's GPU cooler with their own Glacier cooler which does cool much better. Various users have seen temps ranging from 50 C to 80+ C at full load on the stock coolers. The appearance of the Glacier looks more aftermarket, but not necessarily that flashy since just about every aftermarket cooler now comes with an LED or two.

Anodized Aluminum Glacier Cooler

Lower temps sometimes offer up a little more GPU and/or memory overclocking. That isn't always the case if the card's firmware is the inhibiting factor which is often quite the case. Past experiences point to something more than just the cooling solutions, especially with the use of aftermarket coolers.

The only way to really get around this is by flashing the video card. Or in other words, flashing the video card's BIOS. Keep in mind that it may also, and usually does, void your warranty. You can usually get around voiding your warranty swapping out just the GPU cooler.

What? No memory sinks?

The bundle isn't too shabby based on the price of the card. But, it isn't exactly exemplary. Some of the previous GPU temperature sensor issues have been a bit of a headache for some, but ASUS has included their own software. There is at least a copy of Company Of Heroes which is a pretty popular game. You'll also find some extra cables and typical adapters for connecting the card to your monitor.

Drivers, Manual, & Game

Adapter, CD Book, Video, & Power Cables

Testing:

Testing was performed using 1680 x 1050 with the monitor's default refresh rate. Nvidia's WHQL 169.21 drivers were installed and the system was left to stock frequencies. After each fresh graphics driver installation, driver settings were left set to "Let 3D Application Decide" with only the Vertical Sync disabled.

These settings should really make the cards put in some serious work at this resolution. Many of today's games will auto detect your system's most capable settings and others install with most everything set to High by default. Every game was set to High before benchmarks were performed.

AMD Entertainment Booth
CPUZ	GPUZ 8800 GT	ASUS Blitz Extreme

One of the first things I wanted to mention is the effectiveness of the Glacier GPU cooler versus the reference cooler on the original. I noticed that the Glacier version is noticeably quieter than the stock cooler. Even at full load, the cooler remained pretty quiet and almost unnoticeable inside the secondary test system which was installed in the Thermaltake SwordM case. The GPU was also nearly 14 C cooler at full load which is really a nice benefit.

Low fan noise & Temps

A couple of benchmarks revealed that there was no difference between the stock version 8800 GT and the Glacier revision where both scored within .5 frames per second of each other. The 8800 GTS while formidable with its extra Stream Processors, couldn't quite best the more efficient and factory overclocked 8800 GT.

Below, you can see just how well the ASUS 8800 GT 512MB TOP graphics card performed in the game benchmarks versus a comparable 8800 GTS 320MB Superclocked graphics card. The difference between the cards is pretty minimal across the spectrum.

The 8800 GTS 320MB Superclocked has one powerful tool going for it and that's also the factory overclocked frequencies. The card is one of the best, if not the best, 320MB versions around. If you remember, it has more stream processors over the 8800 GT which give it its extra graphics power.

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