Gainward

06:00 - Tuesday 5 February 2002 by Lars Weinand
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: too, much, of, a, good, thing

Gainward

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The Taiwan-based company Gainward has recently added a GeForce3 Ti200 card with 128MB of RAM to its product line. Codename: Jumbo! We'll also be taking a look at these cards, namely the GeForce3 Power Pack !!! Ti/500 TV Jumbo and its Golden Sample variation (Jumbo GS). In Gainward nomenclature, Golden Sample is synonymous with improved performance and overclockability. To this end, Gainward uses 4ns memory instead of the usual 5ns modules, and clocks the card at 210/480MHz, up from the standard 175/400MHz. There is a third member of the 128MB family (the GF3 PP !!! Ti/500 XP Jumbo "GS"), which is basically a TV Jumbo "GS," with an additional TV-In.

Don't let Gainward's naming scheme confuse you. Despite the Ti/500 name, the board really uses an NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200. Equally confusing is the fact that Gainward's real Ti500 line carries the Ti/550 moniker.

Let's check the specs. Technical data for The Gainward "TV Jumbos" is as follows:

Graphics Card Hardware Software
GeForce3 Power Pack !!! Ti/500 TV Jumbo GeForce3 Ti: 175 MHz
64 MB, 5 ns, 400 MHz (DDR)
GPU Fan
Memory Heatsinks
TV-Out (CX25871-13)
Driver-CD
WinDVD v3.0
GeForce3 Power Pack !!! Ti/500 TV Jumbo Golden Sample GeForce3 Ti: 210 MHz
64 MB, 4 ns, 480 MHz (DDR)
GPU Fan
Memory Heatsinks
TV-Out (CX25871-13)
Driver-CD
WinDVD v3.0

Visually, the Golden Sample version of the TV Jumbo is identical to the standard model, aside from the more powerful fan, which also runs more quietly than that of the standard card. Gainward equips the GS with 4ns memory. The standard version has to make do with 5ns modules. Additionally, the Golden Sample is also clocked higher, running at 210MHz core and 480MHz memory frequency. Unlike Gainward's previous forays into "out-of-the-box" overclocking, these higher frequencies are set in the card's BIOS and are no longer a software overclock through drivers or utilities. Performance-wise, this puts the GS in a league with the real Ti500s (240/500MHz). And since overclocking is what the Golden Sample line is all about, rest assured that there's still a lot of room for overclocking. The standard Jumbo TV sticks to NVIDIA's reference speeds of 175/400MHz, however.


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