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BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB

BFGTech has a new video card in the wild; the GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB. It's highly overclocked from the factory, but just how will that actually improve the gameplay experience? We're about to find out with some of today's most demanding games!

BFGTech needs no introduction. By offering high-quality products, good support, and lifetime warranties, they have carved a place for themselves out of the ferocious North American video card market. Their "by gamers, for gamers" philosophy and close relationship with NVIDIA has established BFG Technologies as a premium video card brand in the USA. Their own website states:

Many of our employees are gamers and PC enthusiasts, and we provide hardware and marketing that reflects our passion and excitement for the latest technology.

BFGTech produces video cards, motherboards, power supplies, and a host of other accessories. For this evaluation, we're taking a good long look at one of their latest video cards: The BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS GPU

Launched on November 8, 2006, the GeForce 8800 series of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) rocked the very foundation of design, engineering and performance in graphics. The initial GeForce 8800 GTS GPU came with 640 MB of GDDR3 on a 320-bit bus, clocked at 1.6 GHz, boasting a whopping 64 GB/sec of local memory bandwidth. The GPU itself is clocked at 500 MHz, and has 96 stream processors running at 1.2 GHz.

The GeForce 8800 GTS GPU supports dual-link DVI and HDTV output. It requires just a single 6-pin auxiliary power connector. NVIDIA recommends a minimum of a 400 watt power supply to operate a GeForce 8800 GTS, with at least 26 amps on the +12v power rail. That is a bare minimum; users with many peripheral devices, drives, or expansion cards will want to invest in a stronger power supply.

BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB

The BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB is exactly the same as the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB launched on November 8th of 2006, except for the clock speed. The original BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB followed NVIDIA's reference design, and so the core came with a 500 MHz clock, the streaming processors were clocked at 1.2 GHz and the memory came running at 1.6 GHz. This 'OC2' version comes with the core overclocked to 580 MHz, the stream processors at 1.35 GHz, and the memory clocked at 1.7 GHz.

The packaging for the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB is exactly the same packaging as the non-OC2 version. To reflect the overclock on the video card inside, they have simply affixed big, silver "OC2" sticker that shows precisely how high the GPU core and memory are overclocked. No mention is made of how high the streaming processors are overclocked on the sticker. On the side of the box, we see the specifications of the non-overclocked version of this GPU, and the system requirements. The system requirements listing is detailed and complete, giving power requirements as well as general computer requirements.

The video card itself looks essentially just like the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320 MB we evaluated a while back. On the surface, the only difference appears to be the OC2 sticker on the fan hub. The PCB is green and the plastic cooler shroud is black. The cooling device covers almost the entire front face of this video card, as is standard on GeForce 8800 series video cards. The BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB requires a single 6-pin auxiliary power connector, and we are pleased to see that it is free of electrolytic canister capacitors. It seems to be a general trend to replace those leaky old things with solid-state capacitors on motherboards and video cards lately, and we are happy to see it.

On the business end of this dual slot video card, we find two dual-link DVI connectors and NVIDIA's standard HDTV output port. Half of the I/O bracket is taken up with air vents which allow hot air to pass from the heat-sink to the outside of the case. The back of this video card is, like most others, uninteresting. It is covered in surface mount resistors and capacitors and other components, along with a slew of little stickers.

As part of the standard bundle for BFGTech's high end video cards, the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB comes with a BFGTech branded T-Shirt, a pair of DVI to VGA adaptors, a 2x4-pin Molex to 6-pin auxiliary power adaptor, and an HDTV output dongle. It also comes with a small card paper folder stuffed with all kinds of marketing materials and instruction papers. The little folder also contains a driver and manual CD, a pair of "Powered by BFG" stickers, and some fan stickers, complete with the ever-so popular "OMGWTFBFGSAUCE" sticker

Price and Availability

The BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB video card can be purchased right now for $409.99. Newegg currently offers a $30 mail-in rebate for this video card, bringing the price down to $379.99 after MIR.

For the sake of comparison, we are evaluating this video card up against a reference clocked NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB video card, and a reference clocked NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB video card. We want to find out exactly what the overclock on the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640 MB bring to our gaming experience.