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GIGABYTE steps up to the graphics plate, and brings after market cooling to the status quo.

INTRODUCTION

GIGABYTE GV-NX88T512HP GeForce 8800GT & GIGABYTE GV-RX387512H Radeon HD 3870 video cards

With the production of both the Nvidia 8800GT and the ATI HD3870 in full swing, we here at CPU3D have bared witness to the same generic reference design for both chipsets over and over. GIGABYTE has decided to buck the norm with their interpretations of the before mentioned models. Not only did they decide to replace the noisy reference coolers with more quite efficient ones, they modified the cards further with their Ultra Durable2 technology. This alteration on GIGABYTES part provides for quieter and cooler running cards according to the specification sheet.

                              

Both cards make use of Zalman dual slot coolers, that feature very thermal efficient and quiet coolers. They could almost be considered aesthetic twins, expect for the chipsets utilized they both look very similar. They also both feature the Ultra Durable technology. Another key difference n the HD3870 over the reference ATI design is the use of GDDR3 instead of GDDR4. They made this move to keep the manufacturing cost down, and also pass those savinga on to the end user.

 

If you look close at the GPU-Z screen shots, you will notice both cards are clocked higher than the reference designs. Right out of the box GIGABYTE is putting their lower power, high energy efficiency and aftermarket coolers to good work. Well let's dig in and look close at the full feature list offered by both cards.