The Board

Again, for today's article we received a 8800 GTS for review.  I'm told that we were originally scheduled to get both a GTS and GTX but the GTX, as of the morning of this article, has not yet arrived - check back because we will be receiving the higher specced card this week for further testing.

The GeForce 8800 series features an entirely new cooler that really takes up as much of the available PCB as is possible. The cooler on the GTS and GTX are identical and are made of aluminum fins and feature a single heatpipe. While not as outlandish as the coolers that first showed up on 7800 GTX 512 MB and later 7900 GTX cards, the coolers on 8800 boards are very large. Thankfully the new cooler is at least as quiet as on 7900 GTX cards and does not cause much of any aural distrubance.


BFG's 8800 GTS

BFG package their board with their usual bundle which includes nothing too far out of the ordinary. This includes the usual connectors as seen below as well as a shirt and a pack of their teflon mouse feet.