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Specifications

With the 6800GT Gainward Ultra/2400 Golden Sample clocked exactly the same as the 6800 Ultra, it does not seem to make a lot of sense to pay that extra premium for the Ultra as the availability of GT cards should be higher as well as the fact the 6800GT will always cost less than the Ultra. Besides the core clock rate, it is it is important to note that the memory rate of the Gainward has also been bumped up to Ultra levels. Note that the BFG GT OC comes with stock memory speeds.

Gainward has a regular GeForce 6800 Ultra in the 2600 but is 90$ more expensive. We did not receive clarification on the differences between the two so we would suggest going with the Golden Sample 6800

Features

Gainward actually has two different 6800GT Golden Samples - one with the standard VGA & DVI output, while the one we look at today features a dual DVI output much like the 6800 Ultras.

The layout of the Gainward card itself is based on the Nvidia reference solution. However, the cooling is anything but. Gainward moves in the opposite direction from the Golden Sample 5950 of last year; instead of turning a dual slot solution into a single slot solution, Gainward takes the single slot 6800 GT and turns it into a dual slot beast. The 2400/Ultra will not be making an appearance in many SFF boxes unfortunately. Gainward goes the heavy duty route with the cooling apparatus; a copper heatsink covers the core and aluminum heatsinks cover the memory.

The heatsink profile is not tall enough to make the Gainward impossible to fit in a single slot solution, but the cage like structure that houses the two fans require that second slot. Gainward keeps up with its red color scheme, going for a deep crimson color this time around with the aluminum for the cage and memory sinks both anodized to this color.

Included in our North American version of the Ultra 2400 is a copy of Arx Fatalis, muvee3, and WinDVD4. I am under the impression that the bundle will be the same in Asia but European customers get an additional bonus: DOOM 3. Obviously we would have liked to see DOOM 3 in all regions but nonetheless some pack-ins are better than none at all.