Overclocked GeForce 8800 roundup

The major advantage of factory overclocked parts is that they guarantee higher performance than the stock hardware. The advantage to the end user is that there is no tweaking necessary and there is no possibility that the card won't run at the advertised speed -- if instabilities do occur, you can send a card back for a replacement. Of course, manufacturers can take advantage of this and charge a premium for factory overclocked hardware. Among the questions we would like to answer today are: who makes the fastest 8800 available, and who provides the most value per dollar in overclocked 8800 series hardware?

Our roundup features four different manufacturers that currently provide factory overclocked parts. While we sent out requests for cards to various manufacturers, only four responded and two of these provided both GTX and 640MB GTS hardware. Overclocked 320MB GTS cards have also come out, but we are planning a separate roundup for these (both factory overclocked and stock) in the near future.