"Alive" copyright Meat Loaf from Bat Out Of Hell III, used with permission

Conclusion

The Foxconn Geforce 8800GTS 320Mb Overclocked Edition (which sounds so much better than FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC, Foxconn take note!) is one of those products which is a lot of fun to test. Before we talk about why let’s take a moment to look at the whole package. Foxconn take quite a different approach to many other manufacturers, instead of a bundled game we find two pieces of software included in this package and whilst they are definitely “love them” or “hate them” items it is with the inclusion of the USB joypad that Foxconn have made a great decision. It’s the type of item that we are sure many PC gamers never get round to purchasing however it is capable of really improving how many games play on the PC.

The card itself through following the reference design on a hardware level is solidly built, however the use of a more attractively coloured PCB would have been nice to see. The enhanced clocks are beneficial and help to make the card an even more attractive purchase.

Going back to our point of the card being fun to test, the reason for this is that we get so many products passed through our labs which are the “fastest available” that it’s nice to see something which doesn't cost a small fortune come to market with a very high level of performance, sometimes it can be hard spending weeks reviewing a product that we know only a small percentage of users will ever be able to afford. Given that the card retails for £225/$309 the fact that we were able to run games up to 1920x1200 resolution and on occasion with 4xAA and 16xAF is a great achievement and we are sure it won't disappoint those enthusiasts who like using capable hardware without spending a fortune in the process.

Summary

Foxconn have released a card which is well built and quiet running in addition to being a great mix of price and performance. With the added extra of a high quality usb joypad to sweeten the deal the FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC really stands out from the majority of 8800GTS 320Mb cards on the market.

What do these awards mean?

This card is available from SCAN in the UK for £225 and NewEgg in the USA for $309