BFG 8800GT OCX & 9600GT OCX Video Card Review

Temperature Testing

While we saw that the performance of both the 8800GT OCX and the 9600GT OCX was extremely good, the temperature readings were phenomenal. As you can see, BFG made an extremely good choice by choosing this particular cooler for their Thermointelligence cards since it keeps even the rampaging heat of the overclocked cores under control. Gone are the days where we saw 8800GT cards hitting nearly 90°C under load.

Acoustical Properties

Even though the fans on these cards are rated to spin up to 3000RPM, both cards stayed blissfully silent throughout testing. What is even more incredible is the fact that the new Thermointelligence cooler is able to offer excellent cooling performance while emitting next to no noise. Without a doubt, BFG chose well when picking the Zerotherm GX815 for their OCX cards.

All in all, we were extremely happy with the low noise the fans produced on these cards but the 9600GT OCX presented us with an acoustical problem altogether different from anything we have experienced in the past. Many cards these days produce a muted “hiss” when being used in a 3D application which is attributed to either the VRMs or other power management components. Unfortunately, not only did the 9600GT OCX produce a very high-pitched whine when at idle but the noise produced by the components on the card itself when it was under load drowned out every fan on the test rig. I wish I could tell you where this noise was coming from but upon trying to get a bit closer to the card to listen, I nearly lost an ear to the spinning blades of the cooler. However, we were told that this affects only a small percentage of the 9600GT cards and indeed, a friend who just bought the 9600GT OCX does not have this issue.

Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 1 hour to determine the peak power consumption while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 30 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption.


Naturally, due to their overclocked cores and memory, both OCX cards consume quite a bit more power than their stock-clocked brethren. Neither of these cards is what you would call frugal when it comes to power consumption but then again if you are going for the best of the best you don’t really care about a few watts more or less now do you?