BFG 8800GT OCX & 9600GT OCX Video Card Review

Conclusion

In the past BFG has only kept the best of the best in terms of overclocked performance for their OCX line and with these two cards reviewed here today we see that tradition continuing into the current generation. Both the 9600GT OCX and the 8800GT OCX offer up some very, very impressive performance numbers which are fully backed up by BFG’s lifetime warranty. Let’s be honest though; these cards are not for those of you who usually overclock your graphics card yourself. Rather, they are geared towards consumers who want the best possible performance straight out of the box without having to worry about voiding their warranty by overclocking or installing an aftermarket heatsink. In this area, the new OCX Thermointelligence cards rack up some serious points in their favor since they perfectly fit into the niche they were meant to be released into.

I can’t remember the last time I was seriously wowed by the performance of an overclocked video card since usually pre-overclocked versions are not pushed far enough to eke out much of a real-world performance increase. However, BFG overclocked their OCX cards far enough that there are some tangible framerate benefits in every game we tested. It was quite amazing to see the 8800GT OCX push past the 9800GTX on a few occasions and completely wipe the floor with the 8800GTS 512MB. The 9600GT OCX didn’t receive the wows that its big brother did but it still put forth some very respectable benchmark numbers.

Unfortunately, performance aside these cards just seem to be too little too late and priced far too high for their own good. For the price of (and in some cases less than) the 9600GT OCX you can buy a mildly overclocked 8800GT which will walk all over the heavily overclocked 9600 in terms of performance. The 8800GT OCX is in the same boat since with a retail price of around $210, it costs the same as the newly-rebated 9800GTX and in many cases can’t match the GTX’s performance numbers. If this was a few months ago we would have been raving about the numbers both OCX cards put up but as it stands now, unless they get a serious price reduction they may end uup being nothing more than also-rans. Hopefully, in the future BFG will release their Thermointelligence products closer to the release date of the cards they are based on.

When you take a step back and look at these two cards it is obvious that they were built for performance but their release is a bit too late in the game to make much of a difference considering their price. However, if their price gets cut by a good 25% it's game on folks. The Thermointelligence cooler does wonders for temperatures and is extremely quiet as well while BFG’s Lifetime Warranty is second to none. So, there really isn’t much not to like about the 8800GT OCX and 9600GT OCX…other than their price.


Pros:

- Very good performance
- Quiet
- Excellent cooling
- Lifetime Warranty
- Trade-Up program


Cons:

- Price versus performance
- Did we mention price?