14 DAY TRIAL // Little did we know about the new kid on the block Zotac until it has revealed the world's first DisplayPort enabled GeForce 8800GT. The company has decided to stick to its previous success and has just announced an overclocked version of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512, called the AMP.
The AMP! is the company's mark for their factory-overclocked video cards. The new model has the same specifications as the original 8800 GTS version, but some of its settings have been slightly adjusted. The small D8P/G92 GPU has been taken to a new speed of 700MHz (650 MHz stock speed). The memory clock has been slightly increased to 1948 MHz (1944 MHz effective clock), while the shader now features a clock speed of 1728 MHz (from an initial value of 1625 MHz).
The other specifications are identical to the stock version of the video card: 128 Stream Processors, 512MB GDDR3 memory, PCI-Express 2.0, DirectX 10 support, and the dual-slot stock cooler with "proprietary" sticker. The new specifications set makes everything faster and better for the games to arrive during the year.
Although the adjustments are not extremely spectacular (small differences between the original and the overclocked version), Zotac is the first to push the D8P/G92 GPU to the 700MHz edge. Moreover, the advantage of buying an already overclocked video card is obvious, as the card is warranty-covered.
Unlike the home-brewed video cards that void their warranty when overclocked, the AMP!-ed version can be replaced at any time should anything go wrong. Of course, the personal thrill is proportionally diminished.
The AMP!-ed version scores better than the Geforce 8800GTX in the 3DMark 06 test. It is scheduled to hit the retailers' shelves until the end of the month at a suggested selling price of $259.