Gainward presents its proposal for the 7950GT platform. The NVIDIA® SLI™-Ready GeForce® 7950 GT graphics processing units (GPU´s) cranks up the graphics horsepower with a whopping 512MB memory and 550MHZ core. Power through games with exceptionally smooth frame rates in widescreen resolutions up to 2560x1600, and enjoy ultra fluid, high-definition video playback using advanced NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD technology. More is better.

The BLISS 7950GT 512MB comes with the logo "Golden Sample", indicating improved core/memory clocks over other manufacturers

"...Golden Sample products from Gainward offer a higher clock setting than reference-design boards. That is the heart and soul of Gainward's Golden Sample. With some products this is achieved by using higher performing components than on the reference design boards and on other products the higher performance is achieved by using software utilities..."

Currently, Gainward has three variations of the 7950GT series, with different core/memory clocks and memory size:

The fastest Gainward 7950GT card you can buy comes with 580MHz/1.5GHz clock speeds. For our tests, Gainward provided us with the "8149-BLISS 7950GT 512MB Golden Sample" model. The card can be found online at the retail price of €285~320. The retail box has a unique design and includes the "Golden Sample" logo:

The retail package is complete with printed manual, drivers and of course, cables:

To sum it up, the retail package includes:

• A 7950GT card
• A printed start manual (available in English/French/German/Italian)
• A warranty card with printed #SN (you can download free games from Gainward)
• 2x DVI-D to VGA converters
• A power to PCI-E cable
• A TV-out cable (HDTV support)
• Software CD with drivers
• Retail version of Muvee AutoProducer

Looking at the card, it is mid-sized, so will fit without many problems in an ATX box. It will occupy two of your free slots, due to its air cooling system. If you look carefully, you will see that the copper profile also covers the memory chips and improves overclocking capabilities.

The card needs a PCI-E power supply in order to operate. You need at least a 600W SLI certified PSU if you decide to go SLI.

The card has two DVI-D outputs and one TV-out output. The second free backport slot is used to exhaust any hot air generated by the card:

On the back, we can see the board design and a big metal plate that secures the whole air cooling system in place.

The memory is clocked at 750MHz, while the GPU at 580MHz. The Gainward 7950GT uses Samsung 1.2ns memory modules (DDR3), providing a total memory size of 512MB RAM. Hopefully, due to its cooling design, it would be a great overclocker. We will examine this later in our review.