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Hardware OCZ Reenters Graphics Market
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - December 28, 2006 3:23 PM

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42 comment(s) - last by Tsuwamono.. on Dec 30 at 2:32 PM

...with OCZ GeForce 8800 GTX

OCZ Technology has reentered the graphics card market with its latest OCZ 8800 GTX. The new OCZ 8800 GTX arrives clocked at the stock 575 MHz core and 1800 MHz memory speeds. It’s equipped with 768MB of GDDR3 memory on a 384-bit memory interface. While the initial specifications sound like a run-of-the-mill GeForce 8800 GTX based card OCZ Technology has a few tricks up their sleeves.

Each OCZ 8800 GTX is equipped with premium GDDR3 memory. The memory is also additionally screened to give users greater overclocking headroom. OCZ Technology doesn’t mention how high the cards can overclock.

Nevertheless, OCZ Technology VP of Marketing and Communications, Alex Mei claims "By providing the best components, then hand screening them we can ensure the best hardware platform in which tweakers can start overclocking. This allows high end consumers to overclock to fit thier unqiue personal requirements."

Expect the OCZ 8800 GTX to hit the usual retailers tomorrow. Pricing is expected to be a little higher than competing GeForce 8800 GTX based cards.

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Looks like a nice card but..

By FITCamaro on 12/28/2006 3:45:50 PM , Rating: 4

Did they have to put the Fast and the Furious looking RX7 on the card?

RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By sviola on 12/28/2006 3:52:07 PM , Rating: 2

Altought this is good news, they could have kept the black pcb or even go for another color and could also have done something different on the hsf area.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Goty on 12/28/06, Rating: 0

RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By azander on 12/28/2006 4:11:02 PM , Rating: 3

Thanks for the feedback sviola. Right now we can offer consumers a little extra on teh memory side and the complete hand screening, but we are working on next gen cards that make use of our own coolers. We hope to continually add more value to this line.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By sviola on 12/28/2006 5:37:17 PM , Rating: 1

That's great. I enjoy OCZ products (have memo, psu and flash drive :D) for their quality and performance. And I think this board will be another great addition for the OCZ line-up.

I have one suggestion, tough, on the HSF, you guys could go with some proprietary design (maybe a tec+air or watercooling).

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Gannon on 12/28/06, Rating: 0

RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By clayclws on 12/28/2006 6:00:44 PM , Rating: 2

We would choose OCZ over XFX, BFG, ASUS, etc...because...???

Is the memory your single most important selling point?

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Gannon on 12/28/2006 6:53:52 PM , Rating: 1

They're trying to cash in on dumb gamers... and who can blame them?

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By feraltoad on 12/29/2006 1:25:33 AM , Rating: 2

Didn't you see where it said "hand screening"? Everyone will pay more for something that was hand silk screened, like that awesome green car. It's hot. Three words: your friends, jealous.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By DSolomon on 12/29/2006 1:39:22 AM , Rating: 2

How will you go about "hand screening" ... If you are pushing a lot of supply, there is no way you can hand screen these cards. That would involve setting up workstations to test these cards in and the man hours to test the cards capable limits would cost a lot of money.

I've been around the, "Hand Testing" tag before. It's impossible to do such a thing in mass quantities.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By nortexoid on 12/28/2006 3:53:43 PM , Rating: 5

Yes. It makes the card go faster.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Turbocharged VTEC on 12/28/2006 3:58:04 PM , Rating: 1

VTEC JUST KICKED IN, YO!!

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By RMSistight on 12/28/2006 4:10:48 PM , Rating: 3

VTECs are only on Hondas son.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Turbocharged VTEC on 12/28/2006 4:14:53 PM , Rating: 2

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/VTE...

quote:
Yes, you . VTEC engines occur in many makes of car, and not just Hondas and other Ricer runabouts either. Enthusiasts have been known to fit them into Fords, into Cadillacs, even into the odd mini or two, as they too wish to feel the full force of this meme, to know themselves exactly what it's like to realise VTEC JUST KICKED IN, YO!!

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By HammerZ on 12/28/2006 4:49:17 PM , Rating: 2

Sorry, a Wankel cannot have VTEC.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By TheFro on 12/28/2006 5:05:31 PM , Rating: 4

Variable valve timing may be in many makes of automobile now, but each car company has a different name for it. Honda calls their's VTEC, so only Hondas have VTEC. Toyota's is called VVT-I, BMW's is called VANOS, etc.

And yes, Wankel engines cannot have variable valve timing since they don't use any valves.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By WhiteBoyFunk on 12/28/2006 6:28:48 PM , Rating: 2

Fill in any other type of VVT in place of VTEC then :P Anyway that's not a replica of a rex7, it just resembles one.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By OAKside24 on 12/29/2006 11:19:23 AM , Rating: 2

Actually, that's no RX7. It's an even more embarassing no-namer someone probably rendered for a high school project. Nice OCZ.. Guess I could put some duct tape over it if need be, but that's graphic is horrendous.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By L33tMasta on 12/29/2006 2:21:59 PM , Rating: 2

If anything it looks more like an RX-8. RX 7s have flip up lights and more curves on the hood.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By azander on 12/28/2006 4:00:06 PM , Rating: 2

LOL, just in keeping with our racing theme for some of our other products... Rally, Roadster, Mini-Kart, etc.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By rushfan2006 on 12/28/2006 4:20:12 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Pricing is expected to be a little higher than competing GeForce 8800 GTX based cards.

Translation: MSRP is left nut, right lung and first born.

;)

No thanks I'll wait, until I don't have to get a mortgage to afford one.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Tsuwamono on 12/28/2006 6:45:36 PM , Rating: 2

ya really eh? 800$ is too much to spend on a card already. I doubt i would spend 900 so i can say mine is from OCZ

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By sviola on 12/29/2006 8:03:41 AM , Rating: 2

$800?

Most 8800gtx are selling around 580-620

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By rushfan2006 on 12/29/2006 8:47:22 AM , Rating: 2

I still got the guy's point..which holds true with me...even $500 is way more than I'm willing to spend on a Video card....and its just a personal thing too...because I actually in all seriousness have the money to afford one at that price too...it just doesn't compute as logical to me, just for a few scant months I can brag about how uber my video card is to others.

The prices change to fast...just doesn't make sense to blow a wad on something that in 4-6 months will be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By Tsuwamono on 12/30/2006 2:32:58 PM , Rating: 2

Canada they are 800$ for the XFX but there are some for as low as 600$

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By kuyaglen on 12/28/2006 6:41:48 PM , Rating: 2

I think they should of used an XTC themed heat sink design, couple that with a lifetime warrenty and these premium picked cards will find thier way into my box.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By PsYStuMmY on 12/28/2006 7:33:00 PM , Rating: 2

is there a lifetime warranty on these cards?? will overclocking it void the warranty? i would think it wouldn't void it since they are touting that it puts handpicked memory that supposedly overclocks well. it'd be retarded to say you can overclock the card, but then it'd violate the warranty.

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RE: Looks like a nice card but..

By crazydrummer4562 on 12/29/2006 3:23:13 AM , Rating: 2

Not an RX-7..but agreed about the lame art on it

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Re-enters?

By shabby on 12/28/2006 3:57:04 PM , Rating: 2

When did they leave... let alone enter the first time?

RE: Re-enters?

By noxipoo on 12/28/2006 4:00:49 PM , Rating: 2

is this the same company that made crappy ram years ago and then turned it around? or am i thinking of something else with overclockers as their name?

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RE: Re-enters?

By deeznuts on 12/28/2006 4:24:11 PM , Rating: 2

OCZ was mired in controversy a while back. I left the computer hobby area, came back and then OCZ was all the rage. Took me a while to trust them but they seem like a very good and reputable company now.

I remember some thread where someone showed alleged photos of their operations. They weren't flattering pics lol. But now I use their ram and they have some nice folks over at xtremesystems posting all the time.

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RE: Re-enters?

By Gannon on 12/28/2006 7:02:22 PM , Rating: 1

Oh yeah what was the controversy about more specifically?

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RE: Re-enters?

By Webgod on 12/29/2006 10:56:24 AM , Rating: 2

OCZ, the original company, started out as some guys selling Socket A Tbird CPU's that were tested to run at higher clock speeds. They did the pencil trick on the CPU bridges that unlocked the CPUs. They were sold at quite a discount from what the real AMD clocked CPU would be sold at. I made the mistake of buying an Athlon 1100 that was an unlocked 750. After many months it wouldn't stay at 1100 stably. I finally had to drop it to 750 MHz, and I paid like $315 for that CPU which is a lot in any case.

They've since been bought out and are basically a new/different company.

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RE: Re-enters?

By deeznuts on 12/29/2006 3:30:44 PM , Rating: 1

that and much more lol. they had a picture on their homepage of some huge looking professional building, and someone posted some alleged pictures of their "lab" and it was a disheveled mess which looked like the backroom of a white box store.

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RE: Re-enters?

By azander on 12/28/2006 4:06:07 PM , Rating: 2

Ancient history by industry standards.. OCZ actually started out as an enthusiast cooler and GPU company years ago, I know most people know us for our memory now. Some will remember the OCZ Titan 3 five years ago, one of our top sellers at the time.

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2001q4/ocztitan3...

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/reviews/vide...

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RE: Re-enters?

By FITCamaro on 12/28/2006 6:06:57 PM , Rating: 2

I've got 2GB of your DDR2-800 in my desktop. Only running it at DDR2-667 though to keep it in line with my FSB but at extremely tight timings. Is a good quality product.

Feel free to send me one of those bad boys as a token of your appreciation for my praise (yes the ricer mazda can stay on it).

:)

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RE: Re-enters?

By DSolomon on 12/28/2006 10:12:20 PM , Rating: 2

azander,

The Titan 3 didn't take off due to problems with management not allowing us to spend that kind of money securing cards. Plus sparkle wouldn't sell us the cards without any heatsinks so pulling them off to replace with Blue Orb's wasn't jiving either. Ryan tried, but we managed to get only a handfull of cards.

I was in charge of the manual, box art... Kinda ironic how the car theme is still going strong with the OCZ though. (Still have the box for the Titan 3 somewhere! Heh)

:-)

Regards,
Dan Solomon Jr.
3DChipset.com

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Premium Memory Huh?

By pauldovi on 12/28/2006 6:03:27 PM , Rating: 4

Does the "Premium Memory" come from the same factory as the ASUS Striker Extreme?

I am sorry, but the only thing different about OCZ, ASUS, EVGA, XFX, and BFG video cards is:

1. The picture on the heatsink.
2. The price
3. The warranty
4. The Name

I only care about #2 and #3.

I am more interested in a "Premium Warranty" and an "Aggressive Price tag" than some rebranded memory.

RE: Premium Memory Huh?

By cochy on 12/28/2006 6:23:15 PM , Rating: 2

Definitely correct for this model. However they did mention that they will be doing something more proprietary for a follow-up model. I guess for this one they are banking on brand loyalty for sales. Obviously they won't mention that as their selling point, so they go with the uber-obscure "hand picked" stuff...let's see something Innovative guys!

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RE: Premium Memory Huh?

By Gannon on 12/28/2006 6:59:14 PM , Rating: 1

It's cheaper for them just to lie and make a profit like most companies do... "Sell the sizzle".

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better now

By FightingChance on 12/28/2006 4:30:08 PM , Rating: 2

If I recall correctly, OCZ was a little sketchy back in the day but since a few years ago have been able to stand side by side with other major RAM makers/resellers in quality.

This card reminds me a little bit of the Crucial 9x00 series of ATI cards, except I was disappointed then to learn that they did not offer any kind of better or special RAM on the card itself, them being a memory company I expected they would leverage their strength there.

This card is attractive enough, true I would like to see other HSF designs. The 'race car' is a little generic, something I'd expect to see from Gainward or one of the other big asian resellers. The 'OCZ' script would look better there, just no camouflage please.

Might buy

By afkrotch on 12/30/2006 9:40:05 AM , Rating: 2

I'd have to see reviews of the card to see if it's worth the premium.

I will say, OCZ can usually take the same product and make it better. I mean, they make one of the best memory for desktops on the market, right there alongside Corsair. Needless to say, everyone else is using the Micron D9 chips.