Conclusion

Gainward GTX 470 Golden Sample is the first nonreference GTX 470 we received and it did pretty well on our tests. The card comes preoverclocked to 650MHz for the GPU and 850MHz for the memory, which isn’t a radical change from the reference clocks (607MHz GPU, 837MHz memory), but it’s enough for the card to score up to 5% better than the reference card.

One of the points where Gainward’s Golden Sample takes the cake compared to the reference card is the cooling. Gainward’s GTX 470 GS comes with a more efficient cooling solution which is good enough to cool the GPU overclocked to 800MHz, which was our maximum overclock.

Superior cooling almost always spelss nice overclocking potential, but the cooling isn’t much quieter than the reference cooling in auto mode. This, however, doesn’t mean that the noise is unbearable but rather that you’ll hear it when sitting next to the computer. Thankfully, the Gainward Golden Sample’s GPU ran about 6°C cooler, so you can always sacrifice some thermals to get some more silence.

Gainward GTX 470 Golden Sample’s pricing isn’t fixed yet, but we were told it should be priced some €15 to €20 more than reference GTX 470 cards.

So let’s recap – nice overclocking potential, superior cooling and a better set of video outs than on the reference card are the main things that make Gainward’s GTX 470 Golden Sample stand out of the crowd. If you’re looking to buy a GTX 470, you might want to wait for Gainward’s GTX 470 Golden Sample, and if the pricing is indeed €15 to €20 more, you won’t regret the wait.