Gainward
Encyclopedia
Gainward is a computer hardware
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...

 company which produces video card
Video card
A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors...

s. Their graphic cards used to be exclusively based on Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...

 chipsets; however, the company also announced ATI-based graphics solutions after the successful launch of ATI 4800-series hardware, although Gainward does not currently produce any cards from the ATI Radeon
Radeon
Radeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...

 range. Gainward products are famous for their overclockability . The company has also released cards that deviate from the reference specifications set forth by Nvidia.

Gainward is well-known for their Golden Sample range of graphics cards. These cards are overclocked past their stock speeds and tested before they are sold, to ensure quality for customers. Current examples of Golden Sample cards are; Nvidia GTS 450, GTX 460 and GTX 470. At one stage Golden Sample cards came with a game voucher that let the customer choose one game as an online download. Current cards come prepackaged with a game.

There was a gap in which the company did not produce any new products, but resumed manufacturing with the Nvidia 8800 GTS series which brought them back up to date with other companies such as Gigabyte
Gigabyte Technology
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of computer hardware products best known for its motherboards. The company is publicly held and traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange .-Company:...

 and PNY Technologies
PNY Technologies
PNY Technologies, Inc is a manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, solid state drives, memory upgrade modules, as well as consumer and professional graphics cards...

.

Video Card Lines

Known series of Gainward video boards utilizing Nvidia GPUs include CARDEXpert (RIVA 128
RIVA 128
Released in late 1997 by Nvidia, the RIVA 128, or "NV3", was one of the first consumer graphics processing units to integrate 3D acceleration in addition to traditional 2D and video acceleration...

 through GeForce 2), PowerPack! (GeForce 3 through GeForce 6
GeForce 6 Series
The GeForce 6 Series is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support .-GeForce 6 Series features:-SLI:The Scalable Link...

), and BLISS (GeForce 7
GeForce 7 Series
The GeForce 7 Series is the seventh generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units.-Features:The following features are common to all models in the GeForce 7 series except the GeForce 7100, which lacks GCAA:-GeForce 7100 Series:...

 through GeForce 9
GeForce 9 Series
The GeForce 9 Series is the ninth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce series of graphics processing units, the first of which was released on February 21, 2008.-Geforce 9300GE :*65nm G98 GPU*PCI-E x16*64 Bit Bus Width*4 ROP, 8 Unified Shaders...

).
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