What company first comes to mind when you think about NVIDIA video cards? Chances are you’re thinking of either BFG, XFX, or EVGA. In today’s review we’ll be taking a look at a video card from an enormous company whom, ironically, you may not be that familiar with, Foxconn.
Foxconn is one of the largest electronics and components manufacturers in the world. Chances are you own something Foxconn had a part in making. They produce Apple’s iPod and Mac Mini, Intel-branded motherboards, components for Dell, Hewlett Packard, and more... The reason Foxconn may not come to mind as a graphics card vendor is that they didn’t enter the market until March of last year. They started out with NVIDIA-based cards, and will possibly make ATI-based cards later.
Up on the review block from Foxconn is their 7950 GT OC ("Over-Clocking Version"). We’ll compare it with a non-overclocked Leadtek 7950 GT along with 6 other cards. While this isn’t a new video card, with NVIDIA’s high-end 8 series already having launched a while ago, the low-end and mid-range 8 series cards aren’t out yet so it may still be worth considering.
The Card / Bundle
When I saw Foxconn’s 7950 GT OC product packaging, I was impressed at the unique, perhaps bold, approach they took in terms of design. While most vendors have an aversion towards scantily clad virtual girls, Foxconn decided to get artsy...and I like it. The box has a slight texture to it and the graphics have all had a canvas filter of some sort applied to them, the result is really nice. While I’m talking about the box, I did notice one little gem on the back... Apparently the graphic design team was so busy making the box pretty that they forgot to edit the text placeholder "IMAGE CREDIT HERE" under the Extreme HD Gaming and HD Video with NVIDIA PureVideo illustrations. Oopsies! Enough about the box, though, it’s time to see what lies inside.
Inside the box you will find the video card, a user’s manual, two DVI to VGA adapters, a 4-pin molex to 6-pin aux. power Y adapter, HDTV adapter, driver CD, and a software CD containing RestoreIT 7 and VirtualDrive Pro 10. Oh and there’s one more thing: Foxconn is also bundling a gamepad with more buttons than you can shake a stick at, and a very nice rubberized surface. They even thought to put some foam washers around the joysticks for a little extra protection during shipping. From the presentation and quality of the whole package thus far, I’m very impressed.
Looking at the 7950 GT, we see the reference cooler with Foxconn’s graphics applied - standard fare here. We can see on the front side of the card that the heatsink covers all of the memory chips. On the front edge of the card there is a 6-pin auxiliary power connector. On the top edge of the card is our old pal Mr. Goldfingers, aka SLI connector. On the back edge of the card we see the HDTV-Out and two Dual-Link DVI ports. Flipping the card over we see there is no memory on that side; the only thing worth mentioning back there is the usual heatsink mounting screws.
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/377/Foxconn+7950+GT+OC+512MB+PCIE/
