Sparkle GeForce 8800GT Cool-Pipe3 512MB
The day Guru3D cooked an egg with a VGA card.

Company: Sparkle
SKU: SF-PX88GT512D3-HP Cool-pipe 3
Price: 249 EUR
Info: Sparkle
Distribution: Dollarshops.eu

A couple of you guys probably already know that the good folks from Sparkle recently released a GeForce 8800 GT that is actually passively cooled. I think precisely one or two reviews where posted about this product where the reviews, pardon the euphemism, toasted the product.

Ever since that review our Sparkle representative asked us to do a review on the product. I repeatedly warned Sparkle up front that they probably would not like what I was going to write, because the reference cooled 8800 GT already runs insanely hot to 90 degrees C. Doing the cooling part passive would definitely make things even worse. Combine that with the rumored GPU core temperatures of 110 Degrees Celsius, and I pretty much stereotyped the product even before we had tested it. I should not have formed my opinion based on what was known on the web about this card.

With that said Sparkle still is not bothered by us reviewing the product, and well .. you have to respect a manufacturer that is balsy enough to send out a product that potentially will get flamed (another euphemism).

Interestingly enough the product isn't even half bad, as I found out during my tests ... sure there are a lot of factors that you'll need to weigh in before you even should opt to purchase this product. But hey, you are on Guru3D.com, we'll tell you all pro's and cons and what you can expect.

So let's get started with a little 101 on GeForce 8800 GT, check out the Sparkle bundle and then review it.

Before going to the next page .. you guys go check her out, and let me grab my fire-extinguisher: