BFG GeForce 9600 GT OCX w/ThermoIntelligence

BFG’s “OC” line of cards are already well known for their factory OC’ing. After all, BFG was the first manufacturer to offer factory OC’ed boards on their entire range of cards (both high-end and low-end), as well as offering a lifetime warranty program.

In more recent years though BFG’s OC cards have taken a backseat to some of the other factory OC’ed boards on the market when it comes to clock speeds – for a given GPU the clocks on BFG’s OC boards haven’t been nearly as high as some of the other cards on the market. Instead BFG has taken the same tiered approach to overclocking that is employed by other card manufacturers.

At the top of the lineup is BFG’s “OCX” cards. These boards boast the highest clock speeds BFG can muster, and sometimes ship with their sporty ThermoIntelligence coolers. If you recall, the last ThermoIntelligence board we reviewed -- BFG’s 8600 GT ThermoIntelligence -- took home our Editor’s Choice Award last year. Just below the OCX cards are their “OC2” boards. These cards are highly overclocked, but not quite as far as OCX cards. Usually OC2 boards stick with the stock NVIDIA reference cooling.

BFG’s “OC” cards are now their entry-level overclocked cards. Among their factory OC’ed cards, the OC boards ship with the mildest clocks BFG offers.


This brings us to BFG’s GeForce 9600 GT OCX with ThermoIntelligence. As an OCX card, it features the highest clocks BFG offers. And with its ThermoIntelligence cooling, it’s got the best cooling BFG offers as well. In a nutshell, this is their flagship GeForce 9600 GT offering.

Like the ASUS Silent card, BFG’s ThermoIntelligence cooler relies on heatpipe technology to cool the GPU. In particular, BFG employs two copper heatpipes which encircle the G94 GPU. The heatpipes are then nickel-plated so they match the rest of the ThermoIntelligence cooling.


Surrounding the heatpipes is an Orb-shaped aluminum heatsink. The heatsink is responsible for keeping the heatpipes cool, dispersing the heat off the heatpipes and into the air surrounding the graphics card. A fan which rests in the center of the cooler helps to accomplish this task.

According to BFG, their ThermoIntelligence cooler outperforms the stock NVIDIA reference design cooling unit by 18 degrees Celsius. We’ll be testing this figure out a little later in the performance testing section of this article. For added cooling performance, BFG also cools the memory modules and VRM circuitry with aluminum RAMsinks.

For added flair, BFG then finishes the ThermoIntelligence cooler off with a green LED.


So how far is the 9600 GT OCX ThermoIntelligence overclocked? How does 725MHz core/1950MHz (effective) memory sound? These clocks are 75MHz on the GPU and 150MHz faster on the memory.

BFG backs the card up with their lifetime warranty and the card is also eligible for their Trade Up program. Within 100 days of purchase, the 9600 GT OCX ThermoIntelligence can be traded up to a higher-end graphics card, with the card owner getting the full value for their original card purchase. The card owner only pays the difference in price.

Hardware accessories inside the ThermoIntelligence box include one DVI adapter, a component video cable, and power adapter.