Introduction
Foxconn let slip that they were entering the graphics card market earlier this year, and Computex saw us get the first up-close looks at their offerings, all based around NVIDIA reference SKUs. Foxconn didn't seem to want to do much with the base products at that time, sticking to regular coolers and the product brochures not mentioning much in the way of value-add extras, games bundles or the like.While it's perfectly fine to just give the consumer the board and little else, since a large bunch of the market loves that approach, but there are a dozen other AIB partners for both major IHVs that do just that, catering to a market that doesn't care about frills. So while it would likely be quite easy for Foxconn to step in and do well in that kind of space, simply because of their enormous size, purchasing power and influence, yours truly wondered if they'd forego that for an attempt at something special.
We mooted the idea of special signature boards bearing the Foxconn logo to the VGA product manager earlier in the year, wondering if they were going to go down that road, and the response was pretty much just wait and see. So wait and see we have, patiently twiddling pixels for months until Hon Hai Precision Industry's trade arm got some life and started shipping its first graphics boards.
And then it happened, Mr. Delivery Man showing up with the first graphics card to carry a Foxconn logo. An example of the recently released NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT, we wondered if Foxconn would do something special. And then we opened the box. Read on to see what was inside.
