Zotac has today announced the availability of what it claims is the fastest core clock speed for a graphics card straight out of the box. The GTX 280 AMP! Edition overclocks the NVIDIA GTX 280 card to top, are you ready for this, 700 MHz.

OK, so it adds about £30 ($60) to the cost of a standard GTX 280, but that is not bad when you work it to a 5 percent price increase for a 12 percent performance hike.

For a relative newcomer to the graphics market, Zotac certainly seems to be making something of a splash. Last year it stormed in with the then highest clocked performer, the 8800GT, and now this.

"Yet again Zotac has demonstrated its exceptional ability to design and engineer the fastest card on the market" claimed Carsten Berger, Marketing Director, Zotac, "Overclocking the GTX 280's core by almost 100 MHz is a fantastic achievement, but to then mass produce it and maintain a 5 year warranty is outstanding".

The full specs of the GTX 280 AMP! compared to the standard GTX 280 show a 98 MHz increase in core clock speed from 602 MHz, the processor clocks run at 1400 MHz instead of 1296 Mhz, and the memory clock speed increases from 2214 MHz to 2300 MHz.