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Geforce GTX 260 55nm First Look

@ 2008/12/05

Not all the manufacturers are capable of producing VGA cards like GeForce GTX260 of such complicated structure. Most of them tend to purchase reference cards by NVIDIA, and then put on labels of their own logo. However, friends from Zotac claims they have been prepared to manufacture the latest version of GeForce GTX260 on their own, and send us the pictures below to prove their saying. Except for the PCB is changed to be blue color, we don’t find any difference on it from reference card. So I am going to introduce them together.

Based on brand-new P654 reference design, the latest version of GeForce GTX260 Graphic Card utilizes 26.5CM PCB. All the 14 video memories are put on the front side of PCB, with 10 layers of PCB design. Previous P651 PCB shared by GeForce GTX260/280 was 14 layers. Previous version of GTX260’s features 3+2 phase power module (The 3 CSP sealed Volterra VT1195SF MULTIPHASE chip would be most eye-catching).

Updated GeForce 260GTX continues to use all-in-one cooler by CoolerMaster, in order to cool the chip, video memory and power module effectively. The cooler is equipped with four copper heat sinks and 80mm concave turbofan with temperature controller. The heat sinks and fins are connected together by jointing. Due to the change of circuit, design of cooler has been adjusted accordingly.

More info @

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/12/07

Not too hard to make... they simply designed those parts to be sold for $400/$600 and had ATI crash their party.

Comment from thorgal @ 2008/12/06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kougar

Price cuts > cost to afford new cooler or block? Is more than slightly annoying, and don't expect much in the way of price cuts.

Well, it is said that nVidia earns almost nothing on the 260/280 range, they're simply too hard to make. So I guess they try to cut corners here. This moves gives room to price decreases if they think them necessary, but indeed, I don't expect them anytime soon either

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/12/06

Price cuts > cost to afford new cooler or block? Is more than slightly annoying, and don't expect much in the way of price cuts.

Didn't know they decreased the layer count, will wait to hear if they cut any more corners, seeing as they still removed power circuitry from the 260 model. Mine still squeals badly if I play Crysis on it.

Comment from thorgal @ 2008/12/05

with the move from 14 to 10 layer pcb's these card should be much much cheaper to produce, thus opening a window for some serious price cuts.

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/12/05

Change in memory breaks compatibility with all aftermarket coolers or waterblocks...

Can still see where power components are removed on the newer card.

Comment from jmke @ 2008/12/05

great, now we have
GTX 260
GTX 260 216
GTX 260²

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