Friday, November 19th 2010
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Colorful Designs Single-Slot ''Ultra Slim'' GeForce GTS 450 Graphics Card
Colorful, the brains behind the iGame series of fully-loaded performance-thru-mainstream graphics cards is continuing to let its creativity fly. This time around, the company is working on a new GeForce GTS 450 graphics card that's "slim" in more ways than one. To begin with, the card will feature a single-slot cooling solution, next, the designers completely did away with "big" and redundant components on the PCB, and replaced them with higher-grade yet compact and less in number components. For example, while most other graphics card vendors fill up the 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory bus of the GeForce GTS 450 with eight 1 Gbit (128 MB) chips, with two chips sharing a 32-bit wide path, Colorful used just four higher-density memory chips. That's four 2 Gbit (256 MB) memory chips made by Hynix to achieve the same capacity, reducing board footprint, and possibly heat and energy draw.
All cylindrical capacitors are replaced by server-grade flatbed high-C POSCAP capacitors. The card uses a simple 3+1 phase VRM, driven by an ON-Semi made controller. The chokes used don't exactly sit on the PCB, rather, they're suspended in openings of the PCB, by their leads, this improves ventilation around the chokes, and reduces the size of the chokes on the obverse side, reducing the obstruction caused to the cooler. The PCB itself is well "ventilated". All free-space on the PCB is used to carve out vents for the cooler to draw in air from. Colorful did not mention when tentatively it plans to release this product.
All cylindrical capacitors are replaced by server-grade flatbed high-C POSCAP capacitors. The card uses a simple 3+1 phase VRM, driven by an ON-Semi made controller. The chokes used don't exactly sit on the PCB, rather, they're suspended in openings of the PCB, by their leads, this improves ventilation around the chokes, and reduces the size of the chokes on the obverse side, reducing the obstruction caused to the cooler. The PCB itself is well "ventilated". All free-space on the PCB is used to carve out vents for the cooler to draw in air from. Colorful did not mention when tentatively it plans to release this product.
23 Comments on Colorful Designs Single-Slot ''Ultra Slim'' GeForce GTS 450 Graphics Card
i doubt it will be good at overclocking with 1slot cooler
Besides, it's a GTS 450, who cares? Do this on a decent card and it might make a difference.
Nice Idea though, just what I need for a mini media rig.
Maybe some of you don't notice, the back of the card is just as important to cool as the front of the card. This vented PCB might be an answer to it
I would buy a single slot one if nvidia backed it lol
colorful really stepped up though, they usually don't do quality like that
This is something truely impressive. Instead of just trying to slap on bigger coolers they're acutally doing something that would differentiate this 450 from other 450s..
It'd be a lot better if they were just holes though. The structural integrity part could be dealt with easily by the means of a strengthening plate, though that would understandably increase the cost of the card. But yeah. Its nice to see a GPU manufacturer realise that heat rises.
Although i damn them as i keep wanting to type colourful not colorful.... or should i damn myself for being a brit :laugh:
( I don't think you've had hot chokes either, typically they are not a cooled component see this board for example www.techpowerup.com/img/08-09-18/02.jpg mosfets have heat-sinks, chokes don't ( the heat-sinks are just above them)
Aside from that, common solder melts at about 190 c, if anything on the card got that hot who would care about chokes, your card is probably going to burst into flames :laugh:
*edit
Are those grey R30 Ferrite mounted in PCB holes - flying - only held by the solder points?
I don't know any R30 which have less then 5 mm height so I' m only more interested in the cooling solution ^^
/edit
Nice Design, I wonder what they will do to the cooling system?
My single slot try for a little gaming/TV box was a GTS450 with "old Single Slot Card cooling system from 9000er series + friction saw + thermal compounds(for the RAM)".
It's working, but not that cool that I want it :laugh: