Friday, July 17th 2009

Zotac Beefs-Up GeForce GTX 200 with 15 Phase VRM Design

Armed with a creative engineering department, Zotac is in the news for innovating a new graphics card PCB design every now and then. For NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 200 series alone, the firm developed several performance and value oriented PCB designs. It decided to up the ante with a new single-GPU PCB design that is compatible with all GTX 200 series GPUs from NVIDIA, and is out with a GeForce GTX 260-based model out for the Chinese market. The new PCB focuses on strong power circuitry that allow high stability for overclocking. The 12-layered PCB is jam-packed with high-grade power circuitry, which ensures the GeForce GTX 260 GPU runs at 800 MHz out of the box, with even more overclocking headroom to spare.

To begin with, the vGPU portion consists of a lavish 12-phase digital PWM circuit with Renesas LFPAK MOSFETs, BL high-capacity PWM chokes, and Panasonic SP-CAP, flatbed capacitors and a dedicated VRM controller. The vMem portion has a 3-phase power circuit that uses the same kinds of components as the vGPU, and has its own VRM controller. The PCB draws auxiliary power from PCI-E 8 + 6 pin connectors. It holds place for two more memory chips indicating that the same PCB could be used for a GeForce GTX 285 based SKU in the future. On the outputs front, a DVI-D, HDMI, and D-Sub make for the card's connectivity. The new Zotac GeForce GTX 260 model will be cooled by an Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme GTX cooler. It is made exclusive for the Chinese market, with a price of RMB 1399 (US $205). Technical data from its electical-testing can be viewed here.
Source: Expreview
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26 Comments on Zotac Beefs-Up GeForce GTX 200 with 15 Phase VRM Design

#1
ShadowFold
Looks pretty extreme. Why don't they make huge cards like these normally? I certainly don't care, I have too much room in my case :p
Posted on Reply
#2
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
That card looks sexy! I really want to see what it can do with a GTX285 or GTX275 core.

Odd choice on outputs though, why put a VGA port on such a high end card?
Posted on Reply
#3
Kitkat
newtekie1That card looks sexy! I really want to see what it can do with a GTX285 or GTX275 core.

Odd choice on outputs though, why put a VGA port on such a high end card?
dont worry they have enough time to slap an ugly cooler on it. lol
Posted on Reply
#4
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Kitkatdont worry they have enough time to slap an ugly cooler on it. lol
AC Accelero Extreme GTX is subjectively not ugly.
Posted on Reply
#5
MoonPig
Wow, can't wait for benchmarks...

China only though?
Posted on Reply
#6
werez
we can add an ugly one :))
Posted on Reply
#7
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Yes, China only. Time to make friends with the Chinese if you want one.
Posted on Reply
#8
1Kurgan1
The Knife in your Back
Looks like a very nice PCB.
Posted on Reply
#9
EarlZ
I wonder if they can produce a 900-950Mhz core GTX285
Posted on Reply
#10
alexp999
Staff
What they do, go oh bollocks we've run out of PCB space? :roll:
Posted on Reply
#11
tastegw
EarlZI wonder if they can produce a 900-950Mhz core GTX285
that would be a really nice card!
Posted on Reply
#13
jamesrt2004
Bjorn_Of_Icelandso can this go 1.101 ghz? ^^
nah the 1.1 ghz was hipro's and he did 7 diff mods to it which is insane to get that, not just add stuff for voltage stability ;)
Posted on Reply
#14
ZoneDymo
I really do not get it.
High end stuff and they make it a GTX260, with an 8-pin + 6-pin???

Why not an GTX285, and slap 2gb of ram on it while your at it.
Posted on Reply
#15
PP Mguire
Look at the board. Its physically ready for the higher end chips. They just have to make the cards.
Posted on Reply
#16
largon
15+3 Phase VRM Design
It's 12 for vGPU and 2+1 for memory. Total 15 phases, not 18.
Posted on Reply
#17
1nvisible
ehh, this will be a relic soon, 300GT anyone ?
Posted on Reply
#18
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
1nvisibleehh, this will be a relic soon, 300GT anyone ?
Yes! 300GT

Posted on Reply
#20
CyberDruid
Zotac makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when they do stuff like this.
Posted on Reply
#21
Salsoolo
exclusive for the chinese market? why?
Posted on Reply
#22
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
Salsooloexclusive for the chinese market? why?
Because we chinese people are made of win :toast::toast:
Posted on Reply
#23
qwerty_lesh
I agree whole heartedly with FreedomEclipse
(as long as he'll ship a 285 of these babies my way :p)


:laugh:
Posted on Reply
#24
OnBoard
That's so ugly it looks good :D And yes, I'd want one. Well I'd need just the PCB I have the rest. I mean 'how hard can it be' to solder my core and memory there :p
Posted on Reply
#25
wolf
Better Than Native
800mhz out of the box hey..... :wtf:

its a pity we didnt see this design sooner, the greatest non reference cards all seem too little too late. (eg this card, GTX260 lightning...)
Posted on Reply
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