Zotac Uses High-End PCB Design for new GeForce GTX 260 Accelerator

btarunr · May 16, 2009

Having tried its hand in several PCB designs for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 200 series, Zotac created itself enough room to come up with new SKUs at will. The company is using a recently-designed 10-layer PCB it used for a high-end GeForce GTX 285 accelerator featuring Arctic Cooling Accelero Extreme cooler, to design a new GeForce GTX 260 model (GTX260-896D3) with essentially the same design, except for a change: While the GTX 285 card featured 0.77 ns GDDR3 memory chips made by Hynix, this one uses 1.0 ns chips by Samsung.

The card retains the 6+3 phase power circuitry, the Accelero Extreme cooler, and standard features for the GeForce GTX 260: 216 shader processors, 896 MB of GDDR3 memory across a 448-bit interface, support for 3-way SLI, CUDA and PhysX. It will use reference NVIDIA clock speeds of 574/999 MHz (core/memory). Backed by a 3-year warranty, this card will hit stores in China at a price of 1299 RMB (US $190).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

ShadowFold · May 16, 2009

That's a VERY nice looking board! Very clean! Zotac just got a +1 in my book!

a_ump · May 16, 2009

it is very nice, and well layed out. however besides looks does this have any benefit at all over other GTX 260's besides it's bombin lookin heatsink/fan?

soryuuha · May 16, 2009

That means previously Zotac GTX260 use low-end pcb design?

laszlo · May 16, 2009

again a 3 fan hovering card...

theorw · May 16, 2009

a_ump said:
it is very nice, and well layed out. however besides looks does this have any benefit at all over other GTX 260's besides it's bombin lookin heatsink/fan?

Most likely it will OC much better!!!

HalfAHertz · May 16, 2009

The PCB will probably be more expensive, due to the fact that it's a 10 layer one. Still it could be cheaper in the long run for them because now they can use 1 PCB for the entire GT200 series. (see the two unused memory slots on the ring bus in the second pic. )

h3llb3nd4 · May 16, 2009

Nice

but what's that chip near the backplate?

btarunr · May 16, 2009

h3llb3nd4 said:
Nice
but what's that chip near the backplate?

In case you never ever noticed such a chip on GTX 200 series cards, it's the NVIO2 display processor. The GPU outsources its display IO functions to it, since it's already too big to cram in that part.

h3llb3nd4 · May 16, 2009

I've never really studied them...

HellasVagabond · May 16, 2009

I can't figure out why they focus their efforts on GTX260 and not higher models.

substance90 · May 16, 2009

Remind me again why do I need this? I play everything maxed out at 1920x1200 with my Radeon HD4850 512Mb.

LittleLizard · May 16, 2009

monster clocks anyone?

btarunr · May 16, 2009

HellasVagabond said:
I can't figure out why they focus their efforts on GTX260 and not higher models.

They already did.

tkpenalty · May 17, 2009

with that many phases, VRM cooling is pretty much an afterthought.

1c3d0g · May 17, 2009

substance90 said:
Remind me again why do I need this? I play everything maxed out at 1920x1200 with my Radeon HD4850 512Mb.

Because some of us don't play games with them (SETI@Home cruncher here since 1999). I also use Folding@Home (GPU edition) which needs ALL the muscle it can get. And, I know of friends who aren't satisfied with the performance of their graphics cards on a 30" 2560x1600 display with 4xAA/16AF and game settings cranked to the max.

Nemesis881 · May 17, 2009

HellasVagabond said:
I can't figure out why they focus their efforts on GTX260 and not higher models.

High end graphics cards only account for around 5-10% of total sales if I remember correctly. A bigger chunk goes to the lower end of the spectrum.

I love cards with more than one fan. Makes them look more beastly IMO. :rockout:

Hayder_Master · May 17, 2009

very nice cooler and it is good price too

lemonadesoda · May 17, 2009

Nicest GTX 260 I've seen so far. With the "overspec" on the power regulators, hopefully this card will not whine like some do.

Wile E · May 18, 2009

substance90 said:
Remind me again why do I need this? I play everything maxed out at 1920x1200 with my Radeon HD4850 512Mb.

Maybe older titles, but not things like GTA4, FEAR2, FC2, Crysis, etc., etc.

largon · May 19, 2009

tkpenalty said:
with that many phases, VRM cooling is pretty much an afterthought.

lemonadesoda said:
With the "overspec" on the power regulators, hopefully this card will not whine like some do.

One cannot deduct anything based on the amount of phases alone.
Infact, using several parallel phases allows the use of lower quality higher RDS(on) (=less efficient) and lower rated mosfets...

Besides, I doubt Zotac is doing anything else but increasing margins.

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Zotac Uses High-End PCB Design for new GeForce GTX 260 Accelerator

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