Packaging

The Card

Gigabyte's WindForce OC uses an all-plastic design for both cooler and backplate. I like how the front cooler wraps around the card to give a more industrial look and feel. The plastic backplate has a small cutout to allow for some airflow through the card.


Dimensions of the card are 19.5 x 12.0 cm, and it weighs 512 g.


Installation requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity includes three standard DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1a (same as Ampere).

The new 8th Gen NVENC now accelerates AV1 encoding, besides HEVC. You also get an "optical flow accelerator" unit that is able to calculate intermediate frames for videos, to smooth playback. The same hardware unit is used for frame generation in DLSS 3.


Gigabyte opted for a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, this configuration is good for up to 225 W.

Teardown

Gigabyte's thermal solution uses a single double-length heatpipe. The main heatsink also provides cooling for the memory chips and VRM circuitry.


The backplate is made of plastic and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.