A Closer Look

The Zotac thermal solution uses five heatpipes and a copper base for optimum heat transfer. You can also see the thermal pads that cool voltage regulation circuitry and memory chips.


Once the main cooler is removed, you see another smaller heatsink that cools additional voltage regulation circuitry.


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


Zotac has upgraded the power configuration of their card to dual 8-pins. This power input configuration is specified for up to 375 W of power draw.


On the back of the card is a large super capacitor that stores energy, ready to release it quickly when voltages drop. This measurably helps smooth out voltage spikes, but is of no real benefit to the user. It doesn't improve efficiency, overclocking, temperatures or anything else; it's shiny, though.


NVIDIA's Pascal is introducing a new voltage controller by uPI, the uP 9511P. Its exact feature set is currently unknown.


The GDDR5X memory chips are made by Micron and are marked with "D9TXS," which decodes to MT58K256M32JA-100. These are specified to run at 1250 MHz (10,000 MHz GDDR5X effective).


NVIDIA's GP104 graphics processor is the first consumer chip using the Pascal architecture. It is produced on a 16 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan, and has a transistor count of 7.1 billion and a die size of 314 mm².