A Closer Look

The big cooler uses two fans and a copper surface to maximize heat dissipation. I noticed a little issue that happens when you handle the card to install it in the slot (thumb on the back and four fingers on top of the metal fan shroud). In that case it is possible that you press down on the fan shroud too hard and it bends inward very slightly. When the card is installed in the system now this causes the fan blade to touch the metal making a screeching sound. It is easily fixed by bending the metal outward again, but on a perfect design it shouldn't happen. My recommendation for this card is to handle the card with its PCB only.


After removing the Zalman heatsink there is still the big one-piece metal heatsink left on the card that cools memory and voltage regulation circuitry.


Just like the NVIDIA reference design, the ZOTAC GTX 480 Amp! Edition requires a 6-pin and an 8-pin PCI-Express power connector.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Samsung, and carry the model number K4G10325FE-HC04. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


The CHiL CHL8266 supports voltage control via I2C and is well supported in most utilities.


NVIDIA's GeForce 100 graphics processor is made on a 40 nm process at TSMC Taiwan. It uses approximately 3.2 billion transistors which makes it the most complex GPU built to-date. Please note that the silvery metal surface you see is the heatspreader of the GPU which measures 42.3 x 42.3 mm. The actual GPU die is sitting under the heatspreader, its dimensions are not known. NVIDIA did not communicate a die size measurement to the press.