CeBit 2003
Gainward:
Gainward's expo stand at CeBit strongly stands out among other companies. At the stand, there is neither hype nor loudly cheering showmen giving presents to those who give right answers to questions or throw namecards into the promptly placed box just at the right time - all is going on quietly and calmly, not a single showcase, no board, even no advertising leaflets. The inexperienced visitor might get the impression that the company is specializing at producing cardboard boxes.
But the first impression is misleading. Gainward prepared for CeBit a whole collection of novelties, but demonstrates them exclusively behind the closed doors and only to a limited circle of people. We were lucky to get inside of the cardboard bulwark and see what had been hidden from the sight of the commoner.
There were no surprises, or, more precisely almost no surprises were there. We'll tell you about the only product that really amazed us in the very end of this section. Now let's look into the main product items with which the company has become known on the Russian market - 3D accelerators built on nVidia chips.
Next month onwards there will be six cards built on three nVidia chips gradually coming over to the retail:
Two makes of the Gainward FX PowerPack! and Ultra/760 (XP è TV-DVI) boards are built on the nVidia GeForce FX 5600 GPU running at 275 MHz. Both the boards will be furnished with 128 MB DDR memory and support AGP8x. The key difference of XP from TV-DVI is that the latter features two DVI connectors, one TV-in and a pack for DVD play.
The two makes of the Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/780 - XP and XP "Golden Sample" are based on the same GeForce FX 5600 GPU, but with the clock speed increased to 350 MHz, feature guaranteed overclock, 128 MB of memory in the XP model and 256(!) MB in the XP "Golden Sample" model. Gainward asserts that these boards will be 15% faster than Ultra/760. The declared memory bandwidth is 12 GB/s versus 8 GB/s in Ultra/760, is shipped with a FireWire IEEE-1394 controller and a video processing software suite.
 The most productive solution is based on the quite rare nVidia GeForce FX 5800 chip. There are two boards - Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/800Plus and Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1000Plus in the line. They differ in the GPU operation speed: the former offers 400 MHz and the latter - 500 MHz, plus guaranteed overclocking specific of all the Gainward solutions. Both makes of the board are furnished with 128 MB of DDR-II memory, and the declared memory bandwidth of the Ultra/1000Plus is 16 GB/s versus 14 GB/s for Ultra/800Plus. The higher-end board comes bundled with a FireWire controller and video processing software suite.
Due to the great number of transistors and high frequency, all the latest nVidia solutions feature quite impressive heat emission. Similar problem is typical of Intel's and AMD's processors as well. In the regular PC, the cooling job is done by the fans which run the air through the ribbed fins made of aluminum and copper thus pushing the temperature down. Since recent time, some companies have used thermal tube solutions. Abit is certainly among the pioneers, and we have already published our coverage of the expo stand.
3DNews: At first glance, the cooler used in your top-end card looks very much alike to that used by Abit, but upon a closer look we can see that you are using thermal tubes. Why so?
Gainward: The thermal tube is good for chips offering lower heat emission. It's not as effective with hot solutions. This is a good means for cooling the notebook, but not a video card at all.
3DNews: That is, are you conservative in this sphere?
Gainward: Not in the least, - especially for the enthusiast we are soon presenting a water-cooling system
3DNews: Under your own trademark? How much is it going to cost?
Gainward: Yes, under our own trademark. For now, it's hard to tell anything regarding the price, but the approximate retail price is going to be around $150.
3DNews: That's good, but how soon is the product expected to arrive in Russia?
Gainward: Just after the start of the commercial production we promised to send product samples to our distributor in Russia. To be more specific, it is Atlantic Computers. It's better to find out with them how soon the sales will start.
3DNews: What are the remarkable features of your water-cooling system?
Gainward: It is designed for simultaneous cooling of all the three components - the graphic chip, the CPU and the chipset. Therefore, you can get rid of three main noisy coolers off the system and replace them with unified more effective water cooling.
3DNews: Will it run on all graphic boards or on your own only?
Gainward: We wouldn't like to promote competitors' produce. Basically, it's a matter of skilled hands. By the way, here is a prototype of the system. The commercial specimen will be more compacted and will fit easily inside a 5-inch compartment near the optical drive.
3DNews: Thank you for the interesting information. Looking forward to your system.
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