NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 – fast and hot
By: Anton Rachko, Vladimir Romanchenko
Leadtek 280GTX
The Leadtek 280GTX arrived in the OEM make, i.e. without a box. Externally, the new product looks like something intermediate between GeForce 9800GTX and GeForce 9800GX2. Both sides of the board are covered with a black housing made of plastic and metal.
The package bundle of the video card includes:
- a power supply adapter from two 6-pin power connectors to one -pin; (it's the first time we come across such a solution).
- a "regular" power supply adapter for PCI-Express video cards;
- DVI -> D-Sub adapter;
- s-video > s-video splitter + component out adapter;
- drivers CD;
- CD with the game Neverwinter Nights 2;
- user's guide;
The "dual" SLI connector that allows merging 3 video cards, and a connector to apply S/P-DIF sound signal are covered with black caps. We have already seen such a solution in GeForce 9800GX2, and that time an approach like that imparted the video card the look of a standalone device, something more than just a video card.
The new product is equipped with two 8- and 6-pin power connectors which have been left open.
On the reverse side, there is a 3-Way SLI connector. Configurations of two video cards enable only one of its subconnectors, whereas a dedicated SLI-bridge that enables the connector to the full is required for configurations of three video cards.
Leadtek GTX280 is equipped with two DVI and one S-video connectors. Near the S-video connector, there is a power indicator of the video card, which may be quite useful in case of issues with power supply, which we also came across. But we'll talk about that a bit later.
The cooling system comprises two parts, a radiator with a fan and a metal plate that rejects heat from memory chips from the reverse side of the board.
Leadtek GTX280 is very similar to the predecessor GeForce 8800GTX/Ultra. The graphic chip GT200, like G80, is equipped with a metal lid that prevents the chip from mechanical damages. The space for a metal frame around the GPU, the way it is in the predecessor, has been preserved , but the frame itself is missing. The number of memory chips has gone up to 16 which were made in parts of 8 pieces on each side of the board. The memory bus width has gone up to 512 bit.
Like in GeForce 8800GTX/Ultra, the developers at NVIDIA have used a discrete VIVO chip which is in fact a RAMDAC required to support analogous displays (D-sub, S-video). Such an approach was necessitated by the induction from the GPU shader unit, the way it is now. Interestingly, such an issue has been eliminated in G92. It is not clear why engineers at NVIDIA have not inherited the experience of designing the G92 chip over to the GT200 chip.
The GT200 chip is of impressive dimensions - the 1.5 bln transistors hidden under the metal lid make themselves felt. The chip is of revision A2.
The memory chips are made by Hynix. The nominal access time of the memory chips is 0.8 ns, which is equivalent to the clock speed 2400 MHz.
The cooling system is based on five heat pipes. Three of them distribute heat from the copper base over the aluminum fins which are blown by the fan to the right, the fourth one helping uniformly distribute heat, with the fifth one rejecting heat from the power supply subsystem over to the main radiator.
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