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Review: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480 AMP! - Fermi done properly

by Tarinder Sandhu on 4 June 2010, 08:01 4.0

Tags: ZOTAC

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How to make an effective GeForce GTX 480



Doesn't look much like a GeForce GTX 480, does it? Out goes the frame-based heatsink and in comes a ZOTAC-coloured VF3000N from Zalman.

Designed for the GeForce GTX 260 through to GTX 285, ZOTAC is putting a lot of faith in Zalman's cooling ability. The 430g heatsink features a copper core, five copper heatpipes, and a card-wide array of aluminium fins that are cooled by two 92mm fans, spinning between 1,300rpm and 2,500rpm.




The big-ass cooling takes over much of the card, and the twin fans push air down through the fins and on to the PCB-mounted heatsinks. A side-on shot shows that GTX 480 cooling is a two-stage affair, as a three-quarter-sized heatsink surrounds the GPU and cools the memory chips and other hot-running components.


Attached to the PCB solely by four screws that keep the copper base in contact with the core, the heatsink feels a little fiddly at the edges, but the VF3000N's central section gives you a means by which to handle the card.

Putting the cooling to good use, ZOTAC increases shipping frequencies from 700MHz/3,698MHz for core/memory to 756MHz/3,800MHz, with the promise of more to come.



The PCB is no different from the reference card's, however, so it's a case of ZOTAC being provided heatsink-less boards, qualifying them, and then attaching the Zalman monster on top.



Rear outputs are just the same as you-know-what, bringing twin dual-link DVI and a mini-HDMI port. The huge Zalman heatsink will end up taking three expansion slots, by the way.

One side-effect of having a non-standard cooler is that, in a Corsair 700D chassis, more hot air is exhausted by the case's fan than through the vents on the back of the card. Tip-top chassis cooling is a must if the Zalman heatsink is to work well.



Bundle-wise, it's pretty generic. Most NVIDIA partners, if not all, are bundling the free-to-download SuperSled and Design Garage apps. A triple-A game is conspicuous by its absence. ZOTAC redeems the bundle by providing a five-year warranty upon registration.

Summary

It's the first time that we've had a pre-overclocked GTX 480 in the labs. We're encouraged by the solid overclock on the core and shaders. You'll have to read on to see if the cooler can deliver the enviable properties of lower-than-reference temperatures and noise.

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