The NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
When we saw the cards back in december we knew that it was going to be pricey, coupling the new NVIDIA flagship tag to the unit, as well as the advanced cooling system, the DDR2 and the .13 manufacturing combined 12 layer PCB inplementation we knew this would carry a high price tag. When we saw the cards for the first time it all makes sense why - the copper was clean and unmarked, the card felt heavy and of high quality and it had something which it needed - looks. Just remember that this card is NVIDIAs implementation of the unit, imagine this in 3 months when Gainward and Albatron for example have done their version of the card.
Upon the card there are several features which make sure that the card runs (or gets as much heat away from it as possible) as quickly and cool as possible. It would be a lie if we told you that the card ran cool - it doesn't it runs very hot - we touched the card whilst testing and it was burning hot. We touched the sink as well as the chassis, this is an indication of how well the copper is transfering the heat away from the GPU - if it didn't then it wouldn't be worth having this cooling technology. The cooling system which is present on the card is:-
- NVIDIA Copper Cooler on top of the GPU which goes to the front of the card.
- Copper Cooler also interfaces with the memory
- Copper cooler on the back of the card
- Exhaust Shroud over the top of the copper cooling system to get the hot air away
The entire system runs quietly (ish!) When you are running in normal 2D, as soon as you start hitting the pipelines the sound kicks in and the fan spins up. I think this might get better over time and slowly as the yields get better - but maybe not. Do not forget there is a lot of hardware under the boot.
Here you can see where all the hot air is pumped out of the system, the card takes up 2 slots within the system. The copper fins are brazed on to the copper sink here - it could be vacuum brazed or conventionally brazed (We have not had this clarified to us yet.) When you braze in a vacuum you do not have all the impurities within the sink - as there is no oxygen within it. One other thing which I will be modifying on my card will be removing the slots on the intake holes - I don't see why on earth the airflow should be restricted in this fashion or any generation of turbulance should be neccessary, in this instance, at the airs point of entry
Here you can see a back shot of the shroud going to the front of the card.
This is one hot card. Within the card there is hardware monitoring - this is going to be avaliable in future driver revisions.
