14 DAY TRIAL // The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 has now been available long enough for NVIDIA to let its partners experiment with their own card designs. So far, this permission has spawned several 'new' models, overclocked or not, which sport multi-fan coolers or waterblocks meant to drive operational temperatures even the tiniest bit lower than they normally are. By unleashing the GeForce GTX 470 SuperClocked+, EVGA aims to do something similar.
EVGA has already started selling the water-cooled versions of the 470, as well as a similarly clothed GTX 480. There is also a 'normal' GTX 470 SC. The SC+ newcomer now seeks to address the needs of those who want higher clocks and less degrees, but don't want water inside their systems.
As such, EVGA left most of the reference cooling mechanism intact, but added a backplate and a high-flow bracket, with more openings than the ones NVIDIA provided. All in all, this design pushes heat seven degrees lower than the SC version, even in spite of the fact that the GPU and memory run at the same frequencies (higher than NVIDIA's original settings).
The GTX 470 SuperClocked+ has 448 CUDA cores, a 320-bit memory interface, 1280MB of GDDR5 VRAM and can communicate with video output devices by means of the dual-DVI and HDMI outputs. As for speeds, the graphics processing unit is set at 625MHz (instead of the stock 607MHz), whereas the VRAM operates at 3402MHz (3348MHz in stock).
The feature set is otherwise unchanged. All the components within the DirectX 11 graphics technology (Tessellation, DirectCompute, etc.) are obviously available, as are the PhysX and CUDA technologies. Even 3D Vision Surround is supported, though drivers capable of taking advantage of it have yet to show up. The card should demand the same $379.99 as the SC device. As for availability, end-users will have to wait for the company, or another leak, to shed some light.