14 DAY TRIAL // With this being the day when the non-TI version of NVIDIA's GTX 560 card gets released, the company's partners are, naturally, eager to promote their own models, with Gainward preparing three full cards.
If anyone takes the crown for early revelation of the GTX 560, MSI probably qualifies, since its boards were detailed early.
Still, the apparent NDA only expired a short while ago, so only now has the bulk of NVIDIA's manufacturing partners began to move.
In this case, it is Gainward that delivered a full trio of video boards, two of which are part of the Phantom and Golden Sample varieties, respectively.
The third board is one which, although featuring the smallest clock speeds of the lot, has double the normal amount of memory.
More specifically, one GeForce GTX 560 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory working at 4,008 MHz, while the graphics processing unit (GPU) and shaders (336 CUDA cores) operate at 810 MHz and 1,620 MHz, respectively.
That said, while the cooling system is the big difference between the Phantom and Golden Sample controllers, their speeds are identical.
The GPUs work at 822 MHz, while the CUDA core and VRAM frequencies are of 1,645 MHz and 4,040 MHz, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Golden Sample cooler is a dual-slot, single-fan using device, while the Phantom has four heatpipes and two 80mm PWM spinners of its own.
As for connectivity, the 2 GB card has D-Sub, dual-DVI and HDMI, while the other two settle for single-DVI, plus the same HDMI and D-Sub capabilities.
The official press release did not specifically mention the prices, but they should be of around $200, maybe a bit more for the 2 GB newcomer.
Either way, Gainward will have to pit them against quite the bunch of eager creatures that NVIDIA itself and all other OEMs have prepared.
