Inno 3D Launches GeForce GTX 400 Cards, Preps Custom Design

Inno3D has finally joined the Fermi party and has brought along two guests of its own, namely a GTX 470 and a GTX 480 that will introduce a new level of graphics rendering to gaming, especially that relying on tessellation. Nevertheless, as consumers probably expect, the two adapters are no different from most of those launched by Inno3D's competitors, in that they are practically identical to NVIDIA's stock models.

“Inno3D is excited to announce the grand unveiling of the Inno3D GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470. The GTX 480 boasts an amazing 480 shader processors, a 384-bit interface to 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 RAM, and clock speeds of 700MHz, 1,401MHz, and 1,848MHz for the core, shaders and memory, respectively – the GTX 470 has 448 SPs and with a 320-bit memory interface. GTX480/470 was redesigned from the ground up to deliver the best performance on DX11 – adding dedicated engines in the GPU to accelerate key features like tessellation,” the press release notes.

The two cards may not be the most unique, but it appears that the hardware maker does intend to be the first to launch some, more or less, customized versions. The so-called non-reference design will, in fact, still keep to the reference model, with a few changes to the PCB's color (green instead of black) and a different cooler shroud design. It is unclear whether the specifications will remain unaltered, but there is the possibility of slight factory overclcoking, depending on the efficiency of the “new” cooler.

NVIDIA usually disallows partners to design non-reference cards based on new, high-end GPUs, with the only exceptions being factory-fitted water-blocks and minor cosmetic changes. This is why all of the company's partners only put a sticker on their respective adapters before sending them out and why Inno3D's custom design won't show any more customization than a few color tweaks.

There is no information on when the modified adapters will show up.