14 DAY TRIAL // After the first GeForce GTX 400 cards turned out to be mostly identical to each other, NVIDIA's partners were finally able to start work on actual custom models. Some hardware makers went for water cooling, while others used a different, large fansink to disperse heat. Galaxy's GTX 470 GC plans, for instance, have already been unveiled, but it seems that there might be a somewhat more intriguing device up the company's sleeve.
According to a recent report made by 4Gamer, Galaxy has, more or less, entered the final stages of development of a GTX 470 that only occupies one PCI Express slot, dubbed Katana. The website has even managed to get a few pictures of the adapter, and, while the heatsink is not the most stylish ever to be invented, it does seem to be quite compact. In fact, there seem to be a high number of copper fins and plates on the inside, meant to draw heat away from the GPU and other feisty areas. As for heat dissipation itself, it is handled by a single, rather small, white fan.
In exchange for being thinner, Galaxy seems to have given the controller a longer PCB, likely in order to place the various heat-generating chips farther apart from each other. The rest that can be gleamed from the pictures are dual-DVI and HDMI outputs, as well as 6-pin and 8-pin PCI express power connectors. Basically, this upcoming video board will let enthusiasts more easily set up SLI configurations, provided the interior of their case can accommodate components of this length.
Unfortunately, the source of the leak was unable to disclose any details regarding clock speeds, though they should be at least as high as those on the stock version. There is also no way of knowing how noisy, or silent, this solution is to NVIDIA's original creation. More information is bound to come out at Computex.