14 DAY TRIAL // Since Palit somehow managed to put together a reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 and a non-reference cooling mechanism, it was only a matter of time until other NVIDIA partners did some introductions of their own. Surprisingly, though, instead of a new design coming out, a product quite similar but bearing a different name came forth from Gainward.
Seeing how Palit is Gainward's parent company, it is not surprising to hear that the latter has also developed a special version of the card. However, instead of offering some variety, the “new” adapter, dubbed GeForce GTX 470 GOOD Edition, seems to be, more or less, identical to Palit's offer.
The performance numbers of the video board are the same as those of NVIDIA's reference model. The GF100 graphics processing unit is clocked at 607 MHz and the shaders operate at a frequency of 1,215 Mhz. The GDDR5 memory amounts to 1,280MB, uses an interface of 320 bits and is clocked at 3,348MHz. Finally, the adapter boasts 448 CUDA cores.
What this adapter has different are its output capabilities (dual DVI, HDMI 1.3a and DisplayPort), the cooling mechanism and certain components that increase the overclocking potential. These include low-ESR solid state OS-CON capacitors and overall optimized circuitry. The device also has a longer PCB than the stock version (10.5 inches instead of 9.5). As for the cooling module itself, it is dubbed the Grand-Prix Heat-Pipes Hybrid Cooler and is supposedly both more efficient and quieter than NVIDIA's solution.
The fansink uses a copper base and 6mm copper heatpipes to draw heat out of the GPU. This heat is then dispersed by not one but two 80mm double-ball bearing fans. Unfortunately, there is no word on pricing, but this final detail should become known when the card itself hits the stores in May, bundled with a 30-day trial of the Super LoiLoScope video-editing software.