14 DAY TRIAL // The GeForce GTX Titan Z dual-GPU graphics card from NVIDIA is powerful and expensive beyond words, but it doesn't look that unusual, truth be told. Inno3D apparently has an issue with that though.
Normally, some time after it launches a new video card, NVIDIA doesn't allow its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to mess with it.
It does let them ship the product under their various brands and bearing their respective logo stickers, but nothing more.
Sometimes, a company or another will sneak in some factory overclocking too, but usually it's just the video card with a different sticker and box.
This lasts for a few weeks, or a couple of months, after which NVIDIA finally lets its partners install their own coolers and use new PCBs. In truth, this is a tactic that Advanced Micro Devices uses often as well.
However, in the case of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Z, this might not be the case. Or it is the case, but the Santa Clara company is letting its OEMs off with a shorter wait.
We say this because Inno3D is preparing a GTX Titan Z featuring a HerculeZ cooler, though we’re not certain if it's the HerculeZ 3000 or some new model.
Probably a new one, since each video board tends to have different part layouts and, thus, can't handle base plates and heatpipe arrangements fashioned for previous adapters.
Anyway, the cooler has 10 thick heatpipes (probably 8 mm each), divided into groups of five. Since there are two GPUs here (GK110), there are five for each of them.
The large fin array supports three fans, which are controlled by the PWM (pulse-width modulator) and measure 100 mm, 92 mm and 100 mm in diameter, respectively. There's a black and white color theme too, which seems to fit the normal color of the card and shroud.
Furthermore, the HerculeZ cooler (whatever model it is) comes with a back plate, which will hide the components on the back side of the PCB and dissipate whatever heat the front cooling contraption doesn't reach.
Inno3D might ship the custom-cooled card with factory overclocking, or it might not. In fact, it might not install the cooler at all, and instead ship the card as NVIDIA made it but with the cooler part of the same package. It's been done before.
And since the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Z costs $3,000 / €3,000 anyway, it's not like buyers will bat an eyelash at any extra hundred dollars that the cooler adds on top of that. Refuge in Audacity and all that.
