14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA has yet to cover the entire consumer market with its 500 series of video controllers, but it seems it will soon make another step in this direction, aided by its partners, such as Galaxy, which is reported to be working on a new mainstream adapter.
With all the tremors caused by the Radeon HD 6990 dual-GPU graphics adapter, consumers are, no doubt, eager to see what NVIDIA has in store that can challenge it.
Of course, the web has definitely not been bereft of reports and rumors regarding the GeForce GTX 590, but it seems other boards are coming as well.
Galaxy is reported to be working on one GeForce GTX 550 Ti, which is powered by the GF116 GPU (graphics processing unit).
Like all the others in the 400 and 500 line, this processor is built on the 40nm manufacturing process technology.
What the outfit built is a piece of hardware bearing the name of GeForce GTX 550 Ti HOF, where HOF is short for Hall of Fame.
As one would expect, the model has the predictable set of factory overclocking settings, plus a cooling module with a single fan and a metallic cover.
For those that do not know, the stock version of NVIDIA's video controller has the GPU and the 192 CUDA cores (shaders) operating at 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz, respectively.
The HOF took things further by 100 MHz and 200 MHz, respectively (GPU/shader speeds are 1,000 MHz and 2,000 MHz, obviously).
Meanwhile, the 1 GB of GDDR5 VRAM works at 4,600 MHz and benefits from a memory interface of 192 bits. Furthermore, a 3+1 phase power design was chosen.
Finally, for connectivity, Galaxy threw in a DisplayPort output, an HDMI connector and a DVI port.
It is unclear just when sales start, or at what price, although it should be sooner rather than later. Either way, European consumers should be able to get it under a different name that HOF and as part of the KFA2 brand.