A Closer Look
The ENGTX260 Matrix is clocked at reference clocks. We’ll look at the special features that changes clock speeds on the fly a little later.
The card is full-sized, a full 10.5″. Though it looks pretty massive, the card isn’t particularly heavy. It has a black fan shroud and black PCB.
Remove the cooler, and besides finding the most massive processor heatspreader I’ve ever seen, we also see lots of Samsung GDDR3 memory. The memory isn’t cooled, but there will be a lot of wind blowing around the chips when both cooler fans are turning. There is also a heatsink to keep those hot MOSFETs in the card’s power supply cooler too.
The cooler itself is pretty interesting. There are five copper heatpipes running through a copper/aluminum base.
Two heatpipes each run to a circular fin array each cooled by its own fan. The fan located in the center of the card is approximately 75mm, the one located at the rear of the card is about 65mm. All fins appear to be aluminum, which accounts for the light weight of the cooler.
The fifth heatpipe runs through a third fin array. This is to cool the GPU during low-load 2D periods, when you are surfing, chatting, or whatever. Of course, the other fin arrays are still cooling, just the fans aren’t running. The dual-slot PCI bracket has vents and either the heat is exiting through the vent, or cool air coming in, depending on whether your case cooling has positive or negative pressure.
The ENGTX260 Matrix has dual DVI ports and HDTV out.
Included with the ENGTX260 Matrix is a DVI/Sub-15 adapter, DVI/HDMI adapter, coaxial HDTV cable, S/PDIF cable to connect to the motherboard to enable HD Audio via HDMI, and a 4-pin Molex/PCI-E power adapter.
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