Inno3d are a Hong-Kong based company, specializing in nVidia GPUs, CPU coolers, and some awesome little USB-to-display adapters called veXt. They’ve been working with nVidia all the way back to the 7 series, producing their own custom coolers as well as partnering with some of the industry’s leading 3rd party cooler manufacturers, such as Arctic Cooling. Their parent company is innoVISION, which was established in 1998 – also has a couple other sub-brands using the “inno” prefix with different specializations.
Getting put through its paces today is the Inno3d iChiLL Black Edition GTX 680, with 4GB of GDDR5 memory. It is factory overclocked to 1120 Mhz, and has an aftermarket hybrid liquid / air cooler attached. The cooler itself is manufactured by Asetek, branded by Arctic, and then partnered with the inno3d card. Claiming to be virtually silent whilst many times more efficient than the reference cooler. If all goes well this card should be quite the performer. Follow us through the review as we benchmark, overclock, and generally beat the card into submission to reach our conclusion.
Packaging
The Inno3d iChill GTX 680 comes in an absolutely massive box. This is due to the fact it has to house and protect the card, the tubing and radiator, as well as the accessories that inno3d provide you with.
The front of the box has a simple outline-style image of the card in silver foil, as well as Black Series labelling and nVidia GTX 680 logos. There’s a sticker present stating that you’ll receive a free iChill mouse mat too, as well as a sticker informing you you’ll also receive a free copy of 3DMark11! Along the bottom edge are numerous feature-based badges that give you small insight into the capabilities of the card.
The front of the box offers details about the Accelero Hybrid cooling system. Diagrams of how air moves through the cooler housing, as well as images of mounting options. There is also some performance information regarding temperature and noise. Again accented with silver foil, it retains the premium look of the packaging.
The bottom of the box offers 3 points that make the GTX 680 a special card. “Faster,” “Smoother” and “Smarter” are offered, giving you the impression you’re buying an exceptional quality product that performs well above the competition. Each key word gives a brief text summary of what point they’re trying to get across here.
The rear of the packaging has a small paragraph on inno3d as a company, and what their products offers. The same paragraph is listed 9 times, in multiple languages. Inside the box is the card itself, an inno3d iChill mousepad which has a thin high-speed surface with a carbon style design, as well as mounting screws, a MOLEX to PCI-E power cable adapter, and a DVI to VGA adapter. Also included is a driver disc, brief installation guidelines, a power supply guideline booklet, and a case badge.
