nvidia gtx490 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:37:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png nvidia gtx490 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 If Mars II rocks up in August at £1,250 will it be the first GTX490 to market? https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/if-mars-ii-rocks-up-in-august-at-1250-will-it-be-the-first-gtx490-to-market/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/if-mars-ii-rocks-up-in-august-at-1250-will-it-be-the-first-gtx490-to-market/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:09:52 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=8180 If combining a pair of GTX470-class chips onto a single PCB gives you GTX490, then Asus appears to be on schedule to get to market first with the launch of the Asus Mars II in August 2010. Or is it?  It could be a simple toe in the water to gauge reaction or is someone …

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If combining a pair of GTX470-class chips onto a single PCB gives you GTX490, then Asus appears to be on schedule to get to market first with the launch of the Asus Mars II in August 2010. Or is it?  It could be a simple toe in the water to gauge reaction or is someone in Taiwan playing with us? KitGuru does a little digging, combines intelligence from several sauces and makes some predictions.

First, the all important ‘told you so bit' where we get to refer to a story KitGuru broke back on 23rd May about the way that GTX490 throws down to 5970. Eight weeks after our revelation and (possibly) six weeks before the Asus Mars II hits the streets looking for a punch-up, we scrutinise the latest pictures to surface from Taiwan and ponder the price/performance characteristics of the latest product in nVidia's DX11 line-up.

Two GTX470 chips on a 375w board seems to give you GTX490. Will ROG be first to market?

The charts seen by KitGuru show the GTX490 drawing 375w, while the GTX470 pulls 215w.

Either the overall board design needs to be very much more efficient, or the GTX470 chips are going to be downclocked just a tad in order to get the GTX490 under the power envelope allowed.

Some parts of the card picture we received were damaged and had to undergo re-constructive surgery. Similarly, it had been shot by a rank-amateur with no concept of white-balance and the camera was so close to the GTX490 that the actual card had warped. Fortunately, Zardon has more Photoshop processing power than an entire division of Pixar and the image has been duly tidied to allow further investigation.

The power connectors on the top right of our processed picture are interesting, as they seem to offer 3x 8-pin power ports in a row. Looking at the GTX295 connectors and you can see how nVidia's former double-barrelled champion looks positively anaemic in comparison.

Remember when graphic cards only had 2 power connectors? nVidia looks set to fix that!

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Rumours on the grapevine seem to indicate that this particular version of the GTX490 will be aimed at just over the price of the Asus Ares card, so we can anticipate it burning a decent £1,250 sized hole in the lining of your nanosuit. That's a pure guess, but given the amazing way these cards are presented, we would not be surprised if it was just over the Radeon price.

v1.0 is always going to cost less. More spins means more money at the FAB and in the store.

The A3 on the nVidia chip might be a clue as to why these products are so expensive – IF this number refers to what we thing it does. Normally manufacturers do trial production and call the chips A0. That would be the card that Jen Hsun was holding on stage back in last September. From there improvements would be made and, if they were very lucky, the A1 silicon would be something that they could sell. Going to an A2 spin of the product is really expensive. Not only the production time, but also the cost of ‘not selling' in the street. Maybe we're not reading this number correctly, but if the A3 chip shown here meant 4 complete spins in the plant, then that would have been a really expensive exercise. Fingers crossed that not all of the GTX490 cards will be quite as expensive as the Asus Mars II. It looks like it will be a beauty – and powerful with it.

KitGuru says: Given that these pictures of ‘final silicon' seem to be hitting the streets now, we'd anticipate around 6 weeks for full production to turn into boxes of cards winging it from Taiwan and taking a cab to your local computing emporium. Just in time for Multiplay's i40 at Newbury on the Bank Holiday Weekend?  We'll have to ask Craig.

On the other hand, if the Asus engineers encounter power/heat/noise issues, then the launch could be much further away. We'll let you know if we hear anything more. Performance wise, we're expecting it to beat the 4GB 5970 cards in some benchmarks, but not all of them. …..MARS Vs ARES in the KitGuru Labs? …..Game on!

Tell us what you think over here in the KitGuru Forum

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EVGA readies 1,200w PSU for SLi @ Computex https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/faith/evga-readies-1200w-psu-for-sli/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/faith/evga-readies-1200w-psu-for-sli/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:23:48 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=3975 KitGuru has noticed that (almost) every company now wants to make (almost) every product. Not 100% – but close. EVGA has long been associated with high end graphics cards, so what else did they have hidden on the 17th floor? “Where to stick your brand?” is a common question for all manufacturers. At Computex 2010 …

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KitGuru has noticed that (almost) every company now wants to make (almost) every product. Not 100% – but close. EVGA has long been associated with high end graphics cards, so what else did they have hidden on the 17th floor?

“Where to stick your brand?” is a common question for all manufacturers. At Computex 2010 in Taipei, EVGA seems to be going for some ‘highly original use of a company logo' award.

Let's try the KitGuru audience and see which of these you WOULD or would NOT have expected to see…

Titty tattoes?

That's a new spin on familiar ground. What about the 17th floor of the Hyatt ?

Suite brand of mine?

With the upcoming release of nVidia's GTX490 card, KitGurus everywhere are looking at their PSU specs and checking them twice, to see if they are carrying enough juice for one or more of these monsters. EVGA's Head of European Marketing, Miodrag Relic, is now helping to aleviate those fears and deliver the 1,200 watts you'll need if you are to (a) be a friend of GTX490 SLi and (b) become an enemy of the National Grid.

World's strongest PR man attempts lift

Once you get up close, the shear number of connectors is staggering. The back of the PSU has more holes than a (insert your own example here).

'For a few cables more': Sequeal to 'For a few cables'

KitGuru says: We'd prefer companies to focus on core products, but creating an ecosystem for the graphic cards of tomorrow (when they're circuling 300w each) does make a certain amount of sense for EVGA. We'd say that this unit looks bullet proof, but with Miodrag's history – that might trigger unwanted destructive testing. Expect a full report on this and many other products in the near future on KitGuru. The 1,200w PSU is scheduled for retail release in July.

Discuss in our forums over here or just leave a quick comment below

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GTX 490 throws down to 5970 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/gtx490-throws-down-to-5970/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/faith/gtx490-throws-down-to-5970/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 08:01:38 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=2377 Behind closed doors at Computex, nVidia is likely to be showing its most important partners a very serious piece of new kit. The GTX490. Remember when the 7950 GX2 was considered power-hungry for pulling 110w in 3D testing?  Looking back at that era, it seems that ATI and nVidia just weren't trying hard enough. As …

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Behind closed doors at Computex, nVidia is likely to be showing its most important partners a very serious piece of new kit. The GTX490. Remember when the 7950 GX2 was considered power-hungry for pulling 110w in 3D testing?  Looking back at that era, it seems that ATI and nVidia just weren't trying hard enough.

As we continue to look under the rocks in Taiwan, more interesting information about nVidia’s new high-end card has come to light. To be honest, water-damage and exposure to UV rays means the ink has run in places and we’re looking at this document over a weak video link, but we’re pretty sure that the key info is intact. Question remains: Is it accurate?

Firstly, it shows that the GTX490 is a dual-GPU card.  We gathered that.

It’s likely to use the Fermi GTX470 processors, but we’re unable to confirm the exact clocks etc.

GTX490’s power draw looks to be around 375w.

Given that the GTX470 is a 215w part when shipped on its own PCB, there would appear to be some serious down-clocking in action.

We know from the big notebook manufacturers that nVidia sells GTX chips that can run on as little as 100 watts (if you have plenty of spare money and can wait for them to be speed binned).

The key question won’t be “Can the GTX490 beat the original 2GB Radeon HD 5970?”.

The actual question will be “Can GTX490 beat the new 4GB Radeon HD 5970?”.

KitGuru says: Like watching a 20 year old Mike Tyson looking to re-unify the heavyweight belts, we just can’t wait for these boyz to get into the ring and knock seven shades of crap out of each other!

Discuss in our forum over here or just leave a quick comment below.

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