Under the Heatsink


After removing all those 17 screws, we get a view of the naked PCB and all the components attached onto it. The G92 core is laid bare and makes direct contact with the copper plate of the heatsink instead of using an IHS like the older G80 based cards. This ensures quicker heat transfer between the core and the heatsink. The PCB itself is a bit lighter green than I am used to seeing on graphics cards.


The ram used on this card is Qimonda HYB18H512321BF-10 GDDR3 modules in a 64MB x 8 layout. These modules are rated at 1.0Ghz (2Ghz DDR) so there should be at least a bit of overclocking headroom.


From some labeling on the DVI connector covers as well as some silk-screened logos on the PCB it looks like Foxconn is the manufacturer of this particular card. Some of you may be saying right now: “but doesn’t Nvidia make these cards?” Well, the answer is no; Nvidia makes the GPU core while they subcontract the actual production of the card to large manufacturers such as Foxconn, Flextronics and PC Partner.

The back of the 8800GTS 512MB differs a bit from that of the GT; there is an extra bank of VRM modules as well as a pair of additional capacitors.


By looking closer at the core of the XFX 8800GTS 512MB, we can see that this is labeled as the G92-400 while the 8800GT has the G92-270 designation. This is still based off of the same 65nm manufacturing process which should offer some measure of power consumption savings over previous cards.


I never include a close-up shot of the stock heatsink base but I felt that I had to in this situation since the finish of the copper contact plate is nothing short of horrible. Even though it looks a bit reflective in this picture, I can tell you right now it is anything but; it is full of ridges and has even begun to tarnish slightly along one edge. The apple has fallen very far from the tree in this case since the stock G80 heatsink bases held well-honed copper contact plates. I was hoping for an improvement from the older heatsink quality but this is definitely a step in the wrong direction.