XFX GTX 280

XFX GTX 280

The card itself, isn’t particularly different from the blocky types of cards nVidia have been releasing at their high end for years. The “blocky” nature of said card, and it’s predecessors is down to the large shroud designed to encase the heatsink, and direct the airflow from the front mounted fan across it.

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The shroud is decorated with similar artwork to the front of the box, with a large GTX logo and a green neon daemon face of sorts. Thanks to the funky shroud sticker this GTX definitely looks better than previous top end cards, but it’s brick like design still keeps it from being termed “sexy” by the nerd masses.

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Looking back at the fan, it’s of the coaxial persuasion, and pulls air from the front, as well as the front end of the 280. This air is then drawn under the shroud and across an internally mounted heatsink.

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Finally, the now hot air is forced out the rear of the card through the exhaust vents on the secondary PCI bracket.

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While we’re viewing the rear of this bad boy, you can see that there are the usual suspects in terms of connectors: 2 x DVI and a single SVideo port. This can be turned into 3 x female component ports using the bundled adaptor however.

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Along the top of the card are two SLI bridge connectors which gives the potential for teaming up 2 other 280s for monster performance. In reality though, the drivers still aren’t quite right, and the money involved really isn’t worth it yet.

The keen eyed among you may notice the big rubber, plasticy, strip sitting next to them. Before you remove this, it actually protects the bridge in case of accidental damage. On a card with a shroud this big, it doesn’t really seem necessary, but I suppose it’s better to be safe than sorry.

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Moving further along the GTX 280, we reach the front mounted PCI-e power connectors. Like previous high end GPUs, this one requires not one, but two power cables to feed it, in this case, a single 6pin and a single 8pin.

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Along the back, the shroud dominates again, leaving no real hardware on show. However, there are some vents where PCB is visible. This area is the rear of where the GPU is mounted, suggesting this area needs a little bit of extra cooling; thanks to the vents, all the hot air generated by the rear of the chip will be able to travel straight up and out of the case.

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