X-bit labs

Quiet Power: Elitegroup N8800GT-512MX DT Graphics Card Review (page 2)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 03/18/2008 | 02:53 PM ]

PCB Design and Specifications

The ECS N8800GT-512MX DT uses a unique PCB. It differs from Nvidia’s reference design as well as from the PCB developed by Gainward:

The differences aren’t significant, however. Except for the PCB color, they concern the layout and components of the power circuit. This circuit is supposed to have three phases, but only two phases are installed, just like on the reference GeForce 8800 GT, although the graphics core of the ECS card is overclocked by the manufacturer. Like in Gainward’s design, the power circuit is governed by a Richtek RT8802A controller. An RT9259 chip is responsible for the memory chips. The card has a standard 6-pin PCI Express 1.0 connector for additional power supply.

The GPU is revision A2. Its configuration is standard for Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT: 112 shader processors, 28 (56) TMUs, and 16 raster operators. The frequencies are those of the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB: 650MHz for the main domain and 1620MHz for the shader domain. So, we can expect the N8800GT-512MX DT to deliver similar performance in games that don’t use up all the computing resources of modern GPUs. The GPU has a metallic frame to protect the core. It is a called-for safety measure considering the large cooling system the card is equipped with.

The memory chips carry heatsinks. When we removed them, we saw standard Qimonda HYB18H512321BF-10 chips of GDDR3 memory with a rated frequency of 1000 (2000) MHz. The card clocks the memory at a frequency of 950 (1900) MHz, which is 50 (100) MHz above the memory frequency of the reference GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. It is lower than the frequency of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, yet provides a nice 3.2GB/s addition to the memory bandwidth.

The card is equipped with two dual-link DVI-I ports, a 7-pin mini-DIN port, and a standard MIO connector. Besides it, there is a 2-pin connector near the MIO port – it is connected to the sound card to enable the audio-over-HDMI feature.