With the release of the GTX 770 and the recent launch of the GTX 780, NVIDIA made on fundamental change to their cards over the GTX 690 and Titan. This change is one that may seem simple, but it is one that has a major role in the graphics market and for each of NVIDIA’s partners. This change is the grant to change the PCB layout and most importantly the cooling on the cards. When the GTX Titan was released, NVIDIA put a halt on any non reference designs and in effect the only alteration partners could make was to put a sticker with their name on the card.
The is not the case with the 700 series however, whilst the GTX 770 and GTX 780 used the exact same cooler as seen on Titan, manufacturers are now allowed to deviate from the reference design and put their own mark on their cards to set them apart from the competition. In Gigabyte’s case, the cooler of choice is WindForce and for a number of years now this has been at the forefront of their marketing campaigns.
With the release of the 770, Gigabyte are keen to show off the latest revision of their well known cooler, which now features a metal housing rather than the older plastic design. On top of this, Gigabyte have given the GK104 core the overclock treatment to take the 770 to the next level and let it stretch its legs a bit more.
When it comes to looking at this card, there is little more than the card in a box to look at as this is a review sample, meaning that Gigabyte have omitted the usual gubbins and accessories that we would normally see as part of a graphics card bundle.
The Windforce cooler, although effective, is the ugliest cooling solution ever conceived, It’s a real eyesore IMO. Yuck.
I totally second this. There are many better looking dual-fan coolers from Asus, MSI..
Gigabyte should learn from them.
It’s really a good cooler (although it’s ghastly). If you ever buy a Gigabyte card with that cooler all you have to do is yank it off, get rid of that over applied glop the manufacturer calls thermal grease, replace it with a good quality paste (applied properly of course) and you’ll see the temps plummet even further.
Well, that’s bad.
P.S. I never used Gigabyte cards..
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. They’ve cleaned up the blue PCB and other than that its just a rather standard looking triple fan black VGA cooler
It’s just personal taste. I actually use a Gigabyte GFX card with the Windforce cooler but I can’t see it so it doesn’t bother me but I have no complaints about it’s cooling prowess. Although the colour of the PCB is important to some people, somebody pointed out to me that that it was no longer blue but black, I hadn’t even noticed. Working with these things all day long for a number of years, one tends to become jaded & cynical. I think it’s time for a break.
Except for the ugly outlook, it is good if not great in terms of performance.
GTX770 is itself a very good chip though.
Having a window in your PC is so 2001, who cares what it looks like? You only see the top of the PCB anyway, all that matters is how good it cools.
I actually liked Gigabyte’s cooler design and PCB color enough to buy two of them…670 style…but to each their own I guess.
Can’t let these vain naysayers convince people not to get the card just from its looks.