ZOTAC first to design non-reference GTX 285

NVIDIA has recently given permission to its partners to modify its reference GTX 285 graphics card and ZOTAC was quick to act with this first non-reference model spotted over at Expreview today.



While the clock speeds remain the same at a core/memory/shader of 648/2484/1476MHz, the actual PCB has had several physical changes made to the location of key components. One significant change is the decision to move the vMem circuit which powers the 16 memory chips next to the NVIO2 chip and SLI connectors. The MOSFETs are also arranged differently and the vGPU circuit consists of six phases while the vMen circuit uses two.



ZOTAC has also chosen to place an aluminum support brace around the G200b core which acts as a safety measure to minimize any possibility of damage with PCB flex as reference cards don't use a back-plate to help stop this from happening.

The only other noticeable change is the color change to orange for the DVI connectors. It isn't yet known what ZOTAC plans to do with the cooling side of things for this card.

You can find a couple more pics of it here.