Removing the shroud, we can see a bracket attached to the PCB supporting the fan and heatsink. The fan is a circular shaped with vertical fans as opposed to bladed, making it more ideally suited to pushing air towards the back. The ring surrounding the fins at the top provides stability to prevent fan vibrations. The heatsink itself has departed from heat piped based designs hence the smaller footprint.


And underneath the metal bracket, the PCB is exposed revealing the layout of the individual components. The PCB appears very packed with components and the VRM power circuitry looks very robust. The board employs a 6 phase power design for the core and further 2 phases for the memory, as indicated by the chokes. The thermal pads on the base of the metal brackets are for additional cooling of the memory modules and circuitry.


The GF110 core is a monster of a chip, with a 520mm squared die size packing over 3 billion transistors. If anything, the integrated heat spreader is indicative of the core underneath, creating a large enough surface area for maximum heat dissipation.


There are a total of 12 128MB memory modules for 1.5GB of on-board GDDR5 memory. The modules have been sourced from Samsung and carry the model name K4G10325FE-HC04. These are rated at 0.4ns for a rated speed of 5Gbps. The memory on the GTX580 only come clocked at 4004MHz, suggesting high overclocking headroom.


The CHiL CHL 8266 voltage controller enabled voltage control and monitoring, making it an excellent addition for overclockers.


One of the ways Nvidia have attempted to tackle the heat generated by the core is a vapour chamber cooler. The copper heat plate contains liquid in the base (the raised middle portion of the plate that is in contact with the GPU). The liquid evaporates and absorbs further latent heat through its phase transition to vapour. The vapour rises and condenses on the outside upper part of the heat plate releasing heat which is then transmitted to the overlying fin array. The condenser fluid circulates around the outside of the heat plate. This type of cooler is a first for Nvidia, who have traditionally opted for heat pipe based heatsinks. The advantage of the vapour chamber is the larger surface area of the heat plate for greater heat transfer.


Heat that is transferred to the heat sink across the fins is dissipated by airflow from the fan towards the exhaust port on the rear. The design is very efficient but it is yet to be seen how practical it is in real life applications.