A Wild Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom Appears

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Gainward has released a video showing its new GTX 780 Phantom.

A video from the EU Gainward channel on YouTube shows that Gainward is working on a Phantom version of the GTX 780. The Phantom series of cards features a very interesting cooler design where rather than the fans pushing air through an aluminum fin stack, they pull the air through it. While because of this design some might mistake the card for being passively cooled, the cards are actually a lot easier to clean than other models.

The cooler itself will be made from a thick aluminum fin stack to which heat is channeled through five 'Grand-Prix' 8 mm heat pipes. The fans will be removable simply through the turning of a thumb screw and sliding them out.

The card will also have an impressive 8-phase VRM design that draws its power through two 8-pin PCIe connectors. The card also has solid chokes and driver-MOSFETs.

There was no word regarding when the card would be coming out or what its price would be.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bigshootr8
    If I remember correctly they had a similar card with the 670 series of cards and it was very noisy considering that it was a heatsink only solution. I'll believe it when I see it mainly because of the coil whine that may ensue.
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    I really wish more manufacturers would design their heat sinks like this. Blowing air over fins is very inefficient. Turbulent air has circulation as it enters the fins and kills heat transfer. Pulling air through fins that are long enough (to give time for the flow to adjust using the Darcy equation and such) allows for full flow and boundary layer adjustment.

    Sorry to slap on all of the theory here, but it's the complicated engineering behind something that looks simple (it can be pure hell). I really appreciate these efforts, and you should too since you can over clock higher or play cooler :D
    Reply
  • vmem
    11017382 said:
    I really wish more manufacturers would design their heat sinks like this. Blowing air over fins is very inefficient. Turbulent air has circulation as it enters the fins and kills heat transfer. Pulling air through fins that are long enough (to give time for the flow to adjust using the Darcy equation and such) allows for full flow and boundary layer adjustment.

    Sorry to slap on all of the theory here, but it's the complicated engineering behind something that looks simple (it can be pure hell). I really appreciate these efforts, and you should too since you can over clock higher or play cooler :D

    the theory is fine, but we must look at the evidence:

    how in hell are companies like ASUS and MSI able to design "inefficient" cooling with only TWO instead of three fans, and beat Gainward Phantom designs in the past? (look at gtx 680 and 670)...
    Reply
  • rwinches
    Great design I can't wait till it is available!
    Reply
  • kid-mid
    not available in the US?
    seems interesting and I would love to play with one but I'm happy with my current WF3 GTX 780.
    Reply
  • Blazer1985
    This cooler is SUPER EFFECTIVE :-)
    Not saying that just to continue the title's pokemon theme :-D
    I have a Gainward gtx 680 phantom and it is a very quiet card. What I love the most though is the fact that temperature stays at 70C even after hours of gpgpu operation. Best card I ever had, rock solid.
    Reply
  • j2j663
    Quote:
    I really wish more manufacturers would design their heat sinks like this. Blowing air over fins is very inefficient. Turbulent air has circulation as it enters the fins and kills heat transfer. Pulling air through fins that are long enough (to give time for the flow to adjust using the Darcy equation and such) allows for full flow and boundary layer adjustment.

    Sorry to slap on all of the theory here, but it's the complicated engineering behind something that looks simple (it can be pure hell). I really appreciate these efforts, and you should too since you can over clock higher or play cooler :D


    The theory is fine when applied to large scale environments. The problem is that this is too small of a scale for any of the theory to make a significant difference.
    Reply
  • balister
    11017382 said:
    I really wish more manufacturers would design their heat sinks like this. Blowing air over fins is very inefficient. Turbulent air has circulation as it enters the fins and kills heat transfer. Pulling air through fins that are long enough (to give time for the flow to adjust using the Darcy equation and such) allows for full flow and boundary layer adjustment.

    Sorry to slap on all of the theory here, but it's the complicated engineering behind something that looks simple (it can be pure hell). I really appreciate these efforts, and you should too since you can over clock higher or play cooler :D

    Errr...what? When it comes to heat transfer you want your fluid to be moving turbulently as the mixing pulls heat away more efficiently. Laminar flow will actually tend to act as an insulator which is bad for heat transfer (it forces you into radiative heat transfer away for conductive heat transfer).
    Reply
  • 11021874 said:
    not available in the US?
    seems interesting and I would love to play with one but I'm happy with my current WF3 GTX 780.

    How the hell do you have a WF3 780?
    Reply
  • kid-mid
    11127455 said:
    11021874 said:
    not available in the US?
    seems interesting and I would love to play with one but I'm happy with my current WF3 GTX 780.

    How the hell do you have a WF3 780?
    been out for weeks now, what do you mean.?
    Reply