Palit is a well known company across the sea, but in America they are still making a name for themselves, which is a strange twist as they are NVIDIA's biggest partner. As you might know XFX, EVGA and BFG are the main partners in the graphics games in the states and now Palit joins those ranks. Some of the partners have shown ruffled feathers in the wake of Palit's emergence onto the scene. Being such a large company like Palit is they are not limited by virtue of the numbers game to any one chipset slinger and offer solutions from both the big guys ATI and NVIDIA. This gives Palit a broader spectrum of sales and offers them a user base that includes everyone who wants a video card. - Motherboards

Palit GeForce GTX 280 1GB Graphics Cooling Review

The GeForce GTX 280 chipset from NVIDIA is a winner in itself and offers the fastest frame rates seen to date in a single card solution. Palit's card is based upon NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280. The GT200, the chip series name has 240 stream processors, compared to the 128 found on the GeForce 9800 GTX, the last chip that NVIDIA produced. And NVIDIA has stayed on the 65 nanometer process for their video card chips, while ATI has moved on to the 55 nanometer process starting with their Radeon HD 3800 series. The GeForce GTX 280 from Palit has a clock speed of 600MHz, with a fill rate of 48 billion textures a second.

The Palit GeForce GTX 280 card is similar in most respects to the NVIDIA reference card as far as looks go with the main difference being the card art from Palit in the form of a sticker applied to the card. The cooler is a dual slot cooler with the wacky frog and Palit's logo prominent on the front side of the card. Many aftermarket liquid cooler gurus have liquid coolers available for these cards online, Swiftech and EVGA both sell aftermarket solutions. The rear of the GeForce GTX 280 PCB has a slotted vent that allows airflow from the rear of the graphics card to cool the chip on the front, which is an excellent move.

This is the first time an NVIDIA video chip has cooling on the rear of the PCB as well as on the front of it. It's interesting to note that the Palit card follows the NVIDIA reference design exactly. There are two bridges for SLI connectivity on the top left hand portion of the cards PCB. This means that the GeForce GTX 280 will be able to run in 3-way SLI mode as well as regular two card SLI mode. The 3-way SLI requires three GeForce GTX 280 cards and two bridges or a 3-way SLI bridge connector. It also requires a hefty power supply, as a single GeForce GTX 280 requires a maximum of 236W of power itself.

One thing about the new GeForce GTX 280 in any flavor and that is that it is fast, the fastest chipset available at the moment and that makes it widely coveted by the enthusiast's crowd who must have the latest greatest tech in their system. NVIDA's scalability in offering multiple SLI configurations that use three or more cards is a great option for those that are using large monitors as the more cards the better the performance is at NVIDIA's highest supported resolutions. Most gamers will never need more than one GeForce GX 280, but the option is there if you need it and does offer some great performance expansion.

NIVIDIA's high-end chipset cards are priced at the top of the charts as well making them unobtainable by those with a weak cash flow and only for the serious gamer. Palit has started to make waves in the industry again, and has a strong team. These folks just need to get some name branding in the States to help make them a household name as they make great products and have a product lineup of graphics cards that rivals anyone in the business. Underneath almost every GeForce GTX 280 card sticker is the same card, with differences being cosmetic in nature in almost every case and mainly being the clock speeds.

There are a few bold partners who make changes and such, but that is a limited number of cards being brought to market at best. Our point is this, almost every GeForce GTX 280 you see on the shelf was made with the same manufacturing procedures so who you buy from becomes a very valid concern in a sea of manufactures. Palit is the biggest NVIDIA and ATI partner with the positions and distribution levels to bring solid business to the game. The Palit GeForce GTX 280 is another great product as it features the fastest single chipset in the world and Palit's card is priced at under $500.