PNY GTX980Ti XLR8 OC Review
Up Close
Published: 29th October 2015 | Source: PNY | Price: |
Up Close
The packaging for the XLR8 definitely falls into the classy category. A simple black box with some gold lettering is only broken up by the nVidia-demanded GTX980Ti sticker. The card itself tries and apes this black and gold colouring to mixed effect. Gold is a supremely difficult colour to replicate and the PNY, whilst not yellow, hasn't quite managed it.
The 'front' is festooned with three fans for maximum cooling and those gold go-faster stripes. Whether you like the front side or not there is no doubt that the backplate has you covered with a simple swathe of black with the nVidia GeForce GTX logo in a prominent position.
One of the cool things about the way that graphics cards fit in our towers is that if you aren't that keen on the gold, you almost never see it anyway. PNY have left it solely upon the fan surround with no hint of anything on the back or side. The side doesn't even come with the 'greener than the green goblin in a grass field' GeForce logo. So you're not compromised on your aesthetic.
Otherwise it's the usual selection of high fin density heatsink, three powerful fans and plenty of ventilation that enables the PNY to make the most of its cooling capacity and thus the nVidia GPU Boost 2.0 tech.