EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW Video Card Review

A Close Look at the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 HYDRO FTW

Once we remove the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW from the retail packaging we are hit with our first warning: “Please allow the graphics card to cool for a minimum of 2 minutes after operation before removing it from your system”. I would keep that in mind; NVIDIA’s Fermi graphics cards are known to run a little on the warm side.

Taking a look at the back of the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW we can see that it is apparently based on the reference designed NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 and also used here. Looking at the upper right corner of the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW we can see the pair of SLI Bridges that will support 2-way, 3-way and quad SLI configurations.

The front of the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW is where the magic happens. This is our first look at the water block used. It is tough to read, but this water block is “powered by Swiftech”. The EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW requires a pair of 6pin PCIe power cables and a minimum of a 550 Watt power supply with 38 Amps on the 12V rail.

Here is another random shot of the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper. The EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW graphics card has a pair of dual-link DVI-I outputs along with a mini-HDMI output header. EVGA does including a mini HDMI to HDMI cable in the bundle along with the graphics card. Both the Dual-link DVI and HDMI outputs can be used to send high-definition video to an HDTV via single cable (including audio if running HDMI). A regular sized HDMI header was not used since it couldn’t fit next to the pair of DVI outputs.

Pulling the Swiftech powered water block off of the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW we can see that there is no shortage of thermal interface material on the chip.

Upon closer inspection we find the core of the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW is, as expected, the NVIDIA Fermi GF100 chip surrounded by nine memory modules. These memory chips are manufactured by Samsung K4G10325FE-HC05 and are rated for 1000MHz (4GHz effective).

Breaking down the Swiftech powered Hydro Copper water block on the EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Hydro Copper FTW, we can see that it consists of five main parts. On either end of the block there is an aluminum block that aids in keeping the power circuitry cool. The power mosfet block is connected to the water block with a heatpipe for added cooling of the circuitry. The core of the waterblock is C110 copper that is chrome plated for a nice clean look. The functional aspect of the Hydro Copper water block features a 2.625″ x 2.625″ square that uses a 0.6×0.6mm thin pin matrix to dissipate the heat into the coolant.