ZOTAC M880G-ITX Wifi Motherboard Review

Introducing ZOTAC M880G-ITX

ITX motherboards are not on the mind of most consumers when they want to build their new computer system or upgrade their existing system. Many of us are into building up bulky systems for intense gaming, multitasking, and or video editing as well. However, these motherboards are great for small businesses and home office computers that are geared towards email, Microsoft office, and other applications. These are also great for beginning computer enthusiasts that want to build their own computer since you won’t need a lot of money to build a system around ITX motherboards. They are compact, affordable, and go great with your leftover computer components and a small case. The ITX motherboard I will be reviewing today is the ZOTAC M880G-ITX motherboard and it looks like it will be a great product that can definitely meet the needs of the consumers willing to buy it. Before I get to the details of the motherboard and its specs, let’s look inside and see what this product from ZOTAC has to offer.

 

Zotac's GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Limited Edition Review

Ready for a limited edition graphics card? The GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core just landed. Learn how it differs from the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, why its life will be be short, if it's a decent performer, and what we can do with this thing overclocked.

It’s not often that a graphics card manufacturer goes through the trouble of launching a special, limited-run product just for the holiday season. But that’s exactly what Nvidia is doing with its GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core.

Given the name, you might expect this new card to be an unlocked and enhanced version of Nvidia's existing GeForce GTX 560 Ti. But that's simply not so. Recall that the GF114 graphics processor used in the existing GeForce GTX 560 Ti is already unfettered. All of its 384 cores are functional, leaving no disabled hardware to turn on. Rather, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core is equipped with a cut-back GF110.

This GPU was first seen on the company's GeForce GTX 580, slightly handicapped for use in its GeForce GTX 570, and now further trimmed back for the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core.

GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Specs:

Compared to the GeForce GTX 580, two Streaming Multiprocessors (SM) are disabled; the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core utilizes 14 of the GF110’s 16 available SMs. Each functioning SM has 32 shader cores and four texture units. Five of the six 64-bit ROP partitions are left enabled, each capable of handling eight 32-bit integer pixels per clock cycle.

All told, the card has 448 shader cores, 56 texture units, 40 ROPs, and a 320-bit memory interface. Not surprisingly, its power demands necessitate two six-pin PCIe power cables. And because it's one of Nvidia's higher-end boards, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core card supports two-, three-, and four-way SLI through its pair of SLI bridges. You cannot match it up to a standard GeForce GTX 560 Ti card, of course. It'll only cooperate with other 448-core models. So, if you'd like to run in a multi-card configuration, buy these boards at the same time, since they're not expected to remain available.

If this card's specs sound familiar, that's probably because they match Nvidia's now-defunct GeForce GTX 470. You might also notice that the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core is essentially a GeForce GTX 570 with one SM disabled. And speaking of the GeForce GTX 570, the new card has the same 732 core, 1464 MHz shader, and 950 MHz GDDR5 memory frequencies.

Knowing what we know from past reviews on Nvidia's existing cards, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core should perform between the GeForce GTX 560 Ti and the GeForce GTX 570. For more information on the company's line-up, check out the following reviews:

	GeForce GTX 560 Ti	GeForce GTX 470	GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core	GeForce GTX 570
Shader Cores	384	448	448	480
Texture Units	64	56	56	60
Full Color ROPs	32	40	40	48
Graphics Clock	822 MHz	607 MHz	732 MHz	732 MHz
Shader Clock	1644 MHz	1215 MHz	1464 MHz	1464 MHz
Memory Clock	1002 MHz	837 MHz	950 MHz	950 MHz
GDDR5 Memory	1 GB	1280 MB	1280 MB	1280 MB
Memory Interface	256-bit	320-bit	320-bit	320-bit
Form Factor	Dual-slot	Dual-slot	Dual-slot	Dual-slot
Power Connectors	2 x 6-pin	2 x 6-pin	2 x 6-pin	2 x 6-pin

Nvidia made it clear to us that its GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core isn’t a replacement for any existing product. A limited supply exists, and it’s exclusive to Asus, Evga, Gainward, Gigabyte, Inno3D, Palit, MSI, and Zotac. This new card is only available in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Russia, and the Nordics.

The circumstances of this board's birth are somewhat strange. Perhaps Nvidia has a small collection of GF110 GPUs with two bad SMs, precluding them from use on a GeForce GTX 570. Or, it could simply be a product intended to fill a gap right before the holidays. It could even be a test case of sorts to see if there's a market for something between the GeForce GTX 560 Ti and 570.

Pressed for more information, Nvidia let us know that our first two suspicions were dead-on. Like any chip manufacturer Nvidia bins its processors, and it has a number of GF110s with 14 viable SMs. It chose to put them into a limited product to drum up sales over the holiday season, and tah-dah: the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core. No matter how few of these boards end up hitting shelves, though, it'll stand or fall based on its performance per dollar, just like any other graphics card.

Zotac's GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Limited Edition

There is no official GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core reference design from Nvidia, so manufacturers modify their own GeForce GTX 570 cards to accommodate the cut-back GPU.

Zotac’s option is based on its GeForce GTX 570 AMP! Edition card. As expected, then, it's 9.5” long (about an inch less than the reference GeForce GTX 570 and about half an inch longer than the reference GeForce GTX 560 Ti). The 448-core card doesn't get the designation of being one of Zotac's AMP! models, but it does feature a slight increase of 33 MHz over the reference 732 MHz core clock spec.