Point of View kicked of its GeForce GT 430 lineup with a custom-design graphics card. The card sticks to NVIDIA's reference design as far as the PCB goes, but uses a [seemingly] more cost-effective GPU cooling solution. The card is low-profile, and makes extra-room for a D-Sub connector with its full-height bracket on. Other connectors include DVI and HDMI. Like every other GeForce GT 430, Point of View's card is based on the 40 nm GF108 GPU, it is DirectX 11 compliant, and has 96 CUDA cores, a 128-bit wide DDR3 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory, and clock speeds that stick to NVIDIA's reference speeds: 700/1400/1600 MHz (core/shader/memory). A slightly faster variant based on the same exact design is also available, it just has the memory clocked 200 MHz higher. Expect standard pricing for this card.

Palit's subsidiary Gainward has a low-profile GeForce GTS 450 graphics card in the making, much like Palit's card. Both these are yet to ship to major markets. In the mean time, Korean website Brainbox.com did a picture preview of Gainward's card, called GTS 450 GOOD Low-Profile. The pictures reveal a neatly-designed PCB and cooler assembly modeled along the lines of high-end graphics cards in which hot air is directed right out of the case. The assembly includes a blower, a shroud that directs air-flow, a large heatsink with densely packed aluminum fins that channel air through, and a heatsink over the MOSFETs.

The PCB seats the GF106 GPU right in the middle. While it looks long, it's only because the PCB is half-height to give that illusion. In reality the PCB is 7.4" long, not longer than the full-height NVIDIA reference PCB, and should fit in most SFF cases that have two expansion slots. The PCB uses a simple 4-phase VRM driven by an ON-Semi controller, there are four GDDR5 memory chips on either sides of the PCB, totaling 1 GB. The clock speeds stick to NVIDIA reference: 783/1566/900(3600) MHz, display outputs include and are limited to one DVI and an HDMI. Power is drawn in from one 6-pin PCI-E power connector facing downwards à la Radeon HD 4870 X2. Gainward's card may charge a slight premium over the full-height cards, for the convenience it offers. More pictures at the source.