Towards the end of March, Gainward launched the GeForce GTX 680 Phantom Edition, with a its uniquely-designed cooling assembly that inverts the positions of fans and heatsink, which lends an aesthetic touch. Like most other GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards launched till date, the Gainward GTX 680 Phantom has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. We're now learning that Gainward is working on a 4 GB variant, and it's more than close to release, as Swedish retailer Komplett.se has already listed it for 5,995 Kronor (US $878.7). Pictured below, the card looks otherwise identical to the original 2 GB model. It's likely that a backplate is used to cool memory chips on the reverse side of the PCB.

NVIDIA has today made available a new graphics drive, the beta-tagged GeForce 301.24 which includes support for the GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 Series cards, as well as for the GeForce GTX 680.

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Here are the first pictures of MSI's non-reference design GeForce GTX 680 Twin Frozr III graphics card (model: N680GTX Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC). The card features an NVIDIA reference design PCB, augmented with MSI's signature Twin Frozr III cooling solution, which has been used on several high-end GPUs till date, including the Radeon HD 7900 series, and previous-generation GeForce GTX 500 series.

The cooler appears to be tailored to fit the length of the PCB perfectly. It uses a large aluminum fin array, to which heat is fed by five 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, ventilated by two 70 mm fans. The card comes with out of the box clock speeds of 1058 MHz (core base), 1124 MHz (core boost), and 1502 MHz (6.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory, so while the memory clock remains untouched, the core (base/boost) have been upped from 1006/1058 MHz (reference). The card uses 6+6 pin PCIe power inputs, and has display output layout identical to that of the reference design.

After last weekend's launch of Z77 chipset-based motherboards, several Japanese BTO (built to order) desktop PC makers jumped the gun, and announced new desktops that use Z77 chipset motherboards, but driven by current generation Core i5/i7 "Sandy Bridge" LGA1155 processors. Third-generation Core i5/i7 "Ivy Bridge" processors, at least to the retail channel, aren't too far away. They are slated for the end of this month. Yet, many of these desktops launched today offer processors such as the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2700K as standard options.

Pictured below (in order), are machines by Mouse Computer (Core i5-2500K comes standard), SHG Galleria (Core i7-2700K and GeForce GTX 680 graphics come standard), G-Gear, and EX Computer AeroStream (Core i7-2700K and Radeon HD 7970 come standard). It is noted that Z77 chipset motherboards haven't significantly altered prices from Z68-based models.

Japanese company ELSA, which specializes in NVIDIA-powered graphics cards, known more for selling Quadro professional graphics, finally unveiled its Gladiac GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. This launch comes nearly 15 days after NVIDIA unveiled the new GPU, and even as Japanese PC enthusiasts queued up outside stores at midnight to get their GTX 680 graphics cards sold by other AIC partners (NVIDIA NDA went up at midnight March 23, in Japan).

ELSA's Gladiac GeForce GTX 680 brings just the NVIDIA-reference design card to the table. It even sticks to NVIDIA's reference clock speeds of 1006/1056/1502 MHz (core-base/core-boost/memory-actual). Making use of a 28 nm GK104 GPU based on the "Kepler" architecture, the GeForce GTX 680 packs 1536 CUDA cores, and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, with 192 GB/s memory bandwidth. ELSA GeForce GTX 680 goes for 64,800 JPY (US $787.4), while graphics cards from other AIC vendors are typically priced around 57,000 JPY in the Akihabara shopping district.

Galaxy released a picture of a new GeForce GTX 680 graphics card it's working on, a liquid-cooled model that beats EVGA's GTX 680 HydroCopper at being truly single-slot capable. It does this by using the 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors in the same plane, instead of using an 8+6 pin piggy-backed connector that spans across two expansion slots. Also changed here is the stacked DVI connector cluster, it's replaced by two mini-DisplayPort connectors next to a full-size HDMI and a full-size DisplayPort. The card uses a full-coverage water-block, with its coolant ports protruding outwards on top, so enthusiasts will have plumb out tubing for each card in SLI setups, and can't use conventional multi-port fittings, unless of course, Galaxy has a solution for that. More details are awaited.

GIGABYTE is ready with its first non-reference design GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, the GTX 680 WindForce 3X OC. The card makes use of an NVIDIA reference-design PCB (in GIGABYTE's signature shade of blue, of course), and its in-house design WindForce 3X cooling solution. The reference-design PCB is slightly-customized by GIGABYTE to have 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors (instead of dual 6-pin). By the looks of it, all five NVVDC phases are enabled (only 4/5 enabled on the retail reference-design GTX 680). Interestingly, GIGABYTE chose the 6-pin connector that's otherwise disabled on the reference design, instead of a piggy-backed 6+8 pin connector cluster. Sadly, dual-DVI port cluster ensures the PCB is still single slot-incapable.

Guru3D reports that the card will come with an out-of-the-box core clock speeds of 1071 MHz (base), 1124 MHz (boost, derived), and 1502 MHz (6.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory. Cooling the beast is GIGABYTE's tried and tested WindForce 3X, which uses three 80 mm PWM-controlled fans to ventilate a large complex aluminum fin heatsink, which draws heat from three 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes that span the entire length of the card. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. Pricing and availability are not known.

Colorful announced its most powerful GTX 680 named "iGame GTX680-2G Kudan". The first "iGame Kudan" graphics card was released last year, and it was a GTX560Ti. Now Colorful uses the design concept on the latest GK104 chip.

Like the first generation, iGame GTX680 Kudan equipped a huge cooler which requires three slots and assembles three fans, one is 90mm, and others are 80mm and with "Shark Bionic" design in order to reduce the noise. Below the triple fans, there are heat-sinks which are crossed by ten 6mm heat-pipes. A 3mm steel plate is covered on the back of the PCB in order to enhance the PCB and improve the heat radiation.

Over the weekend, Inno3D held a lavish GeForce GTX 680 launch event, in Hong Kong, even though it announced its GeForce GTX 680 products with other partners, on March 22. We know Inno3D has a custom-design liquid-cooled GTX 680 in the works, it obviously has an NVIDIA reference-design model, too; but at the launch event, Inno3D unveiled its third GTX 680 product, an air-cooled factory-overclocked model, called the Inno3D GeForce GTX 680 TwinFan.

Pictured below, the card features an in-house cooler design by Inno3D, which has a racy-looking metallic-orange cooler shroud, and two fans ventilating it. It could feature a conventional heat pipe-fed heatsink underneath. It's also possible that Inno3D is sticking to NVIDIA reference-design PCB. The cooler shroud, according to Inno3D, is detachable without much effort, which enables end-users to keep the heatsink below it clean, and maintain high cooling performance. The fans are also said to spin at low speeds, resulting in lower load noise levels than NVIDIA reference cooler. More details are awaited.Update: Thanks to the high-resolution image, we can see how Inno3D's easy detachable cooler shroud works: thumb-screws.

Koolance has kicked off this week by making available a full coverage water block for NVIDIA's current flagship graphics card, the Kepler-flavored GeForce GTX 680. Named VID-NX680, Koolance's block weights 680 grams and features G 1/4" threading, an Acetal top cover and a 'high-performance microfin (0.5 mm) design made of solid copper with anti-corrosive nickel plating.'

The VID-NX680 is selling for $119.99.

Digital Storm, the predominant name in computer system integration and engineering, is excited to announce our partnership with EVGA to create a one-of-a-kind experience for gamers at PAX East in Boston, MA during April 6th - 8th.

Attendees will be able to compete in a DiRT 3 racing simulator contest at EVGA & Digital Storm's booth (#1156) for a chance to win Digital Storm's newly released flagship high-performance PC, Aventum. Competitors will battle it out on a $30,000 full motion 180˚ view racing simulator, powered by one of Digital Storm's benchmark crushing Aventum systems. The competitor who posts the fastest time will walk home with a $4,000.00 Digital Storm Aventum gaming PC! Attendees will also get a chance to win additional great prizes such as an EVGA GeForce GTX graphics card, six Corsair Vengeance 1500 gaming headsets, a Corsair Special Edition White Graphite 600T chassis, and a NVIDIA 3D Vision kit!

ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 680 Extreme Edition is shaping up to be a monster. A preview by Expreview points out its clock speeds out of the box to be 1.20 GHz (base and boost), with memory staying at 1.50 GHz (6.00 GHz GDDR5 effective). The default core voltage is 1.212V. ZOTAC also told the source that the card is capable of delivering 1.5V core voltage to assist in extreme-overclocking. It also goes on to claim that 2.00 GHz core clock speed might just be possible, in the best case scenario (you have the best cooling, best overclocking skillset, best luck).

Apart from a strong VRM (detailed in the older article), the card is also backed by several nifty features, such voltage measurement points, extreme-cooling optimized BIOS, and adequate-looking VRM cooling. The USB mini type-B connector on the back of the card turns out to be not a connection to an OC module, but a USB connection to the motherboard. ZOTAC is routing the card's SMBUS to its Firestorm OC software over USB. Maybe they haven't figured out [how] this could be done through the NVIDIA driver interface, or they didn't trust NVIDIA. For example, NVIDIA blocks SMBUS access to components that they deem "sensitive".More pictures, and videos follow.

EVGA announces immediate availability of the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Hydro Copper. This card offers a preinstalled Hydro Copper Waterblock, and reduces the GPU operating temperature by as much as 50%. Additionally, the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 is optimized for overclocking with a 5 Phase PWM Design and 8pin + 6pin power connectors. The EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Hydro Copper ships with increased clockspeeds of 1215MHz (boost clock) and 1150MHz (base clock). The memory has further been tuned with a stock frequency of 6300MHz.

A lot of prospective buyers of new generation GPUs were counting on the US $499 launch price of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 to result in reactionary price-cuts in the red camp, particularly with the $549 Radeon HD 7970. NVIDIA's GPU is faster, more efficient, and under normal circumstances, should leave AMD with no other option, but to cut prices of HD 7970 to stay competitive. However, that hasn't happened, and according to a HardwareCanucks report, will not happen any time soon.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 launch wasn't just on paper, there was market-availability on launch-day, although like every other new GPU launch, stocks have been quite limited. Before this launch, AMD and its partners managed to replenish inventories of Radeon HD 7970, making it generally available, while not budging from its ~$549 price. Sources told HardwareCanucks and this situation won't change unless NVIDIA has a more full-fledged lineup of new-generation GPUs against AMD's, or unless the availability of GeForce GTX 680 drastically improves.

As the leading brand in enthusiastic graphics market, Gainward, again, introduces its Phantom series for GeForce GTX 680 - Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom. The Gainward GTX 680 Phantom, continue the elegant design of the first generation, delivers much better performance than the previous design. The most important is the Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Phantom comes with factory over-clocked setting - 1150MHz boost clock (1084MHz base clock) and 3150MHz (DDR6300) memory clock.

It is really a "silent monster", the fastest GTX 680 in the market and extreme cool under gaming environment. Under 3D benchmark, it is 12.6% higher than reference board (3DMark 2011 Xscore). While in gameplay, it is around 10% higher. To compare with the competing GPU in red camp, it performs 27.7% higher in 3DMark 2011 Xscore and exceeds amazingly 32% in hot titles gaming performance.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, announced a brand new Jetstream series at the GeForce GTX 680 The Palit Jetstream series of graphics cards features innovative cooling and an optimized product design to deliver gamers the ultimate gaming experience. As the latest and most powerful GPU in the series, the Palit Jetstream GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream guarantees gamers cutting-edge performance and an explosive new gaming experience.

The factory overclocked Palit GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream is at boost clock 1150 MHz that is +92 MHz than the standard speed and 2GB GDDR5 memory clock is set at 6300 MHz (+292 MHz higher). Equipped with the Jetstream cooler and optimized product design, Palit GeForce GTX680 Jetstream performs 12.5% higher at 3DMark11 Xscore and average 10% higher among all hot gaming titles.

ZOTAC is flexing its engineering muscle. First, it was talk of a 2 GHz GeForce GTX 680 by one of its senior executives, and now this, ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 Extreme Edition. Pictured below, the card's design is reminiscent of the crazy engineering endeavors ZOTAC China undertakes, to come up with some extremely powerful designs, which seldom get out of the APAC region (to EMEAI and NA regions).

ZOTAC took a top-tier binned GK104 GPU, 2 GB of high-grade Hynix GDDR5 memory chips, and paired them with a 12-phase VRM power supply. Apart from bleeding-edge International Rectifier GaNpowIR driver-MOSFETs, the VRM uses server-grade tantalum capacitors, and FPCAP multi-phase capacitors. To drive it all, ZOTAC used CHiL CHL8318 VRM controller.

Palit unveiled a premium custom-design GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, called "JetStream". TweakTown got to review the card (find it at the source). The card features Palit's in-house designs for both the cooler and the PCB. The cooler consists of a sporty-looking shroud that holds three PWM-controlled fans, two 80 mm (sides) and one 90 mm (center); which ventilate a large aluminum fin heatsink that spans the entire length of the card. This heatsink relies on four heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU, to draw heat. While the main heatsink only cools the GPU actively, a secondary base-plate heatsink cools the memory and VRM. The fans in the cooler are LED-lit.

Moving on to the PCB, Palit employed a 6-phase VRM, which makes use of high-grade chokes and DrMOS (driver-MOSFET) components, to power the card. The card draws power from 6+8 pin PCIe power connectors. The card is also factory-overclocked, with the Core (base) clock pushed up to 1085 MHz (from 1006 MHz reference); and Core (boost) upped to 1150 MHz (from 1058 MHz). The memory, on the other hand, has been stepped up to 1575 MHz (6.30 GHz GDDR5 effective), up from 1502 MHz (6.00 GHz GDDR5 effective) reference. It doesn't end there, Palit assures 10% overclocking performance, 9 dB quieter operation (than reference design), and 8°C lower temperatures. The card is expected to cost US $20-30 higher than NVIDIA reference design (so, around $530).

EVGA kicked off its GeForce GTX 680 lineup with a bang. On its launch, EVGA showed off its first "Signature" cooling solution. That particular cooler is similar in design to NVIDIA's cooling solution (lateral-flow through aluminum channels). We're getting to know of yet another of EVGA's non-reference cooler designs for the GeForce GTX 680, the dual-fan Signature 2 cooler. Pictured below (still in its CGI form), the cooler uses two 80 mm fans that guide air through a complex heatsink below. The fans will spin at lower speeds to achieve similar/higher air-flow than the lateral-blower featured on other designs, and hence could end up being quieter. This cooler features on EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SuperClocked Signature 2.

After launching its customary reference design GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, Gainward is working on its signature non-reference design, the Phantom. Gainward introduced this design with higher-end GeForce GTX 500 series models. Its concept revolves around an inverted fan-heatsink design, in which the fans are concealed by the aluminum fin array. Instead of blowing fresh air through the aluminum fins, it draws hot air from it, and quickly channels it away from the card. Heat is fed to the aluminum fins, by five 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes. The inverted fan-heatsink design gives the Phantom a nice aesthetic touch. Gainward is still applying finishing touches to its design.

Only teased last week, EVGA's factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 680s are becoming a reality, with the first one to get make it out being the GTX 680 SuperClocked. The SC model is based around NVIDIA's reference design but has a base clock of 1058 MHz (1006 MHz stock), a boost clock of 1113 MHz (1058 MHz), and a memory frequency of 6208 MHz (6008 MHz).

The GeForce GTX 680 SC also packs 1536 CUDA Cores, a 256-bit memory interface, 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, a PCI-Express 3.0 bus interface, 3D Vision Surround and SLI support, and dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

The 'vanilla' GTX 680 SuperClocked costs $519.99 while its backplate-equipped sibling goes for $529.99. Both should become available very, very soon.

Single-slot advocates [in Asia, and select markets], your prayers are answered. Galaxy is working on a single-slot, air-cooled GeForce GTX 680. With a name that translates to "GeForce GTX 680 Warriors' Edition", Galaxy's card takes advantage of the fact that since very compact GK104 PCBs can be made, if dual-slot coolers are used, and since the TDP of the chip is a manageable 195W, the equation can be turned around to make long single-slot graphics cards.

Pictured below is the graphics card, with its [apparently] long cooler that protrudes beyond the length of the PCB. The cooler follows the same design principle at work in coolers of GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon HD 4850, that of a compact lateral-flow fan guiding air through a dense network of copper channels, where heat is dissipated to the air. These copper channels draw heat from a copper plate (probably vapor-chamber, in Galaxy's case), which makes contact with all hot components on the PCB, including the GPU, memory chips, and VRM. Hot air is guided out, from the top of the card. There is no further information about this card.

MSI is working on a factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, which was briefly put up on its German website, before being pulled, suggesting that the company is not entirely ready with it. Carrying the model number N680GTX-PM2D2GD5/OC, the card features NVIDIA-reference board design. It features out of the box overclocked core speeds of 1056 MHz (base core), 1111 MHz (boost core), vs. reference speeds of 1006 MHz (base core), 1058 MHz (boost core). The memory clock is unchanged, at 6.00 GHz (GDDR5 effective).Update: Sources among retail channels told us that this particular model (N680GTX-PM2D2GD5/OC) was canned at the very last moment. It's possible, however, that the 1056(core)/1111(boost) MHz clock profile could be carried over to future non-reference design models, such as the Twin Frozr IV.

EVGA is giving away High-Flow Brackets to the first 200 people in North America and Europe who register their EVGA GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards. The replacement expansion bracket, designed by EVGA, has more perforations than the one on NVIDIA's reference design board, its makers claim it shaves off an extra 3°C from the GPU temperature. It should be listed on the EVGA web-store for purchase separately, soon. For more information about the offer, visit this page.

Apart from the GeForce GTX 680 4 GB, NVIDIA's major AIC partner Galaxy, is also working on the GTX 680 Hall of Fame (HOF) Edition. Galaxy uses the "HOF" marker to designate its highest-grade custom-design products, with the highest out of the box OC, and headroom. Galaxy unveiled an unfinished prototype of this card, along with a presentation of what it will look like, when finished, at a media event in China. The card will use the same exact cooling assembly as the one used on its GTX 580 Multi-Display graphics card. This cooler uses a complex set of aluminum fin heatsinks to which heat is conveyed by copper heat pipes, and which are ventilated by three 90 mm fans. The cooler shroud is illuminated by blue LEDs.

Under the cooler of GTX 680 HOF, is a milky-white PCB (Galaxy is known for white PCBs on high-end graphics cards). The card uses an 8+2+2 phase VRM, which reportedly makes use of International Rectifier DirectFETs, and high-grade chokes, although still an analog design. The VRM controller will be Galaxy's custom GX31 chip, with software voltage control, voltage monitoring, and power-draw monitoring. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors.