Zotac GeForce GTX 280 AMP Edition is slightly overclocked compared to Nvidia’s reference design. Shader Units (240), amount of memory (1 GB), memory bus (512-bit) are all the same, but the core clock is overclocked to 700 MHz from 602 MHz and memory clock to 1150 MHz from 1107 MHz.
Zotac comes in an easily recognizable Zotac packaging and includes Quick Install Guide, Manual, Power supply label, Driver CD, DVI, HDMI and TV Out adapters, 2 PCIe power adapters, S/PDIF audio cable and being a high-end card, Racedriver Grid game comes as a gift. The card, as you have already realized does not have a VGA/D-Sub adapter, assuming that you already have a graphics display having DVI and/or HDMI ports. The card uses PCIe X16.
You shouldn’t be surprised that the card takes two slots. So, when you are purchasing this card, be aware that you will not be able to use the adjacent slot on your motherboard. The card is capable of three way SLI (the SLI slots are hidden behind a rubber closure), but I can not stop myself from questioning in how many motherboards you can use three of this graphics card. If you are thinking of overclocking, this card has room to go.
If we look at frames per second (fps) values for Crysis, Call of Duty, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. we see values changing from 50 to 200 plus, meaning that you will not have any problems playing current games as well as the ones that will be released in the near future.
This card is one of the top cards on the planet, overclocked in the factory but still has room for more, incredible performance increases compared to the 9000 series, and all other pluses you can think of. The only downside is, the card is about USD $700, which I believe is too expensive. 3 SLI’s with this card will cost you a cool USD $2000.