KFA2 GeForce RTX 2070 EX in review – Price disanotomy doesn't have to be cheap, but quiet and cool | igorsLAB

1 - Unboxing, Daten, Testsystem 2 - Teardown und Analyse 3 - Benchmarks und OC 4 - Leistungsaufnahme im Detail 5 - Temperatur, Takt, Infrarot 6 - Lüfter und Lautstärke 7 - Zusammenfassung

Tear Down and Board Analysis

KFA2 relies on a true board design and takes its own (proven) paths when fitting the voltage converters. The two ATX power supply connections are not special. There are two real rails leading from the sockets to the board. These two rails, as well as the power supply from the motherboard slot, were each provided with a 1-H coil for smoothing possible spikes and each carry a separate shunt for monitoring the current flow.

The cost-down of the KFA2 GeForce RTX 2070 EX can be seen, among other things, in the fact that the second BIOS with DIP switch is provided on the board, but has not been implemented here (picture above, right center). On the back you can see that e.g. an RGB-illuminated backplate would have been possible (image below, left edge, upper third). Otherwise, however, the board is fully equipped.

Let's start with the most interesting part! The new uP9512R is used here as an 8-phase PWM controller specifically designed to provide high-precision output voltage systems for the latest generation of GPUs. The uP9512R has programmable output voltage and active voltage positioning functions to adjust the output voltage depending on the load current, so that it is optimally positioned for a good load current transition.

It supports NVIDIA Open Voltage Regulator Type 4i+ with PWMVID function. The PWMVID input is buffered and filtered to create a very accurate reference voltage. The output voltage is then precisely controlled on the reference input. The integrated SMBus interface offers enough flexibility to optimize performance and efficiency and also to connect the appropriate software.

One feature of the uP9512R is the control of discrete voltage regulators with high- and low-side MOSFETs via a separate gate driver. KFA2 therefore dispenses with the more expensive, highly integrated PLC (Smart Power Stage) in favour of a cheaper solution consisting of individual components. We count a total of 6 voltage converter circuits for the GPU. The two phases for storage are generated by a dual-buck controller (uP9512P).

The following table contains the most important components:

GPU Power Supply
PWM Controller	uP9512P UPI Semiconductor 8-phase PWM controller
Gate Driver	uP1962S UPI Semiconductor 2-phase buck controller
Vrm	6x MDU1514 High-Side + 12x MDU1511 Low-Side MagnaChip Single N-Channel Trench MOSFET
Coils	Encapsulated Ferrite Choke 220 mH Ferrite Choke
Memory and power supply
Modules	K4Z803258C-HC14 Samsung 8x 8GB GDDR6 SGRAM Modules 2 Channels x 256 Meg x 16 I/O 2 Channels x 512 Meg x 8 I/O 14Gb/s
PWM Controller	uP1666Q UPI Semiconductor 2 Phases Buck Controller
Vrm	2x MDU1514 High-Side + 4x MDU1511 Low-Side MagnaChip Single N-Channel Trench MOSFET
	Encapsulated Ferrite Choke 470 mH Ferrite Choke
Other components
Bios	25WP080 Eeprom Single BIOS
Shunts	1x Shunt per 12v rail (3x)
More details
Other Features	8-pin + 6-pin PCI-Express connectors for power supply

Cooler and backplate in detail

The radiator design does not contain any secrets. A slat area sits on a massive aluminum heat sink that carries the copper GPU heat sink. The heatpipes were then pressed in between the two blocks. The circumferential metal frame of the radiator construction ensures an active cooling of the storage by means of intermediate thermal guide pads.

For the voltage converters there is an extra heatsink, laudable. A total of five 8 mm heatpipes then distribute the waste heat to the cooling fins, with all five transporting the waste heat along the side to the radiator end, while a heatpipe still operates the outside of the cooling block above the GPU. KFA2 uses a fan arrangement with two 9.7 cm fans, which also harmonize well with the two-part radiator structure.

The blackened aluminium backplate does not cool anything and is used exclusively for stabilization. But the quite large cooler also does what it is supposed to do. More in more detail later on.