Moving from a full-size ATX computer to a microATX or even a miniITX system oftentimes means you have to make compromises, especially in the area of gaming. Gigabyte, however, aims to keep small form factor users in the game with its new GeForce GTX 970 Mini-ITX graphics card.

Surprisingly enough, it appears as though Gigabyte didn't have to make a ton of sacrifices in order to build a card that's about half the size of a regular GTX 970. The card, model number GV-N970IXOC-4GD, features a 1,076MHz base clock with a Boost clock of 1,216MHz (reference GTX 970s run at 1,051MHz base with a Boost up to 1,178MHz so it's still overclocked). There's also 4GB of RAM on tap.

The card is cooled by three large heatpipes (two are 8mm thick, the other is 5mm thick) that feed heat from the GPU core to an array of densely packed aluminum fins. A single 100mm fan is tasked with dispelling heat from the fins. In addition to the PCIe slot, the card requires a separate 8-pin PCIe power connector.

Gigabyte claims the card runs around 62C while running the Metro Last Light benchmark versus a reference card's temperature of 76C. It's no doubt impressive but we'll reserve final judgment when we can get our hands on a sample for review.

The dual-slot card includes one HDMI 2.0 port, two dual-link DVI ports and three DisplayPort 1.2 connectors.

One might expect a specialized card like this to carry a premium price tag but you'd be wrong. Gigabyte is pricing it at just $329.99 in the US with plans to ship starting early next month.