Quote Originally Posted by bamtan2 View Post
That is not silicon. (There is an error in that article where they, too, call it the chip)

What you see is the integrated heat spreader, or IHS. Many chip packages use this. The chips themselves are small and fragile and hard to fasten coolers to.

Here is a GTX 260 with it removed: http://www.overclock.net/gallery/data/500/IMG_0725.jpg
im familiar some use an IHS to cover the actual chip, didnt know nvidia did it, but it makes sense since it does seem about 2x too big. (dont think ATI does, and AMD only started to a few years back.)