ASUS High-End EAH4890 Cooler Pictures and Details Emerge

[btarunr]

Towards the end of March, we caught a glimpse of a yet to be named high-end custom-designed Radeon HD 4890 accelerator from ASUS. The accelerator makes use of an exotic VRM design to facilitate high clock speeds and overclocking potential. Back then, we couldn't get pictures of what cooled the beast. Thankfully, NordicHardware has a few pictures of the cooler, along with more details in place.



The cooler is a complex piece of engineering. It consists of a central copper GPU contact base from which six 230 mm long copper heatpipes distribute heat between the GPU and VRM areas, which have large heatsinks of their own. Two fans of dissimilar sizes are suspended on the shroud. The larger one, over the GPU, rotates clockwise, while the other counterclockwise. Looking at ASUS' design methods with high-end cards, we can safely guess the fans are controlled by a complex controller that adjusts fan speeds on a per-fan basis, depending on the temperatures of the various zones of this card.

From what the source tells, this cooler should run the card at least 10 °C cooler than what the reference cooler manages. This may facilitate stock clock speeds in excess of 900 MHz for the core, and 1000 MHz for the memory. Some credit of the electrical stability of the core at those speeds goes to the use of the Fujitsu-made SuperML capacitor, that reduces voltage noise by as much as 20% (from 143mV to 114mV). Regarding the exact brand name of this card, we can confirm that the card will not carry the "MATRIX" branding. The other high-end term ASUS uses, "TOP", has already been used for a factory-overclocked reference design accelerator, leaving the brand name yet to be disclosed.



Source: NordicHardware

[h3llb3nd4]

O.o
thats what it looks like...

[DOM]

pic not showing on home page for me ??

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by DOM

pic not showing on home page for me ??

fixed

[KieranD]

nice cooler, my favourites are the sapphire toxic and the vapourX and the IceQ coolers

[afw]

ASUS.. I think have got this one right .... ?? i read some articles some time ago abt this card ..... it's expected to OC easily to 1000 .... i hope the prices are reasonable .... and ..damn the card looks awesome ... and the only bad thing abt is that it's powered by 6-pin + 8-pin setup...

[department76]

looks like one fan blowing exhaust and the smaller fan for the vregs circulating within the case? interesting.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Originally Posted by afw

ASUS.. I think have got this one right .... ?? i read some articles some time ago abt this card ..... it's expected to OC easily to 1000 .... i hope the prices are reasonable .... and ..damn the card looks awesome ... and the only bad thing abt is that it's powered by 6-pin + 8-pin setup...

in the preview before they said 8+8 pin......

[afw]

Originally Posted by SNiiPE_DoGG

in the preview before they said 8+8 pin......

Hey just look at the PCB layout .... it's easy to figure out that's a 6-pin + 8-pin setup .... as far as I can remember the preview stated it's a 6+8 pin setup....

http://www.techpowerup.com/88973/ASU...celerator.html

[Darknova]

Oooh, matches the colour scheme I'm going for, for my case, but I still can't justify buying one over my 4870 1GB :\

[erocker]

That is a very interesting looking cooler! I'm excited to see what it really does.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Originally Posted by afw

Hey just look at the PCB layout .... it's easy to figure out that's a 6-pin + 8-pin setup .... as far as I can remember the preview stated it's a 6+8 pin setup....

http://www.techpowerup.com/88973/ASU...celerator.html

right right, I forgot currently 4890 is 6+6 not 6+8 so in my mind I said "well the power is better than ref"

[WarEagleAU]

I really like it. Interesting to note on the heatpipes. Most have them curve out and into the fins. These run straight from the base and release heat along the way up into the fins.

Why do the non-reference cards have lesser components that ati reference cards ?

reference HD4890 is a myriad of components on the back side with hardly any free space, while this card has a lot less.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by wolf2009

Why do the non-reference cards have lesser components that ati reference cards ?

reference HD4890 is a myriad of components on the back side with hardly any free space, while this card has a lot less.

The ML Capacitor you see replaces several smaller capacitors. On its business end, the PCB is the same as the reference PCB. Compare this to any reference PCB. You'll see it's identical (except ofc the colour):

Originally Posted by btarunr

The ML Capacitor you see replaces several smaller capacitors. On its business end, the PCB is the same as the reference PCB. Compare this to any reference PCB. You'll see it's identical (except ofc the colour):
http://www.techpowerup.com/img/09-03-23/27a.jpg

ya the pcb is reference, it has the markings for reference cooler shape.

what is the ML capacitor you talk about ?

is this one capacitor cheaper than several smaller ones ?

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by wolf2009

what is the ML capacitor you talk about ?

is this one capacitor cheaper than several smaller ones ?

That rectangular thing with "Fujitsu". That itself is like $25 a piece effectively. It's an expensive alternative.

[Frogger]

$25 bucks for a"capacitor, that reduces voltage noise by as much as 20%" would be well worth it ..IF the retail $$$$ are in line

[DaveK]

Originally Posted by KieranD

nice cooler, my favourites are the sapphire toxic and the vapourX and the IceQ coolers

Now this guy has taste lol, I love the Sapphire and IceQ coolers Cooler looks nice, I prefer blue though. I would get a 4890 as it's only a tenner more than a 1GB 4870 Vapor-X I'm planning to buy, but the stock coolers suck big time and no doubt the 4890s with custom coolers will be a lot more expensive

[soryuuha]

Fujitsu thing = capacitor?

btw nice heatsinks and heatpipe design

[rangerone766]

i'm glad i waited to go 4890. i think i'll wait till these hit retail and buy one.

[Divide Overflow]

When are these due out?

[SystemViper]

WOW i can see that card going on my Bloodrage rig!


.

[my_name_is_earl]

That's nice, wondering if they include voltage mod thingy so you can push it further past 1GHz core. The cooler look like it might be able to reach such clock or not.

[ChaoticAtmosphere]

Originally Posted by rangerone766

i'm glad i waited to go 4890. i think i'll wait till these hit retail and buy one.

Me to, I went 2x3870 CF for budget reasons when there was talk of the RV790 and it was a blessing in disguise. I'll definitely go 2x4890 CF later this year...I like what I see and hear!