The Card

When you first see the card the first thing you notice is the new huge heatsink which is made from transparent red plastic. It's good to see ATI stay with their system of exhausting hot air outside of the case.


Like all high-end cards, two DVI connectors are installed on the card. If you need to connect an analog display, a DVI adapter is inside the box. Both DVI ports are dual-link so you can use them with huge high-resolution displays.


When taking a look from the side you get a first glance at the full copper heatsink/heatpipe assembly. As we will see later it is quite sophisticated.


Near the back you have a big fan which reminds me of Arctic Cooling somehow. The PCI-E power connector is in the usual spot. It is easy to plug in and remove the connector even with the big fan assembly.


On the backside nothing has changed. Overall the underlying PCB design is very close to the X1900 XTX.