14 DAY TRIAL // Gigabyte is getting ready to expand its product portfolio with a second factory overclocked Radeon HD 6970 graphics card that will feature the company's trademark WindForce 3X cooling system and an increased core clock.
The card is officially named the GV-R697OC2-2GD and its GPU has been clocked at 920MHz, while the 2GB of video buffer installed operates at 1375MHz (5500MHz data date).
This makes it 20MHz faster than the previous R697OC that has its core clocked at 900MHz.
However, both video cards are faster than AMD's reference Radeon HD 6970 that works at 880MHz, although the memory speed is set at the same 1375MHz.
In addition to the increased GPU speed, the R697OC2 bears an eerie resemblance with its predecessor as it features the same custom designed WindForce 3X cooling system equipped with three anti-turbulence inclined fans.
These are placed on top of a full length heatsink that draws the heat away from the Cayman XT GPU via three copper heat pipes (there is also a vapor chamber hidden somewhere in there).
Compared to the R697OC, the PCB of the OC2 has been slightly modified to fit a proadlizer capacitor that should increase the board's overclocking headroom by stabilizing the power delivered to the GPU.
No details regarding the pricing or the release date of the R697OC2-2GD have been made public so far, but the card was already added to Gigabyte's website.
The Radeon HD 6970 is based on the Cayman XT core that features 1536 stream processors, 96 texture units, 32 ROP units and a 256-bit wide memory bus that is connected to a 2GB video buffer.
Gigabyte has decided to pair the R697OC2-2GD with two dual-link DVI, one DisplayPort and one-gold platted HDMI video outputs. (via TCMagazine)