DirectX 11 card with Military Class components

Jul 20, 2010 09:58 GMT  ·  By

Micro-Star International can be said to have already become rather infamous thanks to its habit of designing each and every new video card with a very high durability and stability, at least compared to competing products. In fact, it makes a point of showing off this added reliability and adds it not just to its high-end models, but also its less powerful ones, such as those meant for the entry-level market. The latest card that MSI prepared is a modified version of the ATI Radeon HD 5670 and is constructed with the purpose of ending up in HTPCs.

The card is dubbed R5670-PD512 and has 400 stream processors and 512 MB of GDDR5 VRAM, whose interface is of 128 bits. The clock speeds aren't outlined, but they are likely the same as those of the reference model, since it was the design that MSI actually focused on. To be more specific, the video controller uses a low profile PCB and, thus, a less than ordinary cooling solution.

The cooler somewhat resembles the Twin Frozr II but is visibly more compact (has a pair of 40 mm fans). The sound output is not known as of yet, but it probably isn't too high, since MSI would have taken care to reduce noise generation in order to enhance immersion during playback of multimedia. Other assets include HDMI with 7.1 channel audio and the aforementioned Military Class Concept components, such as All Solid Capacitors and Solid State Choke. Basically, this board is meant as a more reliable and versatile HTPC solution, compared to its rivals.

The Redwood-based MSI R5670-PD512 will become available soon, though the exact date was not made plain, and will be able to communicate with monitors via HDMI, D-Sub and DVI outputs. The price has, likewise, remained shrouded in mystery.