14 DAY TRIAL // PowerColor announced what is probably the first factory passive cooled X1950 card. I say factory because some of you may know that X1950 can be passive cooled if a custom heatpipe system is being used. And PowerColor?s solution is not far from this idea. Actually, it was a custom cooling producer who developed the huge heatsink that incorporates 4 pipes.
Arctic cooler made the device especially for 80 and 90 nanometer chips codenamed RV570 or R580+ and although the solution is completely silent, it can keep the GPUs running at lower temperatures than when incorporating a stock cooler (63 Celsius vs. 67 Celsius). The cooling device also integrates a special heatsink for the voltage regulators and memory cooling.
The products based on PowerColor's X1950PRO and XT cards are going to end just $10 more expensive than their active cooled counterparts and they will be the fastest passive cards in the world. The X1950PRO costs $199 so you will probably pay $209 for the passive part. As for X1950XT, the same rule applies if you want to buy the passive editions.
Expect to find the cards at the local stores in January. As far as I know, no other comparable solutions exist on the market but I hope that PowerColor?s idea will be sustained by other Ati integrators. I have to point out that a passive G80 solution would be a lot faster but until now, the 8800 cards have only been built using either active or water cooled units so we?ll have to wait a little longer for that. Until then, if you enjoy your silence, you?ll love this one.