14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like NVIDIA video cards aren't the only ones gracing the consumer market with their presence, as AMD partners, in this case PowerColor decided to offer a sort of response to the new 500 series model.
By now, end-users will no doubt be aware of the fact that NVIDIA, and its partners, have released the GeForce GTX 560, non-TI, graphics adapter.
There has also been talk of the ASUS Ares GeForce GTX 595, an upcoming dual-GPU graphics adapter of significant might.
Now, however, a sort of response has come in the shape of a certain 6000 series AMD-based graphics adapter, courtesy of PowerColor.
More specifically, PowerColor put together the SCS3 (Silent Cooling System) HD6850, essentially a version of the controller that has several benefits over the original, mostly thanks to the cooling.
Whereas the base card has a fan-based cooler, this one relies solely on a passive one, meaning that all the heat produced by the GPU (graphics processing unit), memory and whatever else is dealt with by metal alone.
For instance, the heatsink has the shape of an L and is composed of 62 fins, while heat is led to it via five heatpipes.
Needless to say, the fact that no noise is produced by the adapter is one of its prime selling points, although the voucher for the Dirt 3 racing game (soon to be released) will likely help as well.
As for actual specifications, the board has the GPU working at 775 MHz and the 1 GB of GDDR5 memory at 4,000 MHz.
Finally, PowerColor's product boasts 960 Stream Processors, a memory interface of 256 bits, dual-DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, CrossFireX support and even Shielded Alloy Choke and solid capacitors, for stability.
Regrettably, there is no information on the price of this card, so it will take some actual online listings to get the last details out of the way.