14 DAY TRIAL // End-users likely know by now that both ASUS and Sapphire are hard at work plotting the formal introduction of their respective overpowered HD 5970 graphics cards. ASUS will be introducing the Republic of Gamers (RoG) Ares 4GB HD 5970, whereas Sapphire will challenge its rival with its own 4GB version of the dual-GPU card. Eager to add to the pressure, and to take advantage of enthusiasts' hunger for bleeding-edge graphics, XFX has decided to also join the fray with its own model, known as the XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 4GB.
The folks over at Tweakers.net seem to have managed to get their hands on a few pictures of the upcoming beast. Unlike the fancy Ares or the triple-fan-using Sapphire card, however, this creature seems to be content with only a mild departure from the reference model, as far as appearance is concerned at least.
Of course, when it comes to specifications, the card is hardly faithful to the original. While the dual-GPU construction remains, the two graphics processing units will be clocked at 850MHz and will each have 2GB of their own GDDR5 memory to exploit. This memory will be operating at 4800MHz and two 8-pin connectors will be used to supply the card with enough power.
As far as heat management is concerned, the XFX card will make use of a dual-slot cooler similar, at least in looks, to the one used by the reference adapter, although its fan is set in the center. In addition, the XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition 4GB will even boast the Eyefinity6 technology. As such, instead of DVI, HDMI or VGA outputs, the customized HD 5970 will have six mini DisplayPort connectors.
According to Tweakers.net, XFX is supposedly planning on creating a total of up to 1,500 different cards. These will be priced at $1,000 each and will start selling sometime later this month.
