14 DAY TRIAL // AMD has been making the news a lot thanks to the Fusion Architecture, but its graphics card business has definitely not gone on any breaks, as made clear by Gigabyte's most recent creation.
Now that the thick of the tablet news seems to have gone by, the IT market is again showing more attention to CPUs, graphics cards and the like.
For instance, CyberPower updated some of its gaming systems with AMD's Fusion A-Serial Llano APUs, while Eurocom made it possible to equip the Panther 3.0 with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M.
Advanced Micro Devices, naturally, has its own high-end video products, though it is its desktop model, not the notebook solution, that got remodeled in this case.
As seen on Gigabyte's website, the Radeon HD 6970 video controller was refashioned by Gigabyte in order to fit in with the WindForce 3X blueprint.
As some might remember or guess, WindForce 3X is one of Gigabyte's most effective active coolers, though it definitely isn't small or graceful.
Instead, it boasts a vapor chamber, three copper heatpipes, the same number of fans and a 3D-inclined fin design.
That said, the high cooling prowess naturally implies a serious level of video capability, especially considering the components used to enhance stability and endurance.
The 2oz copper PCB (printed circuit board) supports the CPU (clocked at 880 MHz), 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM (working at 5,500 MHz) and an interface of 256 bits, plus 1,536 Stream processors.
What's more, CrossFireX is supported (multi-GPU) and connectivity to displays is made possible by dual-DVI, DisplayPort and gold-plated HDMI connectors.
For those who want to know exactly what special components Gigabyte used, there are low RDS MOSFETs, a Proadlizer capacitor, Ferrite Core, Metal Chokes and Japanese solid capacitors.
The product name of the Gigabyte Radeon HD 6970 WindForce 3X is GV-R697UD-2GD rev 2.0 but, unfortunately, no pricing information exists.