14 DAY TRIAL // It must be the approaching winter holidays or something, because otherwise no one could explain the ever-increasing number of new Radeon-based graphics cards to have recently surfaced on the Internet from major companies, such as PowerColor, Gainward or Palit.
The latest to join in is Taiwan's ASUSTek, which, as we already informed you over the weekend, introduced two new graphics cards based on AMD's latest AMD 4000-series graphics cards. Each card has been designed for a different desktop PC user, with the EAH4870X2 being targeted at gaming and technology enthusiasts, while the EAH4830 comes to meet the requirements of mainstream users. Aside from the specially designed cooling solution, the specifications of the two additions are also noteworthy, so read on for more details.
The new cards have been created with a boost of performance over reference designs in mind, which is why they come equipped with a custom cooling solution. While the HD 4830-based model comes with a silent fansink, the high-end EAH4870 X2 has been equipped with a skive-fin heatsink that features no less than three large fans to guarantee a temperature as low as of 24 degrees Celsius for the two GPUs.
What is even more impressive is that ASUS has managed to fit three fans on a cooling system that will take just one additional PCI Express graphics slot on a user's motherboard, unlike last week's Palit's Radeon 4870 X2 behemoth, which boasted a massive tri-slot cooling solution.
In terms of specifications, the new Radeon graphics cards from the Taiwanese manufacturer come to deliver the best performance potential in their class. While the Radeon HD 4870 X2 delivers 2GB of DDR5 memory, running at 3.6GHz and a 750MHz-running GPU, the EAH4830 comes with just 512MB of GDDR3 memory running at 2GHz and a 575MHz graphics core. Both cards can provide two DVI-I outputs, and support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1 API and for ATI's CrossFireX technology for multi-graphics systems.
No word on specific pricing or availability at this time, but, for the high-end EAH4870X2, ASUS will offer customers a special bundle that includes a leather CD wallet.
