14 DAY TRIAL // While ATI, business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, is diligently working on its next generation of graphics processing units, with the added peace of mind that its HD 5970 is still performance-king, its partners are left with making do with what they have on hand. Fortunately, they have quite a lot, namely an entire collection of DirectX 11-compliant adapters capable of covering the entire market. This means that, for quite some months to come, hardware makers will have enough models to base their customized adapters on.
Club3D decided that the time for an update was sooner than later, so it brought out a new version of the ATI Radeon HD 5550. Obviously a DirectX 11-capable video controller, the device has an advantage over the stock model, in that it does not need a fan to stay cool at all times. Basically, the new card is called Club3D HD 5550 Noiseless Edition because it makes do with just a heatsink for cooling, albeit a massive one.
The HD 5550 Noiseless Edition is powered by the Redwood GPU, which is based on the 40nm manufacturing process technology. This processor has a frequency of 550Mhz and is coupled with 512MB GDDR3, operating on a 128-bit interface and at a clock speed of 1,600MHz. The card is full-height and its heatsink, composed of multiple heatpipes and an aluminum fin block, takes up two expansion slots. As for connectivity, the card has DVI-D, D-Sub and HDMI outputs (with on-chip 7.1HD audio with DTS).
Unfortunately, as it often occurs when a new product emerges, the manufacturer failed to mention what price tag the new video board would sport. Considering the base model and the overall HD 5000 pricing scheme, however, it can be speculated that the final price will be somewhere in between 60 and 70 Euro.