A Closer Look

The ASUS heatsink uses three heatpipes and two large fans to keep the card cool. Please note the use of DirectTouch heatpipes, which make direct contact with the GPU core, without the need for a cooling baseplate.


The card uses two external 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors. This power configuration is good for up to 225 W of power draw.


For voltage control both cards use the CHil CHL8225 controller, which is essentially the same as the CHL 8228 that's used on many high-end cards. It does offer extensive software voltage control and monitoring features and is well-supported by most overclocking software.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Hynix, and carry the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's new Pitcairn graphics processor completes the AMD 28 nm GPU stack. It is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC, with a transistor count of 2.8 billion.