A Closer Look

ASUS is using a total of three heatpipes, two of which are twice as long to keep the card cool. You can also see a memory pad here; it cools some of the memory chips (not all). The remaining chips are cooled by the airflow of the fans.


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


ASUS rebranded their voltage controller; I suspect it's a model from uPI or CHIL.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Elpida and carry the model number W2032BBBG-6A-F. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Pitcairn graphics processor uses the GCN shader architecture. It is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 2.8 billion.