A Closer Look

The ASUS thermal solution is a cost-effective design with two heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU's surface.


A second heatsink is revealed once the main heatsink has been removed; it provides cooling for the VRM circuitry.


Near the back of the card is a fan connector that is in sync with the GPU fans. You could hook up a case fan that will stop completely outside of games. The main source of heat nowadays being the graphics card, attached case fans will run at the same speed as the GPU's fans that base their speed on how hot the card runs, which is a great idea!


ASUS has upgraded the reference design power configuration to a 6-pin power input. This power configuration is specified for up to 150 W of power draw.


ASUS has rebranded their voltage controller, and I have no idea what model was originally used.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Micron and carry the model number D9SXD, which decodes to MT51J256M32HF-70. They are specified to run at 1750 MHz (7000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Baffin graphics processor is the second chip featuring the company's Polaris architecture. It is produced on a 14 nm process at Globalfoundries, USA, and has a transistor count of 3 billlion and a die size of 123 mm².