A Closer Look

The cooler uses three DirectTouch copper heatpipes to quickly transport heat away from the GPU surface. Memory chips are not cooled at all. Only some airflow from the main fan moves across those.


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


The card uses a CHiL CHL 8225 for voltage control. It offers monitoring and software voltage-control features and is well supported through overclocking software.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Elpida and carry the model number W2032BBBG-60-F. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Tahiti graphics processor introduced the GCN shader architecture. It is also the first GPU to be produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 4.31 billion.

Please note that the package of the GPU is completely different to that of the regular Tahiti GPU. Regular Tahiti has a bigger substrate (green stuff), and the metal shim extends much closer to the GPU die. The Tahiti LE also has laser-etched writing on the die, while regular Tahiti GPUs are completely clean.