A Closer Look

The cooler is very basic and doesn't even need to use a copper base to keep the card cool. Four thermal pads cool the memory, which is kind of pointless because the four DDR2 memory chips on the other side of the card are not cooled at all (and don't need it). A possible reason for such an approach however is that the four thermal pads add extra stability to the heatsink so crushing or chipping the core is much more unlikely during production and use.


A power connector is not needed for this card because it barely consumes any power. The PCI-Express bus can supply the required current easily.


I haven't seen a video card with DDR2 memory in quite some time. The chips are made by Hynix and have the model number HY5PS1G1631CFP-S6. The S6 stands for a cycle time of 2.5 ns (=400 MHz) and a latency setting of 6-6-6 (tCL, tRCD, tRP). Overall a very unimpressive memory selection in my opinion, at least it overclocks beyond 500 MHz.


AMD's new RV635 GPU is tiny (= cheap) thanks to its 55 nm production process.