A Closer Look

MSI's new cooler uses a DirectTouch approach with a single copper heatpipe to distribute heat more efficiently all over the heatsink.


The card requires a single 6-pin PCI-Express power cables for operation. This power configuration is good for up to 150 W of power draw.


For voltage control the card uses the ST L6788A chip, which is the same as on many HD 5770 models. While it does offer software voltage control it severely lacks in the overclockers department. For example, it is not possible for software to read the current voltage, unless the chip is running on manual voltage mode (which is not the case when the card is at stock, with stock drivers).


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 Cape Verde graphics processor introduces a new shader architecture, it is also the second GPU to be produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The transistor count is 1.5 billion.