A Closer Look

PowerColor's Vortex cooler uses a copper base and several heatpipes to keep the card cool. You can, by rotating the frame of the fans, move the fan further out of the cooler, which promises slightly improved cooling potential.


The metal backplate protects the card against damage. It provides no additional cooling.


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. You can see a black piece of metal right below the power connectors if you take a close look at them. This makes plugging the PCIe cables in and out a bit more difficult.


For voltage control the card uses a CHiL CHL8228G, which is a common voltage controller nowadays. It offers software voltage control, comprehensive monitoring features, and is well supported by most overclocking software.


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 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.