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This is the bracket mechanism on the back of the card that secures the cooling system firmly to the VPU/PCB. The spring loaded brace has a foam spacer so the bracket does not short on the the PCB components. Since I have the tools at hand I went ahead and removed the HSF bracket assembly as I wanted to know what was underneath the all metal cooler.
 
PowerColor decided to use the tier one manufactured SAMSUNG K4J55323QF-GC20 Graphic Double Data Rate 3 (GDDR3) Synchronous DRAM with Uni-directional Data Strobe. Supporting up to 500MHz Maximum Fequency with a data rate of 1000Mbps/pin.
The GDDR3 used on the PowerColor X800XL support CAS latencies of 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 with a programmable write latency of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. This gives manufacturers a lot of headspace for compatibility and integration. These modules are packaged in a very small 144 Ball FBGA configuration and again are connected to the PCB with a 256-bit interface.
 
The PowerColor cooling fan is quiet and cools very well. The duct fan design pushes high volumes of air at significantly low sound noise levels, keeping the card very cool, even under extreme 3D gaming. Being one of the first all metal HSF's, I wanted to see the underneath of this cooler and the X800XL VPU.
 
The PowerColor cooling system is comprised of an all metal VPU sink assembly with a T&T 7010HH12C-NFC 0.39Amp, 12VDC, 15 blade "ducted fan" design. The base is solid metal with integrated sink fins molded into the casting. The shroud is then attached to the base with 4 small Philips head screws. The base is then fitted with foam stabilizers to prevent the HSF assembly from shifting around.
The HSF is machined with a stepped VPU surface area which is end milled with a precision computer assisted machining process that mills the base to proper height and size. While most companies chose to use a copper base cooler, PowerColor chose stainless steel and for good reason, the VPU does not emit such thermal radiation to require a copper solution making this cooling system more than enough HSF for the PowerColor X800XL.
 
This is the ATI R430 the heart of the X800XL. Basically what we are seeing here is a X800Pro video processing unit code named R430. Integrating 160 million transistors, native PCI-Express support, 400MHz core clock, 500MHz memory clock.
Size Comparison:
Comparing physical characteristics of the R43C-TVD3D with the NV45 product, we can see the PowerColor X800XL incorporates a smaller PCB, single slot design, runs significantly cooler and weighs less than its counterpart. These are design attributes that will offer an over-all greater compatibility with standardized and proprietary hardware.
 
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ASUS 9800GTX+ (DK) PCIe 512MB - Rev 01
