Up Close & Personal (Cont.)

Now that we have checked the front of the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO graphics card in more details, it is time to turn the card over and take a closer look at the back of the card. As you might already know, the front is quite often the most exciting part of the video card as it features the cooling system and the main electronic components. On the other hand the back side should not be neglected as it features the smaller though important resistors that control the behavior of the graphics card. Join us while we reveal some more details...

A bit more plain and simple that's the least you can say about the back side of the video card. In fact there isn't that much to see and therefore becomes less spectacular. However we will try to uncover as much as possible by giving some impressions. All the major components are brought to the front of the card so the back side will only reveal some minor parts like electronic interconnections and resistors. On the back we also find back a white sticker detailing which card we have in our hands and some serials numbers.

The full blow PCB gets revealed by just turning the card around, and it does look very familiar. When just looking at the major concentration points of electronic components and the layout, it just resembles like the well know Radeon X1900 series. The card is just as big in terms of length. So by just looking at the back, you can't really tell if this is a Radeon X1950 PRO or not... Except for the sticker of course. As with all ATI based video cards, the back is quite plain and simple, with just the smaller components like resistors, chips and regulators. And of course the soldering points of the components that have been placed on the front of the PCB.

The main concentration of very small resistors indicates that on the other side of the PCB you will find one of the main components. On the PCB we spotted the position of the GPU itself, the RV570 chip. This is outlined by the four screws with in the middle quite a lot of resistors. These screws will hold the main core heatsink in place. Around the four white plastic protection rings you can spot in total eight other points of interest. As you can guess already those will be the positions of the graphics memory.

And yes we found something we haven't seen yet on other ATI based graphics accelerators, located at the top of the board and looking somehow familiar. No it isn't a SLI connection as it is too big and it comes in a pair. New to the Radeon X1950 PRO is the inclusion of an internal CrossFire connector. Gone is the need for a master and slave card configuration. This time around ATI has integrated the CrossFire compositing engine into the graphics core itself. The communication between the graphics cards in CrossFire is performed via an internal CrossFire connector. The internal CrossFire connector is expected to ship with the graphics card and be a ribbon type cable, similar to some SLI bridge connectors.

We finally arrive at the rear I/O plate, where you can find a dual DVI and S-Video output. A standard configuration since the Radeon X1K series. As already mentioned PowerColor opted for a different approach then the reference design, which in the end will be in their favor. The PowerColor version, comes with a silent cooling system designed by Arctic Cooling. So for those that have made up their mind to go for the Radeon X1950 PRO graphics card, just think about what you get as added value from PowerColor... Silence! So think twice before you turn your head away.