Another View, Turning the Spotlight...

Now that we have checked the front of the Jetway Radeon HD 2900 XT 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. Most of the card is red in color, from the red PCB to the red-tinged clear shroud and the red blower fan. Join us while we reveal some more details...

Moving on to the other side of the card is a bit less spectacular as there is not so much to see. However we will try to uncover as much as possible so give you some impressions. All the major components are brought to the front so the back side will only reveal some minor parts like electronic interconnections and resistors. The back of the Radeon HD 2900 XT is occupied by a large black heat spreader and a stainless steel backplate. This backplate is needed to keep the heavy cooler in place, providing an extra stiff and rigid towards the PCB. On the back we also fine back one green sticker detailing which card we have in our hands and some serials numbers, with also another white sticker some extra information.

Upon checking the back it does look familiar, and does recall somehow to the previous high-end Radeon X1950 XTX based graphics cards. The card is rather big and of similar length of the GeForce 8800 GTS edition. The back is for a large part covered by the black backplate, and we also notice the X-shaped square which holds the inner part of the cooling heatsink. 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 card looks very solid with the black bracket, with a rigid feeling.

So what else can be found on the back side of the Radeon HD 2900 XT card? Well each component with some importance that can be seen on the front side will have some pinouts to the back. On the PCB we spotted the position of the GPU itself, the high-end R600 chip. This one is outlined by the squared X-shaped metal holding clip with on each end a screw. These screws will hold the main core copper heatsink in place. What caught our attention as well is the high amount of small resistors which outline the actual graphics core. Oh indeed, as you might already have figured out it is a huge core. Around that we can see the black bracket covering a certain amount of soldering points; those are where the memory chips are located.

And yes we found something we haven't seen that much 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. With the Radeon HD 2900 XT you get again 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. The main difference although is that you need two of these CrossFire flexible cables to get the multi-GPU function up and running.

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 HD 2900 series. This allows you to support up to two 30" LCD monitors without wasting any on a CrossFire dongle. The Radeon HD 2900 XT requires some extra power, in addition to the power that is supplied via the PCI Express slot which is common for a high-end graphics card. As already mentioned Jetway opted for the reference design as most manufacturers, which isn't a bad idea. The exhaust grill is positioned just above these interfaces and will guide the hot air out of the system. ATI has made sure that due to this new cooling design the thermal efficiency has improved...