For the new RV570 GPU, ATI has chosen a new card layout. The card, including its cooling solution, only takes up a single slot. The cooling solution covers all major components of the video card and is covered by a semi-transparent layer of red plastic.

The GPU is surrounded by 8 GDDR3 memory chips that add up to a total of 256Mbytes with a total clock of 1,380MHz. The GPU itself is in direct contact with the heatsink, allowing for better transfer of heat. Directly to the left of the GPU in the bottom left corner of the photo the ATI Rage Theater card can be seen.

As we said earlier on in this article, the X1950 PRO uses a new method to implement Crossfire technology. There is no longer any need for a Master card in order to have a Crossfire setup. ATI has also knocked off any need for the external cable and has replaced it with internal connectors similar to what NVIDIA uses for their SLI technology.

dall'altro verso il basso: SLI, Crossfire, SLI

Although the Crossfire connector looks very similar to the SLI connector, it has a different way of being implemented. ATI has given each card two contacts and so, instead of one, two connectors are used. In theory, this is to supply advanced bandwidth between the two cards and is used to help avoid bottleneck conditions that are a result of the use of extremely high resolutions and filters.