PowerColor has an interesting version of of the Radeon HD 3870 X2, which is actually shorter than the reference design from ATI. This card features a brand new cooler and it requires just two 6-pin power connectors (no 8-pin). We found out that the card is overclocked, but we're not sure to what frequencies. Different power connectors is good news for those who don’t have an 8-pin PCIe connector on their PSU.
Due to the shorter PCB, the PLX chip has been relocated. Since it doesn’t require cooling, it was simply pushed down, and the resulting empty space between the two RV670 chips has been used up by one of them, so the card ended up being shorter.
The I/O side features 4 DVI connectors and one S-Video out.
The card is much lighter than the reference design, and it’s mostly due to the aluminum cooler that performs really well.
PowerColor also has a reference design card running at 825/900MHz and it sells for €391, here. The price of this overclocked version will be a bit steeper.
