Powercolor HD6970 PCS+ Review – silent and deadly

The HD6970 PCS+ ships in a colourful box which features a stylish picture of the Buggati Veyron on the front. Clearly Powercolor are aiming high, as this car is one of the fastest ever developed (The EB model has achieved 267 mph).

The bundle is comprehensive. It contains literature on the product, a crossfire cable, a VGA adapter, HDMI converter cable, power converter cable, a software disc and a free game – Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The PowerColor HD6970 PCS+ is a seriously impressive looking card. It is built around a very attractive red PCB (Powercolor custom design) with a dual fan cooler residing on top. Each of the fans is larger than the reference design, featuring 9 angular blades for improved air flow.

There are four thick heatpipes emerging from the copper contact base, they split into two groups (of two), transfering the heat into dual sets of aluminum fins.

Connectivity is strong with 2 miniDisplayport connectors being complimented by an HDMI 1.4A output and 2 DVI ports (one DL and one SL). Two Crossfire connectors for multiple CFx 2/3/4 configurations. The HD6970 PCS+ requires an eight pin and a six pin power connector (same as the reference design).

On closer inspection the cooler is a multi tier design with each of the heatpipes targeting a row of aluminum fins on each side of the copper contact block.

The eight memory chips are Hynix H5Q2H24MFa ROC chips – 64Mx32 organised FBGA modules, rated at 1.6volts and up to 6GBps (1500mhz max memory clock).  They are shipped on this product at 5.7Gbps, so we are hoping for some good overclocking results later in the review.

An overview of the card specifications via the latest version of GPUz.

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