HD5670 1GB GDDR5 Detailed Features

The passive cooling unit on the AX5670 is comprised of four heat pipes which transfer the heat from the GPU to an aluminum radiator mounted to the front side of the card.

Above the GPU, four slots are punched vertically through the radiator fins from the bottom to the top. The purpose of these slots is unclear, but it could be for styling or better cooling. The hot GPU will tend to add more heat to parts of the radiator that are in close proximity. These slots will allow greater air flow and may even cause a miniature convection loop over the GPU.

The top of the radiator is capped in plastic for design and to provide a place for a pretty logo. From this perspective additional heat sinks can be seen on the ICs on the front side of the card. These will help improve performance and reduce power consumption by lowering the normal operating temperature of the IC's.

A closeup of the actual heat sink assembly shows an aluminum block which clamps the heat pipes to a copper heat transfer block. Copper is a great choice since the thermal conductivity of copper is 1.6 times higher than aluminum. It costs more but is more effective.

One final note on the quality of construction. The PCB received for testing contained a white residue on the back of the PCB. A closeup of one small area can be seen in the image above. There are a myriad of things that can cause residue on a PCB ranging from the benign to the damaging. Typically it will result from the soldering or cleaning process. In all cases it results in a dirty board. In this case the card functioned well enough so the residue may have simply been a nuisance.

<< Previous Page - Next Page >>