The Card

The Radeon X1950 Pro card is sized the same as most other current ATi cards; measuring a full 230mm long.  Users with space concerns for their case need to keep this length in mind as it doesn't include the extra space needed for the PCI-E 6-pin power connector.  Still focusing on the physical presence of the card, you may notice that it is a dual slot design like most every other high end VGA cards.  HIS separates themselves from the crowd by their IceQ3 Cooler which we'll look at more closely in just a second.

Without laying out a laundry list of features, the Radeon 1950 Pro is effectively an updated X1900 GT sporting the same base GPU and Memory clock (for non HIS turbo versions) and same numbers of Pixel and Vertex Shaders at 36 and 8 respectively.  What is different is ATi's shift to putting Crossfire Master capacity on every card for the most concrete of spelling out differences.  Up until now, if you wanted to run a dual VGA setup with ATi you needed a Crossfire Edition Master card and then any other Crossfire ready card you wanted.  With Crossfire you can mix and match cards a bit but keep in mind, your system is only as strong as its weakest link.  With the newer Radeons, ATi has put the controller on each and every card they make which opens up availability and ease to those masses seeking dual ATi video card powered rigs.

HIS has a long history of offering products as overclocked from the factory.  These products sport the designation of "Turbo"  The Radeon X1950 Pro spec GPU and memory speeds are 575MHz and 690MHz (1380MHz).  Our review sample today is a HIS Turbo edition card.  This card comes out of the box with the core speed jacked up to 620MHz and the memory clocked at 740MHz (1480MHz).  This represents a nice edge right out of the box over the competition.  With the card's IceQ3 cooling assembly it should be more than able to handle these speeds. 

The HIS Digital IceQ3 cooler assembly is something we've shown you before but let's touch on the high points again.  On one end is a 70mm fan that is seated in a UV reactive acrylic housing.  Air is drawn in from the top and bottom of the impeller blades and channeled through the housing over the heatsink.  The fan is controlled via a sensor that adjusts its speed based on the level of heat detected.  This is a huge plus in that it keeps the IceQ3 operating at a low speed which also means low volume until extra cooling is needed when the fan speed increases according to that need.

The heatsinks over the memory and GPU are both copper construction.  I say both because HIS has chosen to separate the GPU and the memory heatsinks to keep temperatures from one not heating the other.  Sometimes better is as we see here, just doing things smarter.  The GPU cooler is a high fin count unit providing lots of surface area to dissipate heat from.  Efficiency is amplified by the use of a single heatpipe with a sintered powder wick to help radiate heat off the core to the upper fins as quickly as possible.  And you thought heatpipes were for CPU coolers only.

The warm air coming off the heatsinks is exhausted out of the back half of the acrylic housing and case rear.  The expansion slot guard you saw in the "What you get" section gets installed here to keep aesthetics clean.  Also visible at the business end are the dual DVI ports and VIVO plug.