Silent videocard on chip ATI Radeon HD 2600XT

Evgenie Rudometov

Rudometov@rudometov.com

Using the firm operating time, company Gigabyte has released the next silent model of a videocard

Modern high-powered and difficult on the inner pattern semiconducting video chips are characterised by considerable level teploobrazovanija.

For support of their correct operation as a part of efficient videocards adequate resources of cooling are required. Such resources traditionally presented by heat sinks, the supplied powerful fans, are powerful sources of acoustic noise.

As well as generated by semiconductor chips warmly, noise is the negative factor with which designers try to struggle. Realising reachings of research and development divisions, they offer various variants of optimal constructions of systems of cooling. In some cases they manage to create quiet and even completely silent models of rather high-powered videocards.

As an example of one of such solutions it is possible to result videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H created on the basis of rather powerful video chip (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU) — ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT.

GPU ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

Geometry processor GPU ATI Radeon HD used in videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H 2600 XT belongs to ATI Radeon HD 2600 set. Its key parametres are resulted in Table 1.

Table 1. Key parametres GPU ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

Code name	RV630
The "know-how", micron	0,065
Number of transistors, million	390
Frequency of a kernel, MHz	600-800
Memory type	GDDR3/GDDR4
The bus of memory, bit	128
Frequency of memory, MHz	1400/2200
Pass-band of memory, Gbyte/with	22,4/35,2
Memory size, Mb	256
The interface	PCI Express x16

Package and videocard key parametres

The package of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H is presented in a Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. A package of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H

The structure of a package of a videocard includes brightly painted packing box and videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H created on the basis of video chip ATI Radeon HD 2600XT. Them supplement: two adapters DVI-I in D-Sub; general-purpose splitter S-Video/RCA/YPbPr; a bridge lath — bridge CrossFire, used for interconnection of the videocards banked in a two-card pattern; the user manual in English and Chinese languages; CD-ROM with drivers, DVD c game Neverwinter Nights 2 and the brochure with its description.

Key parametres of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H are resulted in Table 2.

Table 2. Key parametres of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H

Units and subsystems	Parametres
The geometry processor	ATI Radeon HD 2600XT
The hooking up interface	PCI Express x16
Speed of the bus	x16
Size of a video memory, Mb	256
Width the bus of a video memory, bit	128
Video memory type	GDDR3 16Mx32
D-SUB	Yes (through the adapter)
TV-OUT	Yes
DVI	Yes (DVI-I)
VIVO	No
MultiView	Yes

The minimum system requirements necessary for correct operation of a videocard, are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. The minimum system requirements

Units and subsystems	Parametres
The central processor unit	Intel of Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon
The hooking up interface	PCI Express x16
Size of dynamic storage, Mb	512 (1024 or more – for bolshej productivity)
The optical drive for installation ON	CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
The operating system	OS Windows Vista, Windows XP with SP2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Power supply unit, W	550

The videocard supports Direct  10 and OpenGL  2.0, processing technique Avivo for playback HD video, and also processing technique ATI CrossFire — the development of company ATI fulfilling the same functions, as SLI from its constant competitor in the name of Nvidia.

For the organisation of the pattern realising processing technique ATI CrossFire, two maps Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H, and also the motherboard with two PCI slots Expess x16 are required . For support of simultaneous operation of two maps it is recommended to use a power supply unit of adequate power. Considering, that such patterns are oriented to high-powered systems in which use powerful, energozatratnye accessories, it is expedient to apply powerful power supplies, for example, 800 or even 1000 W.

 

Features of a construction

Widespread resources of cooling of the high-powered video chips, consisting of the heat sink and the fan, generate, as is known, considerable acoustic noise. The alternative solutions which are not using fans, constructions from the compact heat sinks jointed by special heat-conducting handsets (Heat Pipe) are. Such path was selected for a number of the silent models of videocards by designers of company Gigabyte. One of such solutions has laid down in a basis of system of cooling of the video chip (GPU) in videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H (a Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Appearance of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H

The principle of operation of thermal handsets is grounded on thermophysics of transformation of the liquids concluded in hollow handsets, vehicles of transmission of thermal energy playing a role. Usage of thermal handsets allows to create silent constructions from the several heat sinks jointed together. Such constructions effectively disseminate redundant heat GPU at the expense of the internal air streams provided with case fans at complete absence of acoustic noise from the videocard. The method of cooling with usage of the specified passive systems has been named by experts Gigabyte processing technique Silent-Pipe. This processing technique has received the implementation in a number of silent models of videocards of the given company.

Such, completely the passive construction also has been taken as a principle systems of cooling of video chip ATIRadeon HD 2600 XT, used in sotave videocards Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H.

From one more feature it is necessary to mark application of modern solid-state capacitors. In comparison with traditional oksidnymi (elektroliticheskimi) capacitors, they have the best characteristics and provide more durable operation. Usage of such capacitors increases period of the accident-free service of the arrangement.

As to productivity of the specified videocard it has been estimated in the course of testing.

 

Productivity

Pattern of the system used in testing of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H:

·         the Motherboard of Intel D975XBX (a chip set i975X),

·         the Processor of Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Conroe, Dual Core, 65 nanometers, 2,93 GHz, the bus — 1066 MHz, L2  — 4 Mb),

·         Dynamic storage DDR2 667, two Apacer units on 1 Gbyte, two channels,

·         Videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H (chip ATIRadeon HD 2600XT, bus PCI Express x16),

·         Hard disk drive Seagate in 7200.10 size of 750 Gbytes,

·         OC Operating system Windows 2003 Enterprise Server.

The performance level of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H is characterised by the numerical data resulted in Table 4 and in a Fig. 3. As matching objects the videocards created on the basis of chips ATI Radeon X600 and Nvidia GeForce 5600 have been selected. Each of these cards was in due time among champions. Using them as measurement standards, it is possible to estimate evolutionary reachings not only in the field of acoustic noise lowering, but also in productivity growth.

Table 4. Results of performance of the test 3DMark05

Videocards	Results
GV-RX26T256H	10267
ATI Radeon X600	2293
Nvidia GeForce 5600	993

Fig. 3. Results of performance of the test 3DMark05

The cited data testify to high efficiency of videocard Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H. And though in a number of tests the given videocard conceded in high-speed performance to models with active systems of cooling a little, its productivity was quite enough for the majority of tasks, including many modern dynamical games.

In summary it is possible to recommend the given map to a wide range of users which are interested in usage of silent and rather high-powered video subsystems.

Videocard GV-RX26T256H has been given by the Moscow office of company Gigabyte