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As even mainstream graphics cards get more and more powerful, they need ever more cooling. This in turn leads to larger, faster fans and yet more noise from inside the PC, especially when the fans get dusty or the bearings begin to wear out.
An ideal way to combat this problem is to get rid of the fan completely, which is what Sapphire has done with its latest card based on ATI's Radeon 9600XT - the Radeon 9600XT Ultimate Edition.
Working with Zalman, the masters of quiet cooling, Sapphire has produced a card that relies on Zalman's heatpipe technology. In place of the fan there is a large heatsink on the front of the card and another on the rear, with a single heatpipe connecting the two. This neat solution keeps the card as a single slot card.
Along with all the standard hardware, cables, adapters and user manual, there is a software bundle comprising Redline (Sapphire's own overclocking utility), Power-DVD XP4.0, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, a Direct X9 game and the standard issue for a XT card - the Half Life 2 voucher, redeemable should the game ever appear.
It's a shame that with this cooling solution Sapphire didn't try and push up the core and clock memory speeds.
Contact: Ebuyer
www.ebuyer.com
See also:
This graphics card is similar in looks to ATi's reference design but how does it compare on performance. 01 Apr 2004
Is this graphics card any better than others in its price segment? 18 Mar 2004
This graphics card comes with a unique PDF (Plasma Display Fan). 09 Mar 2004
Is this all-in-wonder 9600 Pro really the beast of all graphics cards? 05 Feb 2004All Graphics Cards
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