Posted on Monday, September 19 2011 @ 21:01 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
TechPowerUp
published six photos of ColorFire's upcoming dual-GPU Xstorm HD 6850 X2 4GB graphics card. Special features include silver plating on most of the PCB's contacts and DIP-switched based voltage control.
With this card, the designers are trying out what they call "Silver-Plated Technology". All of the PCB's contacts (the metal-exposed parts onto which components are soldered), apart from the PCIe and CFBE interfaces, are plated with silver. Silver is one of the best conductors. ColorFire argues that the use of silver contacts reduces resistance, and also helps with cooling.
The next interesting feature is the use of DIP-switched based voltage control, which is an old-school yet direct and effective way of tuning voltages. Voltage measurement points are consolidated to a convenient location (next to the power connectors), and are angled for easy access. Lastly, a pair of jumpers near the display output connectors, allows you to switch between two sets of EEPROMs, each having a different clock and voltage profile.
