PowerColor LCS HD6970 Review

PowerColor LCS HD6970 Review

Introduction

Back when we first got our hands on the HD6970 from AMD we found it to be a good performing card, but intolerably noisy and hot. To be one or the other is not good, but acceptable. To be both isn’t so fancy.

Of course there are two major ways to be cool and quiet. Either have a third-party cooler with a much better design and array of fans or, as is the case here, put the whole thing into a watercooled loop.

Watercooling has moved a long way from the early days and with non-conductive liquids and much higher quality fittings it’s no longer the scary upgrade it once was. The major problem is the voiding of your warranty should you choose to fit a waterblock to your graphics card.

PowerColor have helpfully got around those problems by fitting a full-cover EK water-block to their HD6970 to give us the LCS HD6970 and that’s what we’re taking a look at today.

Technical Specifications

Beneath that Acetal top beats a standard HD6970 overclocked just shy of the 940MHz that we find on the PowerColor PCS+. If there is one thing that the watercooling should ensure it’s much greater overclocking headroom than we saw on the PCS+.

Graphics Engine RADEON HD6970
Video Memory 2GB GDDR5
Engine Clock 925MHz
Memory Clock 1425MHz (5.7Gbps)
Memory Interface 256bit
DirectX® Support 11
Bus Standard PCIE 2.1
Standard Display Connecors DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/2* mini DisplayPort
OpenGL Support
CrossFireXâ„¢ Technology Support
ATI Stream Technology Support
ATI Eyefinity Technology Support
VGA Output Via Adapter
DVI Output DL-DVI-I/ SL-DVI-D
DisplayPort On Board
HDMI On Board
HDCP Support Support
VGA 2048×1536
DVI 2560×1600
DisplayPort 2560×1600
HDMI 1920×1200
Board Dimensions 275mmx111.2mmx38mm
Minimum System Power requirement (W) 550W
Extention Power Connector One 6-Pin and One 8-Pin PCI Express Power connectors

Time to get up close and personal with the LCS.