Review (PowerColor) AMD Radeon HD 6790: Affordable yet Powerful

The Graphics Card

PowerColor’s HD 6970 uses custom PCB design and non-reference cooler. The PCB board is also red in color, instead of black as found on reference HD 6790 cards.

The non-reference HSF uses three copper heatpipes to transfer heat from the “base plate” to the aluminum fins above. There, a 9-cm fan blows air to dissipate the heat.

Unigine Heaven benchmark application was used to give the graphics card a good load for temperature measurements. Here are the temperature readings:

PowerColor HD 6790, Temperature

• Full-load: 65 °C (fan speed 41 %)
• Idle: 39 °C (fan speed 20 %)

In contrast with the standard, reference card, PowerColor’s HD 6790 draws power from a single PCIe 6-pin connector. This card requires at least a 500 watt PSU.

Right behind the power connector, there is the VRM assembly of the graphics card.