PowerColor PCS+ AX6770 1GBD5-PPVG Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: I play Day of defeat(DoD) and RIFT. In day of defeat my (F)rames (P)er (S)econd FPS are running a solid 100 and in RIFT on Ultra I run 57 FPS, On High everything maxxed out I am running 44 FPS, Before this card I was running a MSI 8600 XXX w/ 512mb on board and could get 4 FPS in RIFT.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I have yet been able to max this card out to see what it is capable of.

Pros: This has to be one of the better looking 6770s. I like the adjustable fan shroud. Even with the fan maxed out at 100% its not very loud, but i do have a lot of case fans. So far I have only played with OC a little, but have gotten as far as 960/1275.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Video cards are not the problem when you don't have room to crossfire them on your motherboard. You need to be aware of the clearance your MB has for video cards and plan accordingly. I look forward to getting my 2nd one of these to complete my CF set.

Pros: Excellent cooling design, great price, I agree with many of "Crazy" positive thoughts, You could say you are either getting a free custom cooler, or a free HD-6770 with your purchase. But "Crazy" didn't rate the video card fairly, (see other thoughts). He should correct his rating.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Crazy should not have rated an excellent video card 3 stars when he made poor choices on other products, New Egg has plenty of motherboards with extra spacing between video slots I have three from as long as 6 years ago and recent. Plus a single HD6770 is a good choice for gamer's. New Egg also has many single slot video cards available for those that didn't plan ahead. And PowerColor has very good product line all with some of the best cooling choices in the industry.

Pros: One of the coolest looking video cards I have seen. Not as powerful as some of the long rectangular boxes but far more appealing to look at. Brushless motor ball bearing fan. Nice copper heatsink base. Fan can be removed for easier access to the heatsink for cleaning.

Cons: I attempted to set this card up in crossfire with another 6770 but there was hardly any clearance between the fan blades/shroud and the adjacent video card PCB. This clearly was going to restrict airflow but I guessed that enough air would get through the ~2mm gap to keep it from overheating. I didn't even have the opportunity to load the drivers because when the computer was turned on, the blades made a terrible sound when they struck the 2nd cards heatsink mounting screws on each revolution. The blades cleared the screws but would close the gap when spinning due to lift. I tried to get as much spacing as possible between the cards but eventually the thermal expansion would shrink the tiny gap and the blades would grind against the screws. I was trying to make adjustments while it was running to monitor fan operation and maintain adequate clearance. The heat pipes were hot enough to cause burns if contact was longer than a couple seconds. Eventually I had to call it quits.

Other Thoughts: I don't believe this problem is unique. Most higher performance video cards take up two slots and the spacing of the PCI-E slots is pretty much standard. With cards configured for crossfire there is pretty much no space between them which means very little airflow to at least one of the intake fans. Heatsinks with decent surface area and thermally conductive materials are still useless if no air flows through them to remove the heat. The best fan design will also fail if the intake is almost completely blocked. This card probably runs great on its own but a single 6770 is less GPU processing power than most gamers would like to ensure higher framerates at maximum settings. I used to think water cooling was a luxury but after seeing (and feeling) just how hot many GPU's can get, I now realize it is a worthy investment. I will never crossfire with a fan based cooling solution again unless MB's allow greater spacing between the cards (not likely).

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for the feedback, we didn't run into this problem internally but a few people have contacted us with similar problems o in future models we will be going with a sightly different screw design to avoid these problems. Thanks again.

Hugo