For a long time now we’ve been hearing rumors about how monstrous R600 will be and then the rumors have mainly been about the size of it. Finally there are actual pictures of the card, although it is the OEM version that has been pictured and nothing else. This version measures 12.4″/31.5cm and is not for the retail market, these cards will be considerably shorter; 9.5″/24cm. The OEM card has a massive cooler with a huge heatsink taking up two expansion slots and the temperature is kept at bay with the help of a 24W fan, which doesn’t bode well for the level of noise. The power is drained through a 6-pin and an 8-pin PCIe power connector.
It seems there is more than just the size that separates OEM and retail since VR-Zone reports that OEM will consume 270W, while retail will only consume 240W. Exactly what makes them consume different amounts is hard to say and we don’t dare speculate either. Both cards sports a whopping 1GB GDDR4 memory and a 512-bit memory bus.
It seems there will only be two versions at the first launch; XTX and XT. The latter will consume just as much though, 240W, and be just as long as the retail XTX; 9.5″/24cm. The card will only have 512MB GDDR4 memory. The XL model will arrive later and whatever happened to the previously mentioned GT model we’re not sure, but it may very well arrive further up ahead as well.
VR-Zone has also received the same information as TheInq has about a water-cooled version of R600. There is currently discussions about who will make this cooler, but it seems to be between Aavid and Asetek. The card will not be much larger than the regular cards though as the cooler is suppose to be completely integrated with all components in a single package.
