Interesting to note

[=VG= Murderface0151]

Hey guys

as some of you may know, i purchased a Sapphire HD7770 in the past week and having arrived (after the biggest logistical fuck around that i've ever been lucky enough to recieve) in one piece. i took a peek inside...

what i found was delightful, a really nice card. good midrange FPS and what not but ill get into that with an unboxing thread (still to come). What i found interesting was the amazing changes in the PCBs of todays cards - the amount of bullshit on the back has decreased a great deal (see attached photo), pretty nice to see physical evidence of technological advancement... about time lol.

would just like to ask anyone in the know exactly how they have reduced the amount of clutter on the back, but increased performance. do they just locate it elsewhere or am i missing something?

Visual difference between a 4850 (top) and a 7770 (bottom)

[=VG= poffadder]

A lot of the circuitry has been reduced to ICs (integrated circuits.) Most of these ICs are on the top side of the board (under the cooler.) Every thing gets smaller by the year and when circuits get small enough, they can be implemented on a small chip so multiple chips can be used on a smaller space.

Also It's important to note that while technology is advancing, circuity is getting more efficient because designers are using the newest integrated electronics that they have available and they have gained experience from previous technologies and learnt where to cut down.

High end cards still have a lot of that clutter because they want to fit as much on the board as they can to maximise the performance of the GPU. here is the underside of a 7870:
http://img.hexus.net/v2/graphics_cards/amd/7870OC/giga-3.jpg

Also I hope your cases top fan is in a pull configuration and that your cooler is pushing air across the heat sink.

[pigfarmer203]

i did come real close to buying the 7770 it was a close race with the gtx560.i did end up going with nvidia,the gtx560.

[=VG= Murderface0151]

how is the 560 pig? i've heard good reviews for it.

and Poff, top fan is non-op. fan is a push fan - so yes it's being fired through the h/s.

thanks for the info btw, guessed that a bit of it was hidden lol.. and thats quite a difference with the 7870. sucks to be me i guess :P when the 7770s are in OC beast domination vagina. it should crank hard

[=VG= poffadder]

If you have a back pull fan you should really turn your cooler 90* anti-clockwise. You are pulling warm air off of your graphics card and you need to take the air out of the case after it comes off the cooler. (warm air rising kind of works but an extractor fan improves air flow significantly.)

[=VG= Murderface0151]

sadly the cooler mounts don't work that way lol, so im kind of stuck with it like that, and i dont want to be shitting hot air onto the GPU. really low temps on this card, and as a result my CPU temps have gone down significantly

[pigfarmer203]

all right got some info on the GTX560 for me im using the EVGA PrecisionX v3.0.2 for my reading on dayZ where: GPU:851MHz,50-60 FPS ,GPU temps are 64*C,and my CPU is running at 44*C. my board is ASUS M4A88T-M,processor is AMD Athlon II X4 640,cooled by cooler master 212 EVO,ram is Ballistix by Crucial 2-4GB 1333 with a 500 watt power supply this system is about 4 months old doing very good!

[xI_Yoda_Ix]

The reason there is so much less clutter comes down to the IC manufacturing. As circuits become more and more reliable IC manufacturers put what was once outside the IC inside it.
In my industry, this has resulted in an 80% reduction in PCB physical size.
The horrible part is the device(s) become less and less serviceable.

[=VG= Murderface0151]

thanks for the insight guys! much appreciated.

and Yoda, how the fuck do you service something that small? a large eyeglass comes to mind