The Basics:

The front of the PowerColor X1650 XT 256MB AGP Video Card once again features the warrior angel on the rather beefy GPU cooler.


The cooler extends about three quarters of the length of the card, and is tall enough to completely block the adjacent expansion slot from being used. Other visible features of interest on this side of the card include the 6-pin power plug in the upper right corner, and the cooler's fan header at about the middle of the card along the upper edge. And in case you were curious, the small jumper next to the fan header allows the user to switch the TV out format between NTSC and PAL.


The back side of the video card is fairly plain, and as was already noted all the memory chips are located on the front side. The feature of interest here is the PCI-Express to AGP bridge chip found just about opposite the GPU. The below right image takes a closer look at the bridge chip and the rubbery foam "picture frame" it finds itself housed in.


In the below left image the height of the GPU cooler is more obvious, as well as the layout of the one s-video and two DVI connections. The below right image provides a quick look at the other end of the card, which will be examined more closely in images to follow.


The images below provide a better look at the end of the cooler, which shows a fine array of aluminum fins brazed to a rather substantial copper base. Air from the fan is blown down through the slots, over all of these fins, and exits just above two of the four memory modules. Considering that the memory is all unobstructed by the cooler, you could add RAM sinks, and the two at the end of the GPU cooler would pick up a bit of active cooling from the fan.


Taking a closer look at the memory modules (above right image) reveals they are Hynix brand, with the following markings: HY5RS123235 FP-14. A search of the Internet finds a PDF from Hynix with just about all the information you could want on these chips. From page 3 of that document we see that PowerColor has the memory clocked right at its maximum rated speed, 700 MHz, so there is no intentional room left for easy overclocking.