The Basics (continued):
The cooler is a two slot solution housed in a translucent plastic shell which is dominated by an image of the racoon-eyed Lara Croft character. At one end of the card is a large blower that guides cooling air over the heatsinks in the cooler and out the back of your case thanks to a vented expansion slot cover. The GPU and memory chips are all concealed under the cooler, and the back side of the card is rather plain except for some stickers containing manufacturing data and a metal brace designed to support the cooler against the GPU core. This view also provides a clear look at the PCI Express x16 connection, as well as the two CrossFire tabs which allow this card to be used in a CrossFire X configuration with up to three other cards.
The below left image shows the back of the card where two DVI connections and a TV-out port (s-video) can be found just below the slotted area that allows hot air from the cooler to escape the system's case.
The above right image shows the other end of the card which is most notable for being the location of the two 6-pin PCI Express power connections. The HD4870 differs from the HD3870 in this area, as the previous generation card had just one 6-pin power connection. This image also shows the cooling fan's electrical connection to the card, and looking through the translucent plastic lets you see the configuration of the fan (which is really a blower).
The final image in this section takes a close look at the side of the cooler, in order to highlight another difference from HD3870 cards seen underneath. While the HD3870 cards had a healthy array of cooling fins inside, here we can see some rather thick heatpipes. It looks like extra attention was given to draw heat away from the GPU, and these heatpipes bring it to sections of the heatsink closer to the exhaust.
