The Card

With the box and contents out the way it's time to see the what exactly we have on our hands today.

The HIS HD 2900 XT 1GB GDDR4 offers the same standard setup as the 512MB GDDR3 model, apart from the HIS sticker on the fan we wouldn't be able to determine what brand it is. The biggest gripe with the look of the card is that there is no way to tell if it's a 1GB model. If you find yourself with a window in your case you want to show off your new card loudly and proudly.

Since the cooler takes up the whole card there isn't a whole lot to see, just doing a quick sweep we see the standard 6 Pin/8 Pin PCI Express power connector setup that was on the 512MB GDDR3 model along with the very important Crossfire connectors across the top of the card. We'll be making use of these today!

I/O wise is also very standard with 2 Dual Link DVI Connectors and our little round black port that is not only capable of video-out but also video-in, better known as VIVO.

The big thing is what does the 1GB GDDR4 card offer over the standard 512MB GDDR3 model. This helps give us a memory bump from 1650MHz to 2000MHz DDR. The core remains the same at 743MHz.