I think it might considering the power draw of the 6970 (double it). I did notice that it is 8+8.
Was there ever any other 8+8 card? I don't remember.

Yes, but they were limited production cards like the ASUS Mars that exceeded 300W by quite a bit

This is the first card in years to show something that may potentially exceed the PCIe spec (since 6-pin+8-Pin is PLENTY for the 300W spec). Of course there is precedent; wasn't there a voodoo card with a power brick? But this is the first AMD or Nvidia card to use 8-pin+8-pin since the PCIe 2.0 spec came out.

i will predict that you guys are going to be surprised ... make that *shocked*
- you will may have your first WtF moment re: HW in a long time (<<<My prediction)


When was the last time you read something about HW and said WtF (in a good surprised way)?


And something else to consider .. AMD fans have always made a POINT about how much their cards conserved power. What do they say now about an 8-pin+8-pin card?
It could be worse?

I think some of those special cards like the ASUS ROG did have 2 8 pins


The Sapphire 5970 4gb had 2 8 pins.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphi ... sapphire/1

Edit: ahh this time he was faster ^^^^^^^^^:)

edit 2 :"But this is the first AMD or Nvidia card to use 8-pin+8-pin since the PCIe 2.0 spec came out."
So both Nvidia and AMD have 2 8 pins? Seems someone has more then one card. It can't be this easy ,can it?

unless you are totally f***ing with our heads?

Hold on!

All i said is that this is the first time that we have seen a card from AMD or Nvidia potentially exceed the PCIe 2.0 spec by sporting 2x 8-pin connectors.


And what do you think Nvidia will do? Slap two GTX 460s together now?

stop it!
Hey someone has to screw with the AMD fanboys over there.

That 2x8 pin might not be a reference design. It could be the vendor adding a little extra to cite better overclocking capabilities.

HardOCP said it came from AMD .. hence "reference"

I meant stock cards with 8+8.



Well, judging from the pictures @ [H], that looks like the usual AMD reference heatsink and fan design.

Hey back off! I'm an AMD fanboy, lol....

Well AMD is smart then. They realize the chips aren't going to be able to run at their full potential within the PCIe spec, so they're at least giving end users the options to overclock the card to their heart's content.

Nvidia needs to do the same. The two monster dual cards from both companies may end up more or less equal, with AMD getting the nod to ultra high resolutions with ultra high AA settings, and Nvidia getting the nod to better overclocking scaling (essentially equaling the ultra high resolution playing field). It may come down to who decides to equip a better reference cooler.