Gigabyte's MAYA II R9700 Pro - Setting The Standard

Author : Martyn Date : 16th Nov 2002

...Product	Gigabyte's MAYA II R9700 Pro
...Manufacturer	Gigabyte
...Supplier	Gigabyte
...Price	£320 Approx.

 

 

 

Part Four: The Card

You can clearly observe, this card looks amazing. It's certainly a visual treat so let's take a closer look...

The Gigabyte card was finished with real style. It's hard to put into words how good this card looks. Those with a case window will relish the chance to display this stunning board. The card is either a rebadged reference card or is built on an ATi PCB as one might expect but they have also opted for the striking gold heatsink over the board's core. We shall see later just how this aided our overclocking efforts. The front of the card comes equipped with equally well made memory heatsinks, not quite such an essential feature as, as we have noted in previous reviews, the BGA based memory's don't produce enough heat for this cooling to be effective. I'm sure many will buy the card, in part, thanks to these extras though so it's easy to see why they are included. The main problem is though; by putting heatsinks on the memory you are asserting to the consumer that your product needs it, therefore why are there none on the back of the board? Ram will only overclock as high as its hottest chip so surely these heatsinks are even more useless than in our previous reviews? It is one for you to decide I would suggest, as when all is said and done; they sure do look good!

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