Motherboard and graphics card manufacturer ASUS has announced the launch of two new ATI X1600 based graphics cards, one with their latest heatpipe cooling solution. The EAX1600XT SILENT/TVD/256M and EAX1600PRO/TD/256M cards are X1600XT and X1600Pro powered respectively, part of ATI's new next-generation mid-range lineup.
Unlike most graphics cards there's very little going on around the front of the card in terms of cooling:
Instead, heatpipes transfer the heat from the GPU around the back of the card and into a large heatsink grill from which the heat is dissipated. The purpose of this, ASUS say, is to leverage the improved airflow around the back of the card to help get rid of heat from the graphics card.
The EAX1600XT SILENT/TVD/256M features a 590MHz core clock along with 256MiB of GDDR3 running at 1.38GHz. Alas, there's no dual-DVI (Rys will not be pleased). The EAX1600Pro/TD/256M clocks in at 500MHz with 256MiB of GDDR3 at 780MHz. These cards should be available at the end of November. ASUS's press release has more card details and specifications.