Taiwan based TUL Corporation has announced the PowerColor LCS R9 290X today. The LCS in the name denotes that this card uses a 'liquid cooling solution' to keep the GPU, memory and other heat-critical components cool. PowerColor claims its factory overclocked card is the "first and only R9 290X with liquid cooling solution in the market."
Cooling manufacturer EK Water Blocks has partnered with PowerColor to provide the custom cooler design. We are told that the full cover water block "directly cools the GPU, memory and other important components as water flows directly over these critical areas, delivering extraordinary thermal performance for optimum stability and a superb OC setting". The cooler base is constructed from copper with nickel plate which is said to offer thermal dissipation enhancement and oxidisation resistance.
Under 60°C, even under full load
The PowerColor LCS R9 290X has both GPU and memory 'factory overclocked'. The GPU core runs at 1060MHz, 60MHz over reference; also the card's 4GB of DDR5 memory runs at 1350MHz, which is 100MHz above reference. Despite these boosts to clock speed the LCS keeps the card running at under 60°C, even under full load, says PowerColor. The firm supplies this card with high-flow 3/8-inch and ½-inch fittings and o-rings to help you integrate this card into your liquid cooling setup.
This graphics card also features PowerColor's 'Gold Power Kit' to aid in stability and durability. This kit is composed of; a Digital PWM solution, DirectFET low impedance components and shielded Ferrite Core Chokes.
In HEXUS tests of the AMD Radeon R9 290X, when it was launched, the reference card ran rather toasty under load at 94°C while kicking up 40.9 Decibels of noise.
