The x1950 Pro Up Close

The x1950 Pro from Con3D looks very similar to the x1950XTX card in its aesthetics and cooler design. However, there is one difference that make this card just that little bit "cooler".

Its size. Granted this card is no shorter, but it is a lot skinnier, taking up just the one slot on your motherboard. This is down to the cooler which has hit its size zero target and counter to the starving - begging for a cake - models of the same size, this actually looks quite good. It makes the cooler look a lot more streamlined and more cleverly designed than the one on its hulkier brother, the XTX. It will be interesting to see if the cooler is less effective for the reduction in size.

The cooler is built in the typical manner of exhaust coolers, with a fan at the front that sucks air from inside the case and sends it flying through, over a heatsink and out of the rear of the case.

No heatpipes on this one, probably one of the reasons that the size reduction was possible, but there is a large heatsink that covers the majority of the card. This "sink" is ridged along it to increase surface area and reminds me of the wings of a bird, with each layer of the heatsink overlapping the one before it.

At the rear of the card where the air is eventually exhausted we have the typical twin DVI ports and a grilled exhaust slot to stop anyone getting their fingers caught in there.

Looking at the "Top" of the card there is a twin Crossfire connector. This is obviously for those that want to crossfire cards of this type together, but what of the second slot? This one is for a little future proofing on Con3Ds part to allow for the Tri-Crossfire setup that will eventually become the norm in extreme enthusiast PCs.

The x1950 Pro features a 6 pin power connector. This will be one of the last cards ATI makes with the 6 pin as their newer generation of cards should be moving to the new 8 pin PCIE connector standard.

The back of the card looks very busy indeed, and features a backing plate for the cooler that is held on squarley by 4 screws.