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HIS supply the IceQ Mix in a rather forgettable box. Much like the rest of their range, if we were being completely honest.
Inside is an HDMI cable, a Crossfire cable and various video and power converter cables. There is also a software disc which includes the Lucid Hydra driver. The retail release will also include a copy of Dirt 3, a worthy addition to the bundle.
The IceQ cooler is a talking point, but not always for the right reason. Our previous experiences have been great, but there is no doubt that the appearance isn't going to appeal to everyone. It is built on an aqua coloured PCB.
The heatpipe design is very attractive however, with four thick copper heatpipes emerging from the top of the cooler and into several racks of aluminum fins. HIS brand this fan implementation the ‘Black Hole Impeller' as cool air is drawn in from both sides of the fan to enhance the cooling efficiency.
The card demands two power connectors – a 6 pin and an 8 pin.
The card is also Crossfire capable, if you have extra money burning a hole in your pocket.
Connectivity is good. Two mini displayport connectors, a full sized HDMI port, and two DVI ports (top DVI-D (single), bottom DVI-I (dual)).
The cooler is removed easily enough, by detaching four screws.
The Lucid Hydra chip rests to the left of the GPU core. We have looked at this before on some motherboards and we have never had good experiences. It did work with 3DMark and a very small portion of games, but it would cause more problems than performance increases.
Our review today won't feature testing with Lucid Hydra because we simply couldn't get it to work well at all. Using a GTX580 as a partner card caused hard locks, dropped performance with some games, and general stability problems. On paper it looks like a great idea, but the problem is that for the price of a GTX580, you could buy another HD6970 and run native Crossfire. If you already had a GTX580, why would you want a HD6970 in the first place?
An overview of the hardware in GPUz. Core clock running at 880mhz, 2GB of GDDR5 memory at 1375mhz connected to a 256 bit memory interface. The card has 32 ROPs and 1536 unified shaders.
Nice card, but that cooler really is ugly as all sin.
His produce some good designs but i see no logical reason to include lucid on such a card. Its probably adding 15 to the price too……
Their iceq cards are really very good models but i dont think they have a good reputation in the uk at all. No one i know has even contmplated buying one of their products.
Id love to kmow their uk warranty system, have they a dedicated team handling rmas ?
I thought it would cost more due to the Lucid crap installed, but its not much more than a card with a standard cooler. seems pretty good all round, although I dont know why they didnt overclock it to something better
If the price was higher then it would deserve a lower score, but regardless of how sucky hydra is. its £25 more than a reference card (I saw a sapphier one on OCUK with dirt 3 for £300). If you feel the cooler is worth £25 then its a pretty good deal.
Don’t HIS always overclock their ICEQ cards however? bit weird on that front
The cooler is very good, ive read reviews of it on other cards and it seems about 10-20c lower than stock cooler, depending on the card.
bizarre idea, but it looks like HIS aren’t charging much for hydra. thank god, no one give a toss about it.
Id love to know who thought that was a smart move. would anyone have a GTX580 laying around, not being used? even a GTX570 or GTX560? cant get my head around it.
im looking at it from two ways. first, its a talking point. people are talking about it already. people in the know will immediately think ‘this wont work, it never does!’. and right enough it doesnt.
So it won’t be used, and the price is the deciding factor. I would guess the cooler is costing HIS £8 extra over a reference cooler (en masse). they can sell it for £15 more and still make a profit. £10 would pay Lucid for Hydra.
The consumer is getting hit a little with the extra chip. Its daft, but I still think its reasonably good value as an overall product.
That said, It would prove to me however that HIS really don’t have their finger on the pulse for this audience. Not like Sapphire or XFX.
I have a 5870 and would like an upgrade, but don’t feel like shelling out too much, and dont feel like buying an extra 5870, so I’m wondering how this card would be in crossfire with my 5870….