Card Layout and Pictures
Diamond went a completely different route with their HD 7790 OC. Unlike the other HD 7790’s that we tested this is the only card with a cooler that looked anything like this. In a way it feels like a normal card but with without its fan shroud. The design uses two extremely thick heatpipes to pull the heat away from the GPU itself into a circular heatsink design that goes all the way around the cooling fan. The fins on the heatsink are extremely close together to pack as much surface area in as possible to keep things cool. With this compact design I was a little concerned that there wouldn’t be any cooling for the rest of the card but Diamond did consider this and put a small heatsink over on top of the voltage regulators as well. Of course, like I have mentioned before we also have to keep in mind cooling like this does vent into your case and could heat things up a little if your case isn’t up to par with cooling.
With such an open cooler design the 6 pin power plug was easy to find on the top right corner. It faces back so when planning your build you will need to keep in mind the additional length of your power plug as well. Considering the length of the card, this shouldn’t be a problem in anything but the smallest cases though.
I love that this card has a black PCB especially considering how much you can see the PCB even around the cooling. Black goes better than brighter colors in most builds and in my opinion it looks great. From this view you can also see the single crossfire connection and unlike the Gigabyte HD 7790 that we took a look at it isn’t moved back and out of place. This card should work with most other HD 7790’s.
For connection on the back panel we have two DVI connections with one being a dual link and the second a single link. You also get a full sized HDMI port and a full sized DisplayPort to give you a variety of connections. Paired up with the DVI to VGA adapter that was included with the card you should be able to hook just about anything up to the Diamond HD 7790. There is a partial cooling vent on the back PCI cover as well but as you can see there isn’t a fan shroud or anything that could possibly push air out of the vent so it will be limited only being used if your case has positive or negative air pressure.
