When it comes to gaming prowess, FPS is life, or so they say! At least that's what my kid believes and since I get seriously pawned by him, despite the fact that my rig is the far more superior rig, I'm really not so sure. Maybe skill has something to do with it. Anyway, the fact of the matter is that the faster you can respond, the better chance you have of surviving the fight. That's where the high-end video card comes into the picture. The HD 5970 is currently the fastest single graphics card on the planet with a commanding lead over any of the current multi GPU cards from both ATI and nVidia. Released back in November of 2009, ATI has been basking in the glow of a well executed strategy. Currently ATI and its partners have a product stack that covers just about every price point from $50 to $800 so you can have a DX 11 video card to fit your needs, with another on the way I hear.PowerColor has gone a step above its PCS+ lineup with the introduction of the LCS HD 5970. What makes this card so special is the fact that it is equipped with a full cover water block to keep not only the 40nm GPU cores cool but also to keep the 2GB of GDDR5 memory and the voltage regulation circuits cool. Keeping these circuits cool has been challenging with numerous tests showing the stock cooling solution cannot keep the voltage circuit cool enough to prevent throttling of the clock speeds under load. This lack of cooling also ultimately limits the overclocking capabilities of a card that was designed from the ground up to be an overclocking beast. The water block PowerColor has chosen to use for this card is none other than the EK FC5970 with nickel plated copper for good looks and corrosion resistance as well as an Acetal cover with the PowerColor and LCS logos etched into it. As a byproduct of the improved cooling, PowerColor has bumped the clock speeds up to 750MHz on the dual Cypress cores and 1050MHz on the 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Let's see if the PowerColor LCS HD 5970 can indeed justify its price tag and deliver some righteous clock speeds when pushed. Do I hear 1000MHz? Betting is closed!