What's underneath the heatsink of the ROG Strix RX 480?

Since we've recently spent time peeling back the outer parts of the ROG Strix RX 480, you maybe curious to know what's under the big DirectCU III sink.

The large dual-slot heatsink hides a lot of technology, but satisfying your curiosity by removing it required voiding the warranty. Na-uh! Let us do it for you.

Six spring-tensioned screws later and the DirectCU II heatsink is off. Underneath you can see the Polaris 10 core, GDDR5 memory and 6+2 phase Super Alloy Power II hardware in all its glory. The metal bar running around the core is designed to aid bracing on the PCB, and not as a memory heatsink as modern GDDR5 doesn't require it. Combined with the rear aluminum plate that's affixed by a dozen more screwed, the extra-strengthened PCB prevents any flexing that could cause damage.

Clipped on at the end is the fan and AURA RGB lighting connectors. Next to these are the two, 4-pin fan connectors (FanConnect) that can control and sync two case fans to your graphics card's temperature.

The VRMs are directly cooled by the DirectCU III heatsink as well

The fins extend into the stack and are cooled by a fan directly overhead.

The ASUS DIGI+ VRM chip controls power regulation.

There are specific solder points for volt-modding the card. You've got to know what you're doing here so only extreme overclockers need apply (a soldering iron).

With all the screwed removed, we can finally pop off the rear cover.