Upon first inspection of the Radeon VE board, it seems that something is missing. If you guessed a fan, you're right! I haven't seen a video card come without a fan ever since I first used a TNT2 video card, so this actually came at quite a surprise to me. Running without a fan will make the video card run noise-less, which is a bonus in itself.

Note: After running the Radeon VE on seemingly endless loops of Quake III: Arena, the fan-less heatsink only got slightly hot, which is very impressive.

The back of the video card has a regular D-Sub VGA connector, an S-Video connector and a DVI-I connector. The contents of the box were stuffed with cables and adapters; everything you need to plug the Radeon VE to any TV or monitor (of course, not modified ones). ATI includes an S-Video cable for the TV-OUT feature of the Radeon VE, a D-Sub to DVI-I adapter (which can be used with other DV-I cards) to plug a regular analog monitor into the DVI-I jack and also a S-Video to Composite Video adapter, for connecting to TV's without the need for S-Video.

There was no full manual, however: only a manual that can be categorized as a quick-start guide. This is fine for users who have experience with installing a video card, but doesn't provide enough information for first-timers.

On to: Powering Up