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We have reviewed almost every HD6970 on the market now, and we strongly feel that this Asus HD6970 Direct CU II solution is the best of the bunch, followed by the excellent PowerColor HD6970 PCS+ in second place.
The HD6970 is a superb graphics card, even as a no frills reference design. This Asus card however has taken the reference design and pimped it out in every conceivable area. The Direct CU II cooler is without a doubt one of the best on the market, when compared to AMD's board, the temperatures drop by 15c and the noise is reduced by over 5dBa, which is very noticeable. A reference design HD6970 is clearly audible when gaming, the Asus card isn't.
The bundle could be better, but ASUS have clearly spent all the budget on the custom board design which we think will be received positively by the public.
The only negative we can mention would be the ridiculously low ‘out of the box' clock settings. A 10mhz increase over the reference board seems like such a ludicrous decision, especially when the overclocking headroom is phenomenal.
No other HD6970 we have tested has gotten close to 1.1ghz and while every card (even from the same batch) will be different we would say that Asus should have set the core to 970mhz, especially as a selling point. We fear that many people looking at this card online might not be aware of the huge headroom and just focus on the ‘890mhz' core clock speed, then move on.
This card is easily one of the best graphics cards we have tested and earns our highest possible award for all round excellence.
Pros:
- one of the best coolers on the market.
- insane overclocking headroom.
- smartdoctor is an easy to use tool.
- very quiet.
- very cool running, even under sustained load.
Cons:
- ridiculously low ‘out of the box' clock speeds.
- no free game.
- 3 slot cooler might not appeal to everyone.
KitGuru says: Asus are creating some of the finest video cards on the market. This is one of their best.
I am sporting a semi after reading the overclocking page (first thing I skipped too as the default clocks of this are stupid).
Makes that XFX card look really bad.
Very yummy indeed, but the 3 slot cooler is a little extreme. surely they could have done that in a dual slot design. the heatpipes and heatsink arent that big.
that cooler really is insane looking. very similar to MSI’s frozr, which is also great. I dont understand the low core clock speeds. if t his card can hit 1.1ghz with voltage increase then 1ghz should be easy enough. if they sold it as a 1ghz model I bet they would sell tons more. people dont always know how high a card will OC. now we do !
THey always made good boards, but they can be slow getting them out. all the early adopters miss these cards cause they already have other ones.
Thats a fucking kick ass product. 3 slot cooler is really massive, wouldnt fancy trying to fit three of these in a system for 3 way CFx
id rather have their GTX580, but both are pretty class leading designs whatever way you look at it.
whats next? sapphire with a four slot cooler?
Asus have probably the best engineers in the world, look at their mars and ares cards for instance. we will all never forget em.
I would be more then happy with a card of such calibre running in any of my desktops and I think this card is going to be truly amazing when it comes to staying cool which as we all know opens up lots of over-clocking possibilities
i have bought one 6970 direct Cu 2 and i fails bad
here is forum with the real temps
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4151379&posted=1#post4151379