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Last week we reviewed one of the finest graphics cards we have had in our labs, the Asus GTX580 Direct CU II. This modified card design overclocked to levels we thought impossible and operated at temperatures which other manufacturers have struggled to achieve.
It isn't only the nVidia high end card which has received the full Asus treatment however as they have turned their engineering team to AMD's flagship HD6970 solution. The Asus HD6970 Direct CU II is supplied with only a minor overclock of 10mhz on the core (890mhz).
While on paper this looks to be rather disappointing, the card is supplied with the beefy three slot Direct CU II cooler, so we have high hopes for cooling proficiency and overclocking capabilities.
| Product | AMD HD6970 | Asus HD6970 Direct CU II |
| Core Clock speed | 880mhz | 890 mhz |
| Primitive Rate |
2 prim/clk
|
2 prim/clk |
| Shader Architecture |
VLIW4
|
VLIW4 |
| Stream Processors |
24 SIMD/1536 ALU
|
24 SIMD/1536 ALU |
| Texture Units | 96 | 96 |
| ROPs/Z-Stencil | 32/128 | 32/128 |
| Frame Buffer | 2GB GDDR5 | 2GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Width/Speed | 256 bit, 5.5 Gbps | 256 bit, 5.5 Gbps |
| Power Connectors | 8 pin & 6 pin | 8 pin & 6 pin |
| Display Outputs | 2xDVI + 2x mDP + HDMI | 2xDVI + 2x mDP + HDMI |
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