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- Date:
- Monday , March 14, 2011
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
ASUS ENGTX580 and EAH6970 DirectCU II Review
ASUS has graced us with two of their flagship DirectCU II series video cards: The ENGTX580 DirectCU II based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, and the EAH6970 DirectCU II based on the AMD Radeon HD 6970. These video cards feature an advanced PCB and cooler design without a price premium.
Introduction
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. is one of the largest and most successful computer hardware manufacturers in the world. A Taiwan-based company, it manufactures a wide variety of computer hardware, including motherboards, video cards, optical drives, notebooks, networking equipment, barebones desktop, and server systems, among many others. In 2008, it sold over 24 million motherboards, grossed 8.1 billion U.S., and won 3,056 awards from various enthusiasts and IT related outlets.
Today we are going to take a look at two video cards from ASUS' DirectCU II series: The ENGTX580 DirectCU II, and the EAH6970 DirectCU II.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 and AMD Radeon HD 6970
Launched on November 9, 2010 the GeForce GTX 580 is currently NVIDIA's flagship GPU. Codenamed GF110, it is comprised of 3 billion transistors on a 40nm process and boasts 512 CUDA cores, 64 texture units, and 48 ROPs. The GTX 580's graphics core comes clocked at 772MHz, with the CUDA cores' clock bound to that clock frequency with a 2:1 ratio, giving the CUDA cores a clock speed of 1.544GHz.
The GTX 580 comes with 1536MB (1.5GB) of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, which is clocked at 4008MHz for a theoretical throughput of 160GB per second. It is designed to draw a maximum of 244 Watts with a maximum thermal threshold of 97 degrees Celsius. It features two dual-link DVI-I connectors and a single DVI connector. It has two auxiliary power connectors: one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Both power plugs must be connected to operate the GeForce GTX 580. At launch, NVIDIA gave the GeForce GTX 580 an MSRP of $499.
Approximately one month later, AMD launched its graphics flagship, the Radeon HD 6970. While the HD 6970 proved to be not as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 during our testing, it is also not as expensive. Priced at just $369, it was about 25% cheaper than the GeForce GTX 580 at launch. The Radeon HD 6970 packs in 2.64 billion transistors and has 1,536 streaming processors, 96 texture units, 32 ROPs, and 128 Z-Stencil units. Like the GeForce GTX 580, it is built on a 40nm manufacturing process.
The Radeon HD 6970's GPU clock rate is 880MHz, while its 2GB complement of GDDR5 memory runs at 5.5GHz on a 256-bit bus. That is narrower than the GeForce GTX 580's memory bus by 64 bits, but it runs at a faster clock speed, giving it a maximum theoretical throughput of 176GB per second. The Radeon HD 6970 comes with two dual-link DVI-I ports, one HDMI port, and two mini-DisplayPort connectors. It also has 6-pin and an 8-pin auxiliary power connectors, both of which are required for operation.
ASUS ENGTX580 DirectCU II and ASUS EAH690 DirectCU II
These two video cards represent the top-end single-GPU products from both NVIDIA's and AMD's current-generation GPU lineup. The ENGTX580 DirectCU II can be purchased for $499.99 USD, and the EAH6970 DirectCU II is $384.99. That makes the EAH6970 DirectCU about 23% cheaper than the ENGTX580 DirectCU II. Clearly, the ENGTX580 DirectCU II has its work cut out for it in order to justify that price premium.
To say that these video cards are not reference design cards would be a tremendous understatement. Everything about these DirectCU II video cards is custom. They both have two massive 10cm cooling fans, which ASUS claims give 600% more airflow than standard reference coolers. The cooling devices are custom on both and both come in a large triple-slot profile. That is, these video cards will occupy three PCI brackets in your computer case, though each only requires a single x16 PCIe slot. The cooler is comprised of a large aluminum hotplate on the GPU with six cooper heat-pipes leading out to two aluminum heat-sinks featuring very thin fins. On both video cards, the memory is left without heat-sinks, while some of the power circuitry is covered with a black machined aluminum sink.
While these video cards come out of the box with their respective GPU clock rates slightly increased over NVIDIA's and AMD's respective reference design specifications, it would be somewhat misleading to refer to them as "overclocked." Both the ENGTX580 DirectCU II and the EAH6970 DirectCU II come with their GPU clocks increased by 10MHz. That gives the ENGTX580 DirectCU II a clock rate of 782MHz with the shader core at 1.564GHz, and the EAH6970 DirectCU II a clock rate of 890MHz. The memory clock on both video cards is set to reference specifications: 4008MHz for the ENGTX580 DirectCU II, and 5500MHz for the EAH6970 DirectCU II. These video cards really are about the cooler, the support of VoltageTweak and high-end components to allow a high overclock potential.
ASUS ENGTX580 DirectCU II
The outer box features a mounted fantasy character and a few descriptive icons. The front panel indicates that the video card has 1536MB of GDDR5 memory and supports DirectX 11. It also has a "782MHz Overclock" graphic, which may be misleading, depending on the technical knowledge of the potential customer. A less ambiguous description would be "10MHz Overclock", but perhaps that wouldn't look as impressive. There is also a graphic showing the cooling device, and another that says "Super Alloy Power", which somewhat cryptically describes some of the board's more advanced features.
The back of the box has more information about the video card. There is box containing a brief description of the "DirectCU II" cooling device, and another box that still fails to describe the high-end components that make this video card's PCB unique. ASUS uses tantalum capacitors, sealed ferrite chokes, and "MOSFETs" (perhaps in the PWM switching power supply) to deliver a 15% performance boost, 35 degree Celsius cooler performance, and 2.5X longer lifespan than generic models. Also shown is that this video card supports voltage tweaking for extended overclocking via ASUS' SmartDoctor software. Finally, there is a breakdown of the video card's ports and a features list in several different languages.
The inner box is a satin black affair with ASUS logo and motto printed in metallic gold lettering. Inside the inner box is the software and manual pouch set into a large foam brick which houses the video card and included adaptors.
Bundled with the ASUS ENGTX580 DirectCU II video card is a DVI to VGA adaptor, a single SLI bridge connector, a dual-6-pin to single-8-pin auxiliary power supply adaptor, a driver and manual CD-ROM, and a setup guide.
The video card itself is very large. The front face of it is dominated by a large black aluminum shroud with two large 10cm cooling fans, each emblazoned with a holographic ASUS logo sticker. Three red accent stripes and a "DirectCU II" logo decorate the shroud. The cooling device is three slots tall, which means this video card will occupy three PCI brackets in your computer chassis, even though it only requires the use of one x16 PCI-Express slot on your motherboard. The cooler does not completely seal the video card. It seems to duct some air out of the ventilation holes on the PCI bracket, but without a complete seal, some heat will escape the cooler into your computer case. Gamers considering this video card will definitely need to ensure that their computer cases have adequate ventilation.
The video card features two SLI bridge connectors and two 8-pin power supply connectors. The second 8-pin power connector is used to ensure that adequate power reaches the video card for maximum overclocking potential.
The back of the video card is covered with a black aluminum plate onto which "ASUS GeForce GTX 580" has been silkscreened upside-down. It is oriented upside-down so that when the video card is installed into a traditional computer case, the text will be readable through a case window.
The ports on this video card include two dual-link DVI-I connectors, one HDMI connector, and one DisplayPort connector.
The last photo here is provided to show our readers how large this video card really is. The black ASUS video card next to the ENGTX580 DirectCU II is a reference design GeForce GTX 580. From head to toe the ENGTX580 DirectCU II measures 11" out to the edge of the plastic shroud. The plastic shroud actually extends over the PCB on the back side. Therefore, this video card is long, so make sure you have plenty of space.
ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU II
The ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU II's outer box is very similar to that of the ENGTX580 DirectCU II, but the green background is now orange and red, and the branding has changed to show AMD specific features. From the front of the box, we can see that the video card has a special DirectCU II cooling device, 2GB of GDDR5, the same "Super Alloy Power" system that the ENGTX580 DirectCU II boasts, and that this video card supports Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology.
The back of this box is basically the same as the ENGTX580 DirectCU II, except for the port diagram and the 6 monitor support information box. The ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU II does support 6-display Eyefinity all by itself by way of its 4 DisplayPort connectors and two DVI-I connectors.
The inner packaging for the EAH6970 DirectCU II is exactly the same as the ENGTX580 DirectCU II. The EAH6970 DirectCU II comes bundled with a CrossFireX bridge, a DVI to HDMI adaptor, a dual-6-pin to single-8-pin auxiliary power connector adaptor, a driver and manual CD-ROM, and a setup guide.
The ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU II's cooling device is the same as what is found on the ENGTX580 DirectCU II, but the PCB and PCI bracket are different. It has the same large black cooler with two 10cm cooling fans blowing on two aluminum heat-sinks connected by 6 copper heat pipes.
The video card sports two CrossFireX connectors for triple-GPU CrossFireX acceleration. It also has two 8-pin auxiliary power supply connectors, again to ensure adequate power is available for overclocking.
On the top edge of this video card sits a very small switch. This switch has a very important job. It changes one of the video card's DVI ports from dual-link to single-link, and enables Eyefinity6. Out of the box, our review sample came with the switch configured to run in Eyefinity6 mode. In Eyefinity6 mode the highest resolution available on our monitor was 1280x800 when plugged into the special DVI port. In order to use our Dell 3007 monitor at its native resolution of 2560x1600 on both ports, we had to shut the computer down and flip the switch. When the computer booted back up, the monitor's full range of supported resolutions were again available.
The back of this video card is not covered by a metal plate, unlike the ENGTX580 DirectCU II. Instead the normal components and stickers are visible on the back.
By way of output ports, the ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU II features two DVI ports and four DisplayPorts. To operate all four DisplayPort connectors, the Eyefinity6 switch must be set appropriately. When set for Eyefinity6, one of the DVI ports operates in single-link only mode. When it is set for 3-way operation, both DVI ports are dual-link.
Again, this last photo is provided to illustrate how large this video card is. Sitting next to the ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU II is a reference AMD Radeon HD 6970. The ASUS video card is about 50% taller, and while the PCB is the same length, the cooling device on the EAH6970 DirectCU II extends about 13mm longer.
Group Shots
Pictured together, we can see the small cosmetic differences between these two video cards.
The EAH6970 DirectCU II is on the left, and the ENGTX580 DirectCU II is on the right. The EAH6970 DirectCU II obviously has a different output port configuration, so the PCI bracket is rather different. It has narrower ventilation slots, more holes for output ports, and a flange that extends over the end of the cooling shroud.
On the back, we can see that the ENGTX580 DirectCU II has an aluminum plate covering the back of the video card, while the EAH6970 DirectCU II does not.
The Competition
As far as competition is concerned, they are each other's own worst enemy. In spite of their custom cooling and PCB designs, neither is priced far out-of-line with other comparable video cards out there. GeForce GTX 580 street prices range from $489 to $549, so at $499.99 the ASUS ENGTX580 DirectCU II sits in the middle of the pricing scale for that GPU. The EAH6970 DirectCU II is at the high end of Radeon HD 6970 pricing at $384.99.
Since neither their clock speeds nor their street prices are elevated, these video cards compete mostly with each other, and with themselves. For this review, we are comparing the ASUS ENGTX580 DirectCU II with the ASUS EAG6970 DirectCU II. We are also comparing out-of-the-box performance of these video cards with the performance we achieved after we overclocked them as far as we could. See page 3 of this review for details on our experience with overclocking these video cards. We will find out if an overclocked 6970 can compete with a GTX 580 in this evaluation.