ASUS have finally announced their R9 290X as well as R9 290 DirectCU II graphics cards. Apparently both these cards have been equipped with ASUS' DirectCU II custom cooler and they also feature a custom PCB as well as factory over clocking.

With it comes to factory overclocking, ASUS have decided to make the R9 290X DirectCU II OC run at 1050 MHz. In case of the R9 290 DirectCU II GPU clocks are at 1000 MHz. Other than that both cards feature 4 Gigabyte of GDDR5 memory, which has been connected to the GPU via a 512 bit memory interface.

Since both cards are based on custom designs, the power design has been reworked completely. In this case there is an ASUS DIGI+ power design and via their GPU Tweak software clocks and voltages can be changed.

When it comes to the DirectCU II cooler ASUS is promising, that the card should run significantly cooler and quieter than reference R9 290X and R9 290 graphics cards. Other than that there is a BIOS switcher onboard which allows gamer to choose their experience fast, stable and smooth. This can for example help keeping noise levels as low as possible.

Regarding availability ASUS is mentioning, that both cards will be shipped latest mid-January 2014. So far there are no details on pricing.






Source: ASUS