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The GTX 580 DirectCU II with
1.5 Gigabyte memory and is ASUS' first high-end NVIDIA 500-series graphics card that features an improved power design as well as a more powerful cooler than the reference
model. The fact that this thing occupies three slots in a system makes it a monster. Unfortunately the cooler hasn't been able to convince us entirely. In 2D-mode the DirectCU II cooler is
a little bit noisier than the reference model but luckily as soon as there is 3D load on the card the page turns and the new cooler does operates more silent.
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- 3D silent |
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Delivery |
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The delivery of the ASUS
GTX 580 is sufficient. In the box you find everything you need to setup the card appropriately as well as a
DVI-to-VGA adaptor. Again you wont find a game which would be a really nice addition to a high-end graphics card which has been designed for gamers.
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- No game included |
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Performance |
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Regarding the performance the DirectCU II shows about the same numbers and figures like the
other GTX580 we've tested so far. As expected there were no glitches and what you get is a homogenous picture throughout our comparison
tables. |
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Overclocking |
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Included in the bundle you get the software ASUS Smartdoctor, using which you can adjust the GPU voltage as well as GPU and memory frequency. It has been possible to run 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11 with 952 MHz on the GPU and
4'568 MHz on the memory as well as 937 MHz on the GPU and 4'526 MHz on the
memory. Therefore overclockig this card really was fun. From a card which
features an overworked power design as well as an improved cooler we would
have expected to show better overclockability than the reference model which
in our tests wasn't the case. |
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- Overclocking GPU 952 MHz
/ Mem 4'568 MHz
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Recommendation |
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If you
should be looking for a NVIDIA GTX 580 card which comes with a huge cooler and good overclockability then you definitely wont make a mistake buying an
ASUS GTX 580 DirectCUII. |
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- High-End Gaming
- Extreme-Overclocking |
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