Jingle those Super Alloy bells on the HD 6870 DirectCU.
As you may recall, we recently did an unboxing of the new ASUS Radeon HD 6870 graphics card, which closely reflected AMD’s own ‘Barts’ reference design. This time around we’ve taken possession of an ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU: a self-styled and upgraded graphics card entirely modified ASUS in-house.
Of course, the GPU within is still AMD’s Radeon HD 6870 ‘Barts’ core, with all the updates and optimizations for DirectX 11 and Windows 7. The real draw for power users and ardent overclockers in the upgraded DirectCU model, is the introduction of what ASUS has termed Super Alloy Power.
This new addition involves a carefully selected and balanced mixture of fine metals, which are packed into critical components such as the chokes, capacitors and MOSFETs. It’s a drastic departure from the standard ingredients used on generic cards, as the ASUS Super Alloy Power technology enables the card to both run faster and with greater stability. Technically speaking this is because the ASUS Radeon HD6870 DirectCU has much higher heat and stress tolerances than the reference design, which makes it a perfect candidate for radical overclocking! This knack for tuning is helped by the inclusion of DirectCU cooling, which we’ve also seen in other recent ASUS cards; DirectCU feature puts pure copper heatpipes in direct contact with the GPU for far more efficient heat translation and dissipation.
ASUS Super Alloy Chokes on the Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU
That’s only half of the new ‘super-club’ though: ASUS’ Super Hybrid Engine, which automatically changes performance profiles depending on actual loadings, also joins the Super Alloy Chokes. Not only does this save power, it also extends the life of the card as it prevents it from needless exertion and wear when running basic (2D) applications.
The combination of Super Alloy Power technology, DirectCU cooling and Super Hybrid Engine power management brings approximately a 15% increase in performance, a 2.5 times longer expected product lifespan and a massive 35°C drop in under-load temperatures when compared to the reference design!
With the included Voltage Tweak overvolting interface and some extreme cooling, users can push this card up to 50% over reference in terms of core clocks as well. ASUS by default takes advantage of the Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU’s OC-friendly stance by factory-overclocking its core to 915MHz, which is quite a feat for a performance-mainstream GPU. We’re ever so close to that round 1GHz mark, just like on the old RAdeon HD 4890s and GeForce GTX 460s – in fact, try the Voltage Tweak and see if you can hit it!
Finally to round up the spec sheet, the card ships with 1GB of 4.2GHz GDDR5, packs 1120 stream processors and takes two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors.
Don’t forget, all of the enhancements ASUS puts on this design come on top of the already-efficient ‘Barts’ architecture, which effectively meets equivalent 5000-series performance parameters while also using lower power draw. AMD Eyefinity technology can shares up to six screens on one graphics card and AMD HD3D for 3D gaming and movies are also both included. The end result is a solid, powerful graphics card with ample room to grow and play, for those inclined to tweak their hardware. This isn’t a mere stocking stuffer, it’s truly sophisticated graphics for PC gamers interested in an powerful and versatile upgrade.
ASUS RAdeon HD 6870 DirectCU Unboxing.
Let’s take a look at the card itself.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU
The box maintains the trademark ASUS graphics card theme, listing some of the main features.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU Accessories
The included accessories: Molex to PCI-Express power adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, DVI to HDMI adapter, CrossFire bridge and graphics drivers and ASUS Voltage Tweak software.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU open box
Sturdy packaging with plenty of foam, as always from ASUS.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU Heatsink
The custom, upgraded cooler gives the HD6870 DirectCU a sportier look.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU heatpipes
The three heatpipes of the DirectCU cooling design directly link the GPU core to the heatsink fins.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU cooling backplate
Hefty back-plate reinforces the card while also helping out with cooling.
ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU looks great from any angle!