ASUS today announced R7 265 DirectCU II, a new graphics card powered by the latest AMD Radeon R7 265 graphics-processing unit (GPU).

R7 265 DirectCU II includes many innovative and exclusive ASUS technologies and tools including DirectCU II for 20%-cooler and three-times (3X) quieter gaming performance, Super Alloy Power components for vastly improved longevity and GPU Tweak, an easy-to-use software tool that allows users to squeeze more performance out of the GPU.

ASUS today announced R9 290X DirectCU II and R9 290 DirectCU II, two new graphics cards powered respectively by the new AMD Radeon R9 290X and R9 290 graphics-processing units (GPUs) and fitted with exclusive DirectCU II technology for cooler, quieter and faster performance.

With ASUS DirectCU II technology on board, R9 290X and R9 290 run up to 20% cooler and up to three times (3X) quieter than reference designs - and that means faster gaming with less noise. R9 290X has a core speed of 1050 MHz, while R9 290 flies along at 1000 MHz. Both cards are fitted with 4 GB of super-fast GDDR5 video memory to allow gamers to enjoy fast action at very high resolutions and detail levels.

ASUS today announced GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II, a graphics card powered by the new GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics-processing unit (GPU) and fitted with exclusive DirectCU II technology for cooler, quieter and faster performance.

The GeForce GTX 780 Ti GPU is powered by 25% more CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) cores and benefits from a boosted clock speed of 1020 MHz - both significant increases on its predecessor that enable ASUS GTX 780 Ti to deliver astonishing gaming performance.

ASUS has today confirmed that it is building a custom-cooled Radeon R9 290X card by showcasing the upcoming R9 290X DirectCU II. Seen below, ASUS' card makes use of Super Alloy Power technology to deliver more stable voltage and overclocking performance, is equipped with a PCB strengthening bracket and is paired up with a beefy cooler boasting two fans (including one CoolTech spinner) and four nickel-plated heatpipes (two are 10 mm pipes).

ASUS is still working on the R9 290X DirectCU II so there may be some changes for the release version. No word yet on a launch plan.

ASUS is ready with its third "Dragon Edition" graphics card, after launching ones based on GeForce GTX 660 Ti and Radeon HD 7850. The GTX 660 Dragon Edition (model: GTX660Ti-DP-2GD5) from ASUS is a premium custom-design implementation that's a couple of notches above its DirectCU II TOP (DCU2T). The card features a cooling solution largely identical to DirectCU II, with the exception of those blue stripes, and an aluminum back-plate to cool memory chips on the reverse side of the PCB. It also features ASUS' Direct Power vGPU passive signal-noise dampener that's found on the company's GTX 670 DirectCU Mini.

The GTX 660 Dragon Edition features GPU clock speeds above those of the DirectCU II TOP, with GPU Boost speed of 1150 MHz (compared to the DCU2T's 1135 MHz). Strangely, despite better memory cooling, it features NVIDIA-reference memory clock speeds of 6.00 GHz, even as the DCU2T offers 6.10 GHz. Based on the 28 nm GK106 silicon, the GeForce GTX 660 feature 960 CUDA cores, and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. Based on what we learned about availability of the other Dragon Edition cards, it would be safe to conclude that this card will be sold only in the Greater China region (PRC, ROC, HK, MO).

ASUS readied its second "Dragon" branded performance graphics card, the first being last year's Radeon HD 7850 Dragon. These cards are typically a notch above DirectCU II OC models, in featuring a backplate, and slightly improved VRM.

The company's new GeForce GTX 660 Ti Dragon, pictured below, features out of the box clock speeds of up to 1150 MHz core, and 6.10 GHz memory. It features 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface. The card's cooling assembly is nearly identical to the company's DirectCU II, with the exception of blue accents, and a back-plate. From the looks of it, the card could feature a GPU electrical noise filter, similar in function to MSI GPU Reactor module. ASUS tells us that the card is specific to the Greater China region, it's unlikely to make it to western markets.

ASUS extended its Assassin's Creed III game bundle to include GeForce GTX 670 DirectCu II 4 GB (model: GTX670-DC2G-4GD5) and GeForce GTX 660 DirectCu II 2GB (model: GTX660-DC2TG-2GD5). The two dual-slot DirectCu II cooler-equipped graphics cards ship with coupons for the game that can be redeemed on Steam. The GTX670-DC2G-4GD5 packs 4 GB of memory, 915/980/6008 MHz clock speeds (core/boost/memory), while the GTX660-DC2TG-2GD5 ships with 2 GB of memory, and factory-overclocked 1072/1137/6108 MHz clock speeds.

ASUS announced a trio of DirectCu V2 series graphics cards, the Radeon HD 7950 DirectCu II V2 TOP (HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-V2), the Radeon HD 7870 DirectCu II V2 TOP (HD7870-DC2TG-2GD5-V2), and Radeon HD 7870 DirectCu II V2 (HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2). The three cards feature slightly modified cooler and PCB designs over the originals. In case of the HD 7950 DCU2 V2, the cooler is compacted with a denser heatsink, and the PCB reduced in length. In case of the HD 7870 cards, the cooler uses a denser heatsink.

The HD 7950 DCU2 V2 TOP ships with 900 MHz core, and 5.00 GHz GDDR5-effective memory. It packs 3 GB of memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface. The HD 7870 DCU2 V2 TOP ships with 1100 MHz core, and 5.00 GHz memory, while the HD 7870 DCU2 V2 ships with 1000 MHz core and 4.80 GHz memory. The two pack 2 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface.

ASUS is reportedly working on a new custom-design Radeon HD 7850 graphics card, to capture a key price-point in the performance market segment. The card uses the company's in-house DirectCu II dual-slot cooling solution, and is labeled "Dragon Edition" (model: DRAGON HD7850-DC2O-2GD5). The card ships with clock speeds lower than those of the HD 7850 DirectCu II TOP, with 910 MHz GPU and 5.00 GHz memory (vs. reference clock speeds of 870/4.84 GHz; and DCU2 TOP clock speeds of 975/5.00 GHz).

Interestingly, the HD 7850 DirectCu II Dragon Edition features a metal back-plate, something even the TOP model lacks. The PCB, too, differs from the that is found in other HD 7850 DCU2 graphics cards, featuring a 6+3 phase Digi+ VRM, which draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The main heatsink bears a slightly different design to that of the other DCU2 models based on the GPU. ASUS is likely to price the card somewhere between the stock HD 7850 DirectCu II and the HD 7850 DirectCu II TOP.

ASUS kicked off its Radeon HD 7800 series with two non-reference design implementations, DirectCu II TOP, at that. Both the ASUS Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850 DirectCu II TOP use a 2-slot variant of ASUS' coveted dual-fan cooler, and based on what appear to look like a non-reference design PCBs. The DirectCu II cooler consists of a combination of a heatsink and an aluminum fin array, to which heat is conveyed by copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the GPU die. The cooler makes use of two large fans to ventilate the heatsink. As TOP models, the two should feature 5-10% factory OC, out of the box. There's no word on the pricing.

ASUS launched its Radeon HD 7700 series with two cards, both non-reference design, which take advantage of proven cooler designs ASUS used in previously-launched models. The Radeon HD 7770 card is based on its DirectCU cooler that has been used on a number of upper-mid range graphics cards. Its cooler consists of a heat-pipe fed aluminum fin array, in which the heat-pipes make direct contact with the GPU die. This card bears slightly overclocked speeds, with the core clocked at 1020 MHz (vs. 1000 MHz reference), and 1150 MHz / 4.60 GHz memory (vs. 1125 / 4.50 GHz reference) memory.

The Radeon HD 7750 card from ASUS uses a non-reference PCB and a cooler design which has been implemented on several mid-range graphics cards by the company in the past it is a fan-heatsink with spirally-projecting aluminum fins, with a copper core at the center. The heatsink is ventilated by a large fan, which is known to be very quiet. Like its bigger brother, this card too features slightly overclocked speeds, with the core clocked at 820 MHz (vs. 800 MHz reference), and 1150 MHz / 4.60 GHz memory (vs. 1125 / 4.50 GHz reference) memory. Expect these cards to stick to common prices of US $159 for the HD 7770 and $109 for the HD 7750.

Here are the first pictures of ASUS' premium DirectCu II graphics card designed around AMD's Radeon HD 7970 GPU. The design is based on giving the GPU a powerful cooling solution, backed by a custom-design PCB. Since its cooling solution spans across three expansion slots, one of the three expansion slot brackets is productively used to provide additional display connectivity. To begin with, the PCB uses a 10+1+1 ASUS Digi+ VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It supports heavy overclocking, and provides several voltage tuning features.

A common metal heatsink spans along the length of the card, making contact with VRM and memory components. On top of this sits the DirectCu II heatsink. This heatsink uses a large aluminum fin-stack heatsink to which heat from the GPU is conveyed by six heat-pipes, which make direct contact with it. The heatsink itself isn't very thick, but what makes the card span across three slots are its two 100 mm fans. The GPU is clocked out of the box at 1000 MHz (vs. 925 MHz reference), and 5.60 GHz/1400 MHz actual memory (vs. 5.50 GHz/1375 MHz actual reference).

When ASUS first set out to build the MARS, a dual-GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, people thought the designers were crazy. NVIDIA could barely get the two 55 nm G200b GPUs on GeForce GTX 295 to run at GTX 285 specifications of 240 shaders and 512-bit GDDR3 each, and instead ran them with 448-bit wide GDDR3 memory interface, and lower clocks. ASUS managed to back two GPUs with insanely strong VRM and cooling, to achieve a dual-GPU graphics card that was more than just a GTX 295 overclocked. ASUS is back on the drawing boards with MARS II, a new dual-GPU graphics card that runs two GF110 GPUs in the same exact config as on GeForce GTX 580, perhaps with clock speeds higher than those of GTX 580.

The GeForce GTX 590 runs two GF110 GPUs with all CUDA cores and the complete width of the memory bus enabled, but the GPUs and memory are clocked significantly lower at 607 MHz core, 1214 MHz CUDA cores, and 3.42 GHz memory; while the single-GPU GTX 580 runs at 772 MHz core, 1544 MHz CUDA cores, and 4.00 GHz memory. MARS II also aims to get over the various design pitfalls of GTX 590 that made voltage-assisted overclocking practically impossible on air-cooling. To do this, MARS II will make use of a massive 19-phase VRM with Super Alloy chokes. To cool the beast, ASUS will put to use the expertise it gathered over time with its DirectCu series video card coolers. The new cooler will provide uniform cooling to both GPUs. More details, particularly about the when the card will be released, are awaited.

ASUS announced the launch of the new self-designed HD 6770 DirectCU and HD 6750 Formula graphics cards. Both are equipped with the ASUS-exclusive Super Alloy Power technology that delivers a 15% performance boost along with a lifespan that is 2.5 times longer than conventional graphics cards.

The HD 6770 DirectCU features copper pipes that are in direct contact with the GPU to offer a 20% cooler performance than reference graphics cards, while the HD 6750 Formula's integrated aerodynamic cover and micro surface treatment technology achieves a cooling performance 13% better than references. With this combination of ultimate cooling and durability, the HD 6770 DirectCU and HD 6750 Formula graphics cards allow users to enjoy unprecedented levels of realistic PC gaming and multimedia entertainment.

Overclockers Elmor and kinc last gathered to set a singl-card 3DMark Vantage world record, the duo and SF3D got together in Sweden to set another record, of the highest multi-GPU 3DMark Vantage score with a single processor. Vantage multi-GPU records are lead by multi-processor (dual LGA1366) setups. The team achieved a Vantage score of P75892 points. For this feat, the team used a single Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition processor 6213 MHz (177.5 MHz x 35.0) with all cores and threads enabled, backed by 4 GB of dual-channel memory by ADATA clocked at 887.5 MHz (actual), running on ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard with ROG Xpander to enable 4-way SLI capability.

Leading the graphics department were four ASUS GTX 580 DirectCu graphics cards clocked at 1105/1301/2210 MHz (core/shader/memory). The setup was powered by two Antec HCP 1200W PSUs. Liquid nitrogen cooling was the weapon of choice, the CPU was cooled by SF3D OC Inflection Point LN2 evaporator, and four Kingpin Tek-9 6 Slim evaporators for the graphics cards.

Renowned overclockers elmor and Kinc did the unthinkable, breaching the 1500 MHz barrier for the core (geometry domain) clock speed of GeForce GTX 580. Using ASUS EN580GTX DirectCu graphics card, the duo managed to achieve 1504 MHz core, 3008 MHz CUDA cores, and 1253 MHz (5012 MHz GDDR5 effective) memory, churning out 240.6 GB/s memory bandwidth. With this in single-card configuration, the testbed consisting of Intel Core i7-990X clocked at 6.14 GHz and 6 GB of DDR3 memory clocked at 1750 MHz, and ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard, the duo achieved a 3DMark Vantage score of P45819 (performance preset), setting a new record.

The bench was powered by a 1200W Antec HCP PSU, the graphics card ran with a whopping 1.62V vGPU, and 1.86V vMem, it is estimated that the graphics card drew 600W (12V, 50A) of power in itself. The CPU and graphics card were cooled using liquid nitrogen evaporators, the GPU VRM was directly air-cooled, using a high-flow fan. A number of hard volt-mods were employed to achieve those voltages.

ASUS has launched an entire range of DirectCU II-enhanced graphics cards that include the latest technologies from both AMD and NVIDIA GPU rosters. On the AMD side, ASUS offers the HD 6970 and HD 6950 graphics cards with DirectCU II while for NVIDIA, the GTX 580, GTX 570 and new GTX 560 Ti all ship with the advanced cooling technology.

Based on ASUS DirectCU, which uses copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU core for up to 20% cooler performance, DirectCU II adds a custom cooler that uses twin 100mm fans for a massive 600% increase in airflow on HD 6970, HD 6950, GTX 580, and GTX 570 DirectCU II cards. ASUS has also launched the GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP graphics card with dual 80mm fans for the best performance in its segment through doubled air power.