Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580 came as a surprise to many, who didn't expect NVIDIA could pull off another high-end GPU release in 2010. The new card delivers significantly improved performance over the GTX 480, while keeping power consumption in check and emitting reduced noise levels.

ASUS has taken this successful base design and customized it on their GTX 580 Direct CU II using a brave approach: triple slot cooling design. The additional slot on the GTX 580 DCII allows a bigger cooling solution for improved cooling potential. ASUS has focused on reducing fan noise instead of delivering the lowest temperatures possible, which makes a lot of sense in my opinion. For you there is no difference whether the card is at 60° or 80° under load, but fan noise is something you will have to constantly live with.
The ASUS GTX 580 Direct CU II also comes with a small overclock to squeeze some extra performance out of the card. While other board vendors would charge a hefty price premium for such a design approach, ASUS only adds $5 to the cost of the GTX 580 DCII which is extremely reasonable and makes this card attractive for users who would only be looking at the reference design otherwise.