ASUS Readies HD 7850 DirectCu II Dragon Edition Graphics Card

[btarunr]

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.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[pantherx12]

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.

[url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-06-29/266a_thm.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-06-29/266b_thm.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-06-29/266c_thm.jpg[/URL]

Source: VideoCardz

OOOOhhh fancy, I bet this over-clocks like a champ!

 

[DarkOCean]

The heatsink looks like the one on the 670 dcII.

 

[Delta6326]

Probably is the same cooler, just changed a couple things to make sure they don't touch other components, but thats a good thing because the 670 DCII cooler rocks.

 

[pantherx12]

The cooling plate looks very GPU block friendly : ]

 

[qwfy919]

 

[No_Asylum]

I've never been a fan of ASUS vga cards. Motherboards and Laptops tho, hell yea. This one however looks pretty nice.

 

[Animalpak]

Thu HUM edition !

I like the idea nice ! Lately graphics cards are having respectable aesthetic attention

 

[TheMailMan78]

I keep reading "Double Dragon" Edition Graphics Card in the title. I'm getting old.

 

[dj-electric]

Mother of overclock...

 

[erocker]

With Asus locking the voltage on some of their cards now, it may not overclock much at all.

 

[dj-electric]

A fairly smart user may bypass this limitation. On the other hand... i don't see much smart people going for this card either :X

 

[Random Murderer]

I keep reading "Double Dragon" Edition Graphics Card in the title. I'm getting old.

Don't feel bad, I saw that at first glance as well and I'm pretty sure you've got me by a decade.


I wonder if the Digi+ VRMs mean it'll have software to adjust the switching frequency of the VRMs like on their motherboards?

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Is it just me or is this overkill for a 7850? I can see it on a 7900 series and possibly the 7870. Isn't the 7850 low-end of the mid-range series of cards?

 

[ensabrenoir]

Is it just me or is this overkill for a 7850? I can see it on a 7900 series and possibly the 7870. Isn't the 7850 low-end of the mid-range series of cards?

+1. Just a dash of mojo to hike the price up

 

[tacosRcool]

I keep reading "Double Dragon" Edition Graphics Card in the title. I'm getting old.

I used to watch Double Dragon!

 

[Xzibit]

+1. Just a dash of mojo to hike the price up

Propably true but since Nvidia hasnt released the new Keplers in this price range it has no incentive to lower prices.

As it is now they are competing with Fermi 570 in performance at a lower price point $30-50 less. 3+ months of no competition.

 

[Jegergrim]

I really like the Asus PCB color, it looks more qualitative (not saying it is), and fits the surrounding components really well, definately +1 for the aesthethics.

 

[anubis44]

Mother of overclock...

Ha, that's nothing. I had a couple of Asus Direct CUII 7850s about a month ago, and both were able to run at 1050MHz with no voltage adjustment on the core merely by going into the AMD Catalyst control panel and unlocking them and sliding the slider all the way to the right. They were both able to run at 1150MHz with some voltage adjustment stable. I've never seen graphics cards that overclocked so easily, and the Asus fans were still utterly silent (I'm not exaggerating - I really couldn't hear them over my already quiet case/HSF fans; I thought maybe the fans weren't even turning!).

The 7850 is one of the most underrated graphics cards out there right now. Overclocked, they'll run about 4/5 the speed of a 7970-GTX670/680, and they're $250-$270. Get the Asus Direct CUII version for completely quiet operation.

 

[qwfy919]

PCEVA's Dragon HD7850 Direct CU II Review

 

[Kovoet]

I have the 7970 version and love it.