Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 570 is the latest high-end card for the budget-conscious gamer. Being built on the same foundation at GTX 580, it comes with reduced shader count, lower clock and also a lower price to fit a $350 price point.

ASUS has taken this successful base design and customized it on their GTX 570 Direct CU II using a brave approach: triple slot cooling design. The additional slot on the GTX 570 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 570 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 $10 to the cost of the GTX 570 DCII which is extremely reasonable and makes this card attractive for users who would only be looking at the reference design otherwise.