demonic
Explorer
Nvidia's fastest graphical monstrosity, the GTX 580 is currently enjoying the top spot. It the fastest singe GPU card in the market and is about to get a major overhaul, thanks to Asus. NordicHardware has managed to get a scoop on what Asus has been cooking in their labs. After demonstrating their custom Direct CU II cooler on AMD's HD 6970, its now Nvidia's turn.
This limited edition GTX 580 Direct CU II variant will sport an entirely custom built circuit board to begin with. This is necessary as Asus has bumped up the power phases from six to eight. The additional number of phases will be able to deliver more power than before thereby boosting the overclocking head room. Another noteworthy addition is that now the memory compartment will no longer draw additional power through the PCIE lane but rather directly through the 8-pin power connector. This reduces the stress on the motherboard during an intense gaming session or even while overlcocking.
The cooler simply steals the show with its towering three slot design. Some of the design cues for the Direct CU II were taken from the Asus ARES. To compensate for the heat, the cooler sports five copper heatpipes with large aluminum fins and two massive 100mm fans. These fans were specially developed for this cooler and would feature in all of Asus's future high end cards. Some of the other features include a more efficient power supply, NEC power capacitor behind the GPU, dual 8-pin power connectors, dual DVI outputs, HDMI and DisplayPort.
Asus still hasn't disclosed the clock speeds or the release date of this behemoth yet, but expect to see something soon.
now that's one beast
