[Tested and Burned] ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II Review

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II review index

1 – ASUS GTX 570 DirectCU II: Presentation

ASUS logo

ASUS has recently introduced several graphics cards based on its DirectCU technology: two Radeon-based (HD 6950 and HD 6970) and two GeForce-based (GTX 570 and GT 580). All these cards have in common the new monster tri-slot VGA cooler DirectCU II. The GTX 560 Ti DC2 also features the DirectCU II cooling system but in the 2-slot height version.

Today, the review is focused on ASUS’s GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II. The three-slot height VGA cooler is bulky but it does it job very well: the noise levels are impressive, even when FurMark burn-in test is running. It’s simple: there’s nearly no difference between idle and full stress load states.

ASUS GTX 570 DirectCU II vs GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II
ASUS GTX 570 DirectCU II (3-slot) vs GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II (2-slot)

This card is based on the GF110 GPU, the same behind the GeForce GTX 580. The only difference is that GTX 570 GF110 has one SM (streaming multiprocessor) in less leading to 480 SP (shader processors) instead of 512 for a full GF110 GPU. More details on the GTX 570 reference board HERE.

The GeForce GTX 570 supports OpenGL 4.1, Direct3D 11, CUDA, OpenCL 1.1 and PhysX APIs.

ASUS’s GTX 570 DC2 comes out of the box with a GPU overclocked at 742MHz while the reference clock is… 732MHz (wooww… that’s what I called a massive overclocking!). The 1280MB of GDDR5 memory follow the reference clock speed: 950MHz real speed or 1900MHz DDR speed or 3800MHz effective data rate speed (see here for more details on memory speeds).

The GTX 570 DC2 is available with two DVI (on the right), one HDMI (midle) and one DisplayPort (on the left):

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

The DirectCU II uses five copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU to speed up heat dissipation. Two 90mm fans allow to create the required air flow to throw out the heat:

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

Like the GTX 580 DC2, the GTX 570 DC2 comes with a nice backplate to protect the rear side of the PCB:

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

Right under the GPU on the rear side of the PCB, you can see a rather big chip:

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II



This chip is actually a capacitor: the NEC/Tokin Proadlizer film capacitors (Model: 0E907). This capacitor (2.5V / 900uF) is used to provide a more stable voltage to the GPU.

Two power connectors allow to feed the card: one 8-pin and one 6-pin:

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

Like the GTX 560 Ti DC2, this GTX 570 DC2 has two LEDS on the rear side of the PCB to show the state of the the power connectors: green: OK, read: PROBLEM! But unlike
the GTX 5460 TI DC2, both LEDs are not very visible because of the backplate…

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

The bundle includes a GTX 570, a SLI connector, a dsub to DVI connector, a 8-pin to two 6-pin power connector adapter, and a CD with drivers and SmartDoctor (ASUS’s overclocking utility):

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II

ASUS’s GTX 570 DC2 is priced at around 330 euros.




ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II review index

13 thoughts on “[Tested and Burned] ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II Review”

  1. Zibri

    I think you should test this card with EVGA OC Scanner (the one I modified) just to check the real artifact-free OC.

  2. Pingback: GTX 570 overclocking thread - Page 47 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

  3. Mark Lev

    hi.. i wanna buy this card..i got a core 2 quad 3.0 ghz.. i have a 750 watt antec power supply.. will it be okay ?

  4. Wisico

    Is it normal that my card when it pass the 60% fan speed (with afterburner) it start to make a loud noise?? :O
    But there is Nothing In the fan…
    What should I do??

  5. JEswe

    Mark Lev yes youre setup will run this card.
    Wisico youre card is probebly geting hot and protecting the GPU or you got dust in there.
    🙂

  6. Chris

    what are those slots on the front with the plastic covers?
    should I connect them to anything?
    I got a small flat cable with my card
    but I dont understand where to put it?
    plese help!

  7. Nick

    I’m not sure what I’m missing here. I recently got my hands on one of these cards and knew it was going to be a true force to be reckoned with. While playing Skyrim with the high res pac I get jumpy frames 60fps-0fps; Yet my hardware isn’t even trying! (the fan speed stays the same and the temp never rises) I’m confused why it’s holding back! I’ve played Crysis 2 DX11 and Arkham City on full specs without a problem – why little DX10 Skyrim has low frames I’m baffled. I was going to save the benchmarking until I was able to finish my build off with 8 more gigs of ram and an SSD but the recent speedbump in gaming brought me to it early. I was astounded how low I was ranking, to say the least. >=( Furmark was the first and I’m about to try unigine and 3dmark and probably be twice as disappointed.

    I was wondering how the numbers here and on every other benchmark were attained with less of an overclock than I even have, when I haven’t touched overclocking yet since I wasn’t worried until now! furmark put me at just over 2,000 (36FPS) >=(!!!
    Hardware: (everything @ stock specifications)
    i5 2500k @3.3GHz w/ a Zalman fan cooler
    Asus P8Z68-V Pro mobo
    2 4GB corsair vengeance @ 9-9-9-24
    1080W PS

  8. Nick

    >>>And yes, I forgot to mention, I have the updated drivers. Even the Nvidia one specifically for the Skyrim high res pack.

  9. Brad

    Hello nick, dont have any experiance with your card, but running skyrim on full specs with all the GFX and hi res mods, on a setup less powerfull than yours. The only thing I had to do is patch the main executable so it allows more then 2GB ram usage. Try doing that there are guides online, let us know how you get on.

  10. Jim

    Thank’s! please add Assassin’s Creed II Gaming benchmark!
    Thank’s Again!

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