AMD’s 68xx series GPUs have been out for a little while now. This means that the boring time of stock and reference designs is well past and now we get to see what happens when a manufacturer puts their best effort into designing a graphics card. In the past we have seen Asus stand out with some impressive designs. Their DirectCU and Voltage Tweak offerings have been excellent. Today we have one of these on the test bench in the form of the Asus EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5. This factory overclocked card features their DirectCU (hence the name) cooling which has the heat pipes sitting right on top of the GPU for better thermal performance. This new card also features Asus’ Voltage Tweak to help you get even more performance out of it. So let’s take a look and see if this $200.00 card is worth your time and money.
The Box and Goodies-Asus has always done a good job of putting together compelling packaging when it comes to their upper end products. The EAH6870 is no exception; with images that bring thoughts of “The Lord of the Rings” or Molly Hatchet (a 70s Southern Rock band) to mind the box is visually stimulating. Well, at least it is to the Male half of the species. Once you get past the vivid image on the front there are some other more important logos and pictures for you to consider (like the 915MHz factory OC).
The back is much more down-to Earth with graphics that tell you about the product in better detail. Realistically the imagery and marketing is well blended. If I saw this packaging on a store shelf I would probably pick it up and, if I were looking for an upgrade, the marketing would certain pique my curiosity.
Once you got the EAH6870 home and discarded the outer shell (you know the thing that help you decide to buy this in the first place) you will find a smooth black internal box with Asus printed on top in gold. When you open this box… well there is another box, but this one contains your documentation and drivers/utilities DVDs. Next to that is a square tube that holds the cables and adapters. Under the DVD box we find the thing you came to read about, the EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5.
