If I had to choose one word to describe the HD6950 DirectCU II, it would be “monstrous”. The triple slotted card makes use of a cooler than spans 2.5 slots. The graphics card makes use of a custom PCB design and a custom dual fan cooler to match. The outer shroud is of metallic construct, giving the card a very solid and robust feel. It has a very distinct shape with vents on the side to dissipate the air that is pushed down towards the GPU. The rounded edges makes for a very attractive finish and the red stripe going through the middle is reminiscent of the livery used on their reference boards. The DirectCU II logo has been thoughtfully place in the cooler for an added finishing touch.


The back of the card has been left bare. No backplate is installed but this isn’t wholly necessary when all the components that require cooling are on the other side of the PCB. The heatsink is secured only by 4 spring loaded screws and to remove the cooler; those 4 screws have to be undone. From this angle, we can see that the shroud extends further than the PCB making the whole card 29.2cm in length so it is important to ensure that it will fit inside cases.


The DirectCU II cooler makes use of two 100mm for a claimed 600% increase in airflow. This is coincidently what ASUS promised their ARES HD6970 would bring so it is clear that their technological innovations has seeped through to more mainstream cards. The fans are designed to blow ait towards the components rather than blowing air towards the exhaust ports at the back. Nonetheless, the design promises much better thermal performance. At the back of the shroud, the curved down panel protects the heatsink and makes for an overall better finish.


The two CrossFire connectors on the side provide support for up to 4 graphics cards to be used simultaneously in CrossFireX. However the sheer size means that most motherboards will be limited to either 2 way or 3 way-CrossFire. A support bar has been installed on the side of the PCB to avoid the card flexing under the weight of the heatsink.


This is where it gets interesting. Reference HD6950s have a switch on the side that allows users to switch between a protected factory BIOS and a second BIOS. The HD6950’s ability to unlock to a full HD6970 has made it common place for buyers to opt for the cheaper SKU and simply unlocking to the latter. ASUS have kept the switch on their HD6950 but its purpose is completely different. The switch merely switches the dual link DVI port on the I/O panel to a Single Link port and “unlocks” one of the four DisplayPorts linked to it.


The diagram shows a clearer image of the switch turning the Dual Link DVI into a Single Link DVI & DisplayPort connector by sharing the bandwidth. This makes the switch an ideal addition for those interested in multi-monitor usage. The obvious disadvantage is that users can’t switch to a second BIOS for potential unlocking. Given that the board is custom to ASUS and doesn’t share components with the reference designed HD6970, it is impossible to unlock the card anyway.


Going to a triple slot design has allowed ASUS to go wild on the number of connectors on the I/O panel. At the base are 4 DisplayPort connectors and above those are 2 DVI ports. The DVI port to the left is a Single Link DVI-I port whereas the one to the left is a Dual Link DVI-D port, as indicated by the engravings to the side. The DVI-I port can be used with a VGA adaptor for legacy devices that are limited to analog signals. The DVI-D port shares bandwidth with the DisplayPort below it and thus the switch allows users to configure the two as illustrated above. The reference HD6970 only uses mini-DisplayPorts but has an extra HDMI port. The DisplayPorts support the latest 1.2 standard. The main advantage of the new DisplayPort standard is the double bandwidth over the previous 1.1 ports, taking it from 10.8Gbps to 21.6Gbps. In real world applications, it means that a single port can support up to 2 2560x1600 monitors and 4 1920x1200 monitors through daisy chaining or by using an MST hub. If a hub isn’t available and daisy chaining not feasible, the 6 ports can still support up to 6 displays in Eyefinity as illustrated at the back of the box. The higher bandwidth of the DP is also relied on for AMD’s new 3D stereoscopy initiative.


Unlike regular HD6950s, the ASUS card has one 6 pin and one 8 pin PCIe power connector telling us that the card has been designed to be overclocked and not be limited by power draw. It also means that the maximum TDP is raised to 250W before PowerTune kicks in to throttle the card. These are conveniently situated on the side rather than at the end to ensure that the cables do not get in the way of HDD cages or other components.


Next to the already lengthy reference HD6970, the DirectCU II HD6950 is an absolute monster spanning 29.2cm, 1.8cm longer than the former card. Not all cases will support this card so ensure compatibility first before buying.