ASUS HD6950 2GB DirectCU II Review

👤by Sahil Mannick Comments 📅27-02-11
Closer Look (Continued)


The shroud removed

The whole card can be dismantled quite easily. Simply removing 6 screws allows us to remove the shroud and reveal the shape of the heatsink below it. The heatsink spans the length of the graphics card giving it plenty of surface area for heat dissipation. The fans are then placed above pushing down air towards the GPU. ASUS have moved away from the vapour chamber cooling solution so it will be interesting to see if the heat pipe design will reign superior or not.


Beneath the shroud

Underneath the shroud, the fans are mounted to a scaffold like structure. The metal bracket provides additional support and allows the shroud to be secured to the heatsink. Each fan has a 4 pin connector for PWM functionality and a y-splitter has been employed to keep everything tidy. The 9 bladed 100mm fans should be more than enough to keep the card cooler compared to the single fan design of the reference card.


The heatsink

The heatsink is composed of two horizontally mounted fin arrays. The first is merely an aluminium block installed on top of the GPU for quick dissipation of heat across 29 fins. The second part that overlies the memory and power circuitry is connected by three heat pipes and is made up of 48 densely packed aluminium fins. The three copper heat pipes are in direct contact with the GPU so efficiency can be maintained, hence the DirectCU moniker.


The bare PCB

The layout of the PCB is very similar to the reference board in terms of where the components are positioned but otherwise ASUS have gone for a completely custom design. The GPU sits in the middle surrounded by eight memory modules and to the right is the power circuitry.


The Cayman GPU

The Cayman core seen here has a die size of 389 mm squared, significantly larger than the 255mm squared Barts core and the 334mm squared Cypress core. This is the largest AMD core since the notorious R600 core design which came at 420 mm squared. The fabrication is still on the 40nm process due to the lack of readily available 32nm or 28nm manufacturing.


The memory modules

The memory modules are once again GDDR5 chips sourced from Hynix rather than Samsung. The H5GQ 2H24MFR T2C 049A chips operate at 1.5V. The T2 denotes that the memory is rated at 5GHz but as we will see later on, this is a very conservative clock speed. These are slightly updated versions of the chips used on the regular HD6950s which are the “039A” versions.


The GPU power circuitry

The power circuitry features a 7 phase power design for the GPU alone and makes use of ASUS’s new Super Alloy technology. They have been built to ensure longer lifespan and cooler operation. Each choke has the “Super Alloy Power” logo imprinted on top. The two missing chokes indicate that the HD6970 has an extra 2 phase power. The MOSFETs are cooled by their own heatsinks.


The memory VRM circuitry

The memory boasts its own 2 phase VRM circuitry for more stable overclocking and operation.


The SHE voltage controller

Instead of the Volterra VT1556MF voltage controller found on reference boards, ASUS have opted for an SHE based one. Voltage tweaking is thus only supported through the SmartDoctor software. Because of those differences, there is no chance of unlocking the card to a HD6970 BIOS.


The card installed



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