The ASUS packaging is no stranger to us here and the one used for their HD6950 is exactly the same as that seen with their HD6970, both in terms of size and design. ASUS have kept to their traditional red and black themed box, depicting a rampaging horseman to symbolise their dominance and power. The box highlights some the card’s key features, most notable the DirectCU II cooler which is printed in bold at the bottom and illustrated below the ASUS logo. The claim is that it is 20% cooler than the reference vapour chamber coolers, a significant feat if true. The red background denotes that the graphics card is of course from AMD.


Taking a closer look at the illustrated features, we can see that the HD6950 comes pre-overclocked at 810MHz, 10MHz above the default 800MHz speed. While not a significant boost, it’s other features more than make up for it. The card boasts 2GB of on-board GDDR5 memory for exceptional memory bandwidth. Moreover, it is also illustrated that the ASUS board employs Super Allow Power, an exclusive feature to their latest line of DirectCU II graphics cards. Impressively, the HD6950 also has a total of 6 outputs, allowing it to support up to 6 screens in Eyefinity configuration. Typically, 6 monitor output has always been limited to special edition Eyefinity cards or other custom card designs but none have the sheer number of DisplayPort connectors as the new ASUS cards. And just above those icons is a teaser picture of the DirectCU II cooler.


The back of the box is more informative and covers some of the card’s key characteristics is greater depth. At the top, the features are listed in 11 languages whilst below that are illustrations of Eyefinity in action and the DirectCU II’s unique features, as well a short description of their benefits. Additionally there is an illustration of the different display connectors that can be found on the card’s I/O panel. There is no mention of the voltage tweak feature but this comes supported as standard through the SmartDoctor application.


Looking closer, we can see that ASUS expect the dual fan design of the DirectCU II cooler to run 20% cooler, although how this is quantified is a mystery. The “Super Alloy Power” refers to new on-board components able to run cooler in order to maintain longer lifespan. These help the power circuitry as we will see later on.


Inside the main box, we are greeted with another which upon opening reveals a paper wallet within a foam encasing. The wallet holds the driver disc and installation manual, and when removed from the middle foam cut-out exposes the graphics card nicely wrapped in an anti-static bag.


Beneath the top foam encasing is the beast of the graphics card and the additional accessories in a small separate cut-out to the side. The graphics card is well secured and packaged and should be well protected during transit despite its size and weight. Overall, the packaging still retains the quality and professionalism we have always attributed to ASUS.


Bundled alongside the HD6950 are:

- 1 x Dual Molex to 6 Pin power adapter
- 1 10CM Crossfire Bridge
- 1 x Multi-lingual quick-installation guide
- 1 x DVI to HDMI adapter
- Driver disc

The bundle is fairly standard but it can be seen that some thought was given to what was included. The DVI to HDMI adaptor ensures that users can choose between three types of connectors including DVI and DisplayPort which are supported on the I/O plate. Due to the size of the graphics card, ASUS have also included a 10cm crossfire cable rather than a regular 7.3cm one to ensure a wide enough gap to install a second card. My only complaint is that the dual Molex to 6 pin power adapter should have been replaced with a dual 6 pin to 8 pin adapter, given the 8 pin PCIe connector on the card instead of the usual second 6 pin connector.