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DirectCU

Luke86

Luke86

Luke86

Associate
Joined
13 Jun 2011
Posts
21
Hi all,

I have been looking at purchasing a Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950, while searching Google I noticed lots of retailers offering a Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II version.

What is DirectCU? Is it better or should I stick to a Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950??

:confused:

Cheers,

Luke
 
Direct CU (II) is an aftermarket cooler used by ASUS on many of their higher-end graphics cards incuding the HD 6950 and 6970. It is a decent cooler that is generally cooler and quieter than the stock one - though you do generally have to pay a premium for it. Have a look at this review.

As well asus, MSI, gigabyte and Sapphire make nice versions of the 6950 with their own cool and quiet coolers.
 
So you would always recommend a DirectCU graphics card? Tomorrow I was going to buy a Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 from **** (discontinued here) but I might get the DirectCU version if its better!!!
 
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cmndr_andi said:
Direct CU (II) is an aftermarket cooler used by ASUS on many of their higher-end graphics cards incuding the HD 6950 and 6970. It is a decent cooler that is generally cooler and quieter than the stock one - though you do generally have to pay a premium for it. Have a look at this review.

As well asus, MSI, gigabyte and Sapphire make nice versions of the 6950 with their own cool and quiet coolers.
Click to expand...

MSI's coolers are called the twin frozr II and III, they also have the lightning.
They are silver and have 2 fans

Gigabyte's are the Windforce coolers
Black cooler with 3 fans
 
cmndr_andi said:
Aye, I would get the Direct CU II version over the stock one - that said, make sure you get the 2GB version, not the 1GB version.

Also, the MSI 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB is really well worth a look.
Click to expand...

My vote goes to the MSI

Operation said:
They're both very good cards. But if I could find a reference design cheaper I'd probably get that instead. We're not talking about a huge difference, and the 6950 isn't all that hot or loud in the first place.
Click to expand...

I found my 6970 to be too loud and hot
 
I guess it depends on your expectations. My mildly overclocked reference 6950 (with unlocked shaders) doesn't doesn't go above 75 degrees and I find the noise perfectly acceptable.
 
What do you mean by reference 6950?

I really set my heart on a 6950 but I was confussed by DirectCU!

If you could pick between the two which would you go for?
 
Reference means the standard or approved design of the graphics card made by AMD - this is the basic design that all the manufacturers must at least meet or perform better than with their card designs. For example, this is a reference design 6950 with the big box cooler, while the ASUS DirectCU II or MSI Twin Frozr III are examples of non-reference designs with coolers (and often power circuitry) that surpasses the performance of the reference design, but usually command a price premium.

Make no mistake, the Direct CU II or Twin Frozr III is a better card than a reference one, however it will cost you a bit more - so it is up to you whether you want to pay that extra for the cooler, quieter card that may also be able to overclock higher.
 
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It's more than just the cooler. The asus directcu 6950 is a completely different pcb to the reference design. So is the msi 6970 lightning which I also have. The asus is much quieter and cooler but they are both great cards.

The issues come if you want to xfire or watercool.
 
Do you guys think that the Direct CU will fit on this:

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5-B3 P67

The DirectCU takes up three slots!

Also it doesn't have HDMI out, wtf?!
 
Yeah the asus card will fit pretty much any mobo. You just won't be able to fit anything in the 3 slots under it. So it actually eats 4 slots. Which means if you want to crossfire, the asus will most likely need to be the bottom card.
 
I was just reading about the DirectCU version and I have read conflicting reports that it does(n't) come with dual Bios. Also the Direct CU version cannot be unlocked to a 6970!

Would everyone still recommend the Direct CU version or should I go for the Reference?

Cheers,

Luke
 
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