ASUS unveils details on the tech behind its custom graphics cards
ASUS unveils details on the tech behind its custom graphics cards
When it comes to shopping for a new graphics card – or PC hardware in general – the average buyer is often inundated by a flood of marketing jargon that can be difficult to make sense of. Torx fans? Triangle Cool technology? SuperAlloy Power II? What does it all mean?
Buyers can hardly be blamed for wondering if all this jargon actually counts for something. At the ASUS Technical Seminar 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand, ASUS stripped away the fluff and provided us with a look into the design and engineering decisions behind its custom graphics cards.
There was also news of new graphics card releases. According to the timeline below, consumers can expect three new editions of the GeForce GTX 980 Ti in the three-month period spanning August to October. The ROG Poiseidon GTX 980 Ti will debut sometime in August, followed by the Matrix and 20th Anniversary Gold Edition in early September and October respectively.
DirectCU III cooler
For starters, ASUS’ new DirectCU III cooler puts the GPU die in more direct contact with the heatsink itself. According to ASUS, there is only a single layer of thermal grease separating the heatsink from the GPU, which results in more efficient heat transfer and dissipation. In comparison, other less efficient designs interpose more layers between the GPU and heatsink in the form of a copper plate and solder paste.
If you own a DirectCU III GPU, you’ve probably seen ASUS boasting about its dual thick 10mm heatpipes on the card’s packaging. As it turns out, there’s a reason for using thicker heatpipes – they enable improved heat dissipation over thinner ones.
But in addition to the dual 10mm heatpipes, the DirectCU III cooler actually uses an additional 8mm heatpipe and two more secondary 6mm heatpipes. The dual 10mm and single 8mm heatpipes are in direct contact with the GPU itself and are responsible for getting rid of 70% of the GPU’s heat output, while the remaining 30% is handled by the secondary heatpipes.
Finally, the DirectCU heatpipes themselves are designed to enable both high capillarity and permeability. It combines the advantages of sintered powder and groove heatpipes in order to increase heat transfer efficiency, and a look at the cross section reveals a design that looks like a hybrid between both types of heatpipes.
Fan design
The ASUS Wing-blade fan apparently draws inspiration from the wing design of the US Air Force A-10 attack jet, hence its name. Instead of a tapered fan edge, ASUS has gone with a blunt edge design that increases air pressure and helps drive more air through the heatsink.
Furthermore, ASUS has intentionally designed its fan blades to be wide, with smaller gaps between the blades. The larger fan blade area and smaller gap area supposedly helps increase air flow and pressure.
Strix armor
The red GPU fortifying brace that we noticed in our recent reviews of ASUS’ Strix cards also serves a functional purpose. It seems that strain relief could still be improved even with a metal backplate in place, and the GPU Fortifier helps to relieve pressure on all four corners of the GPU die and prevent flexing across the entire PCB.
Improved power efficiency, reduced choke whine
According to ASUS, its Super Alloy Power II (it's not just a fancy name) components help improve power efficiency by reducing power loss in the MOS driver and high-side and low-side MOS, where up to 80% of power loss occurs.
It has identified three common sources for power loss, namely, conduction loss, switching loss, and dead time loss.
By using a flip-chip design instead of wire bond, ASUS effectively reduces the gate resistance and helps reduce switching loss, which occurs when the MOS transitions between “off” and “on” states. As its name suggests, the chip has been flipped such that its top faces down and interfaces with the circuit via solder dots.
On the other hand, dead time loss is reduced by utilizing multiple drivers so each cell MOS gets its own driver.
Finally, the Super Alloy II components help minimize choke whine by using extra-fine alloy particles to keep acoustics down. Choke whine occurs as a result of fluctuations in the GPU’s current, and the finer alloy particles help keep these to a minimum.
Fully automated assembly
On top of all that, ASUS also talked about its Auto-Extreme technology, which completely automates the GPU manufacturing process and eliminates human fallibility from production. ASUS says that this helps to ensure more uniform standards of quality and allows its cards to be produced to more exacting standards.
Furthermore, it removes flux – a chemical cleaning agent – from the manufacturing process, which actually helps to reduce dust buildup between components and thus prolong longevity.
Many of these features can be found on a recent slew of Strix-branded cards from ASUS like the ASUS Strix Radeon R7 370 and R9 380 and the Strix Radeon R9 Fury. For a look at how these features hold up in practice, you can refer to our reviews of the aforementioned cards, or to our GeForce GTX 980 Ti shootout, which features the ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 980 Ti.