ASUS Launches Radeon HD 7970 Graphics Cards with Custom Cooler - Finally!

While the AMD Radeon HD 7950 is the real news for this week, we just can't overlook the fact that most of the bigger brother Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards are still using standard reference coolers. So taking the opportunity of the new GPU launched today and its related cards, ASUS also rolled out two new models based on the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU - but this time, using custom coolers!

Adopting the AMD Tahiti 28nm GPU, the ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP is one of the earlier cards to incorporate a custom cooler with their DirectCU II technology which utilizes six copper heatpipes and a large dissipation area to ensure cool and quiet operation. As denoted by its TOP nomenclature, the card is well overclocked with a GPU clock speed tuned to 1000MHz and slightly speedier memory at 5600MHz GDDR5 (75MHz and 100MHz higher than the reference card respectively). ASUS also has a version of this card that's not overclocked and thus doesn't have the TOP nomenclature in its marketing.

For those intending to setup a complex multi-screen setup, you should be happy to hear that both of them are the first Radeon HD 7970 cards with four native DisplayPorts and dual DVI interfaces to power up to six screens without the need for additional adapters. Other features that are common to this GPU SKU in general are its 3GB GDDR5 video memory, 384-bit memory interface and native PCIe 3.0 interface.

Here's a quick glance at the specifications of both the custom designed ASUS Radeon HD 7970 cards:-

Source: ASUS

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