Asus Unveils Triple Slot Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II Top Graphics Card

The Asus Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP is a factory overclocked graphics card being pitched as the coolest and quietest 7970 money can buy. It's also the biggest. To keep thermals and noise in check, Asus slapped an ultra-wide cooling solution that, along with the PCB, takes up three three -- yes, THREE -- slots in your computer case.


All that space isn't wasted. Asus' exclusive DirecCU II is a dual-fan cooler with six copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. This new version has a 20 percent larger dissipation area than previous DirectCU coolers, giving it a cooling effectiveness that's 20 percent better and 14dB quieter compared to AMD's reference design.


Underneath the massive cooling solution is a beastly PCB with a 12-phase Super Allow Power design with digital voltage regulators to increase power efficiency, widen the voltage modulation range, and improve overall stability and longevity, Asus says. Enthusiasts will also find simple solder points to alter voltages directly on a hardware level for more precise modification.

The card itself has been factory overclocked to 900MHz on the GPU and 1,000MHz on the 3GB of GDDR5 memory.

No word yet on price or availability.