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First Look

Out of the Box: ASUS GTX580 DirectCUII

By David Hollingworth
14:54 Feb 11, 2011 | 12 Comments
Tags: ASUS | GTX580 | DirectCUII | unboxxing | first | look | video | card | hardware | news
Out of the Box: ASUS GTX580 DirectCUII
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Verdict:
Can't wait to get this on the test bench.
 
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We take a quick look at ASUS' new GTX580 card. It's a classy package, hiding a monster of a video card.

Every now and then a card crosses our desk here at Atomic that just makes us go 'wow'. Sometimes it's a matter of raw performance, sometimes a matter of good price. At other times, it might be an awesome package (like XFX's SMG) that gets us all excited. Or, in the case of the new ASUS GTX580 DirectCUII, it's just because it's so... damned... BIG.

This is a triple slot card and then some. Measuring a full 62mm in height at its widest point, and a full 280mm long (that's 11in for you old folks), it's a serious hunk of metal and silicon. 

The reason it's so giant is because of two full-size 90mm fans sucking air over and through a dual-heatsink array that wouldn't look out of place on an overclocked CPU. It's epic.

And we can't wait to bench it - keep an eye on an upcoming issue to find out if this beast delivers performance equal to its gargantuan presence. In the meantime, check out our full unboxing gallery.

 
Product Info
Supplier:
price check*
$499.00 ASUS GTX580 ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/15336MD5 DirectCUII 1536MB GDDR5 DVI/Mini HD...
GameDude Computers (QLD)
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC Powered by
 
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12 Comments
Mademan
Feb 11, 2011 3:46 PM
At last, a graphics card to put to rest all those fears of motherboard flex. It'll certainly provide a good test of the strength of a PCIe socket.
Martyr
Feb 11, 2011 3:48 PM
mmmmmmmmmmm... weighty
AMD AKIMBO
Feb 11, 2011 5:02 PM
good idea for those who dont want sli.
why cant they make a heatsink taller with larger fans instead of wider ?
jdog
Feb 11, 2011 6:22 PM
that looks like a good card with fans and all but a shame that SLI wont work...

also shamino on XS got this card up to 1500mhz core on LN2.....
studor
Feb 11, 2011 7:14 PM
This triple slotter will definitely be a problem for people with some types of motherboards. For example it would interfere and make inaccessible the SATA ports on a GA-P67A-UD3R board which already has difficulties with some dual slot video cards.
RaRaDawg
Feb 12, 2011 4:42 PM
jdog, why doesn't SLi work on this?
philo-sofa
Feb 12, 2011 5:10 PM
^^ he's referring to it being a three slot card as mentioned above. A lot of moetherboards (the majority probably) will have the second graphics slot covered by the GTX 580 DirectCUII.
tunksy
Feb 13, 2011 4:15 PM
im not fussed if it takes three slots to cool a top end video card well. looks like a rebaged artic cooling cooler, but with two fans instead of 3
AnthraxPants
Feb 13, 2011 5:57 PM
That would fit in my pants with more ease than in my case, weird. If I remove my old PATA drive it would fit, but then I lose my boot files and have to do some boot file transfer shenanigans. Need an excuse to install Debian 6.0, this could be it. But how much will it cost?
sUpEr gEEk
Feb 13, 2011 9:01 PM
Um!!

Hawkeye issue with gallery

"500 - Internal server error.
There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed."
Hawkeye
Feb 15, 2011 12:03 PM
Still having that issue? works fine here.
17
Feb 16, 2011 11:35 PM
Super geek that only happens every now and then and is usually temporary. A few F5s usually fix it.
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