Customer Reviews

ASUS GTX570 DirectCU II graphics cards with dual-fan cooling performance, ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The card is massive, not as big as the GTX 580 Lightning for 1 inch. What it impresses me is the construction of this card. I used to have an OCX 280 from BFG and besides the solid performance for the 4 years of service (That 280 still soldiering on my friend's PC) I just love how it was constructed. Well, this card is as beauty as it gets. The card looks very mean and elegant, not as cartoonish as the 580 GTX Lightning blue fans (IMO) but not as sober as a Quadro card or a 570 reference design.Think a poor-man Mars II looks...

This 580 blow out of the water my 280OCX on every single title. I guess that will resume all.

Cons: The card is very heavy and sags a little on the PCI-e. You can see the PCI-e be stressed a bit, so I'm a little worried about the MOBO life span. Asus should have come up with a more rigid construction or to lightening the card. This should be a concern if you try to SLI... I don't see how can Tri-SLI this card unless you come with a solution on how to avoid the MOBO PIC-e stress will cause 3 cards... I think 2 cards are more than enough... but people with deep pockets will try to Tri-SLI this one. The memory ram on this 570 is listed as 1280 which could result problematic on resolutions over 1080p on some frame intensive games or applications.

Pros: Plays BF3 on ultra, so far so good. FSX improved the quality and frames over the OCX 280 card. This card does not use two 8 pins cables, like the 580 I had, so is good for my 850w Ultra X3 PSU. I have an Obsidian 800D and I cannot hear a difference in sound over the 580 and now this 570. With 3 case top fans, the PC emits an air-sound hum so it damps the card sound. If you remove the side panel of the 800D you can hear the card working, is a bit louder than the 580 Lightning but is quieter than the 280. By the way, the 280 could be heard over the case fans so now I'm a happy camper.

The reason I returned the MSI 580 Lightning (Besides the card had the BIOS switch broken on day two)is the poor price-performance ratio that card gave me. Some will say that the 580 is superior and it's true. But for half the price of the lightning and not a perceptible performance loses, I decided to get me this 570 over the 580. Unless you want to create Toy Story 5 or do some wacky stuff (Overclocking like you hate the card, play on dual-30 inch LCD, etc...), I don't see a point to spend $600+ for a 580 over spending south of $400 (Mine cost me $319.00 thank for a $30.00 rebate)and no need to change your PSU (Unless you have less than true power 650w). By the way, this card can have 580 reference performance if you overclock a bit, so... go figure!

Excellent GPU for the price! You can overclock it to meet a GTX 580 default specs, but a few games out in the market require more speed. Every game I have tossed at it has been gobbled up by this beast. Th fans are very silent, they don't start making "real noticable" noise until they reach 50-60% speed. Temps stay nice and cool.

It is huge, takes up 3 slots. Make sure you know the dimensions of your case before purchasing.

Bought this video card in April of 2011 from tigerdirect, so it has been More than six months.

If you are looking for a video card with excellent cooling capabilities simply because you don't want the GPU going over 80C and do not mind it being a 3-slot video card with very good gaming performance, this is a perfect video card for you.

For 99% of games out there, it does not even go beyond 75C at load. In fact, most of the time, it hovers below 70C at load. This is largely due to the triple-slot cooler. It idles around 40-45C for me, depending on the room temperature.

Performance-wise, it handles current games more than enough. There should be no problems for speed as of 2011.

The only main drawback is the fact that it is indeed a triple-slot cooler, so for Dual-card SLI, it can be problematic. But for those not going SLI or not even thinking about it, this video card is more than ideal. Also note this with any other PCI-type cards, such a sound card.

Although it is overclocked, it is a slight overclock. A way to overclock this card is using Asus GPU Tweak. You can increase the voltage, increase fan speed, and increase the core and memory clocks.

As for output ports, it has 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, and 1x Displayport. I have used both of the DVI Ports, one for a monitor, and one for the TV at the same time. Although it has 4 outputs, it cannot display with 4 monitors. It is only limited to two. However, the majority of Nvidia gaming video cards also have this limitation.

Note that there is a video bios update. Before the video bios, there are certain games, usually GPU-intensive games, that may crash and give the error that Nvidia display drivers have recovered from this error. Such games are Battlefield 3 and City of Heroes. However, after the video bios update, it has disappeared. I have not encountered the error at all. What this video bios does is increase the default voltage so it is more stable. For the majority of games out there, however, it does not crash without the update video bios. My recommendation is to install the video bios should it crash similarly to what I have experienced. Otherwise, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I have given this a 5-star because the limitations and drawbacks may not apply to everyone or it can be corrected painlessly and none of them apply to me. They are mostly warnings for people with certain requirements or preferences.

Had it for 6 months, so far i've been able to run any game at full graphics without any problem even bf3, mw3 and skyrim. The construction of the cooling system is awesome, it keeps the card cool as well as the inside of my pc even during heavy load for hours. It is real sturdy and the cooling system is very well designed. Played with the o/c a lil bit. Works like a charm and stays cool. Totally worth the extra dollar for the design/cooling system. Very good video card Asus. I give 4 and a half stars lol Only because Card is HUGE! Takes 3 slots on my MB. I don't mind because i don't have anything else but for someone who has more than just a video card it might be a problem. I'm not sure if i'd be able to go SLI with 2 of these... Although again still worth the size too. Once the price goes down around 300$ i'll buy another one.

This is a great video card for the money. I can play bf3 on ultra. This card takes up 3 slots in my pc case. It also uses a 6 pin pci express and a 8 pin pci express connector for power.

Just upgraded from a gtx 550 ti, the thing about video cards is that the hardware is a step ahead the gaming software. Think about future when buying the video cards ( the games it could and will run). Just invest in a good quality video card is better or equal than buying 2 low budget video cards. This is a performance video card, if your looking at this card is because your going to game and other graphics/high definition programs, if not this card is not for you. This thing is a beast, it looks ( top it off with a ASUS brand reputation and a back plate), feels ( solid construction 3.9 lbs with box) and sounds like beast ( like a blow dryer at a 100% load) . Its funny because you read that it is big and reviews say that is big, but then when you get the card then your like Hoover Dam!!!!! .... this is big. This cards needs the sexy back plate because of its weight/size and included in the price. It takes up 3 slots, because its a beast, its helps cooling actually. But, I love big video cards just makes me feel powerful more( personal) makes you feel more gamerish ...LOL. Its better than a gtx 560 ti 448 cores and its like 20-30$ more (it has the back plate) and the GTX 580 is another beast but not paying 150$ more for almost the same ultra high setting in BF3. Either this card or a radeon 6970 ( NVIDIA competition), but the games I play are NVIDIA games ( so I chose this one). I recommend non-reference cards from ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI, the ASUS was cheaper and I also have a sabertooth MOBO ( perfect match). Just buy it.... if you want beast power jajajaj

HOLY CARP. For the last week I've been playing with this monstrosity, and it's AWESOME. And not even in the common use of the word, it literally leaves me stunned, and more than a little speechless.

So let's go through this from the obvious features. First off, the DC2 cooling design is HUGE. It takes up 3 PCI slots. This is NOT a card you want to try 3-SLI with. You might be able to fit two of these monsters on one motherboard, but I don't know of any cases with the requisite 9 PCI slots required to try three of these suckers. Still, it's a pretty sexy card. Nice construction, with a sturdy design. The DC2 HSF system isn't just big, it's pretty well anchored and well made (that black casing isn't plastic, it's powder coated metal).

As far the performance, this thing takes the cake. Let me rewind a little and say that the last two cards I've tried were 2x XFX HD5770s, and before that I had 1x GTX 260. Sure, they've all been good in their own ways, but I haven't really been happy with them. I traded up to the ATIs because the GTX260 used to BAKE ITSELF. The 5770's ran okay, but got hot and noisy (Plus I really don't care for Catalyst. It works, but not well). This is genuinely the only video card that I've ever actually been REALLY happy with. It runs like a dream, handling everything I can throw at it smoothly and effortlessly.

In the course of my testing I cranked everything up to 11 (1400x1050, DX11, Full AA, 16X Anistropic, full lighting, full draw distances). I tried Skryim, Stalker: Call of Pripyat, Metro 2033, Portal 2, etc. I played each game for about 2-3 hours continuously, and never once saw a stutter, hiccup, tear, or artifact. Not a single one of the games I tried could push this card beyond 58C. I finally breached the 60C barrier last night while playing Skyrim and transcoding a 1080p tv show that was streaming to my PS3, and even then it only hit 62C.

This card is absolutely amazing in both performance and temperatures. Asus really has a winner here. If you're looking for a single-card solution, you can't go wrong with the DC2 GTX570.

I purchased this card over other GTX570 cards because of the good reviews on temperature and airflow.

When researching this card it was a huge con on every list I saw with the unit's size and I can vouch that it is extremely big. The card almost filled my computer up so make you have plenty of space for it. This card was easy to install for me and hooked right up perfectly with my Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt CMPSU-650TXV2.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LB5AZY/ref=cm_cr_error

Last night it got a good test run with Star Wars The Old Republic, and on maxed out settings, it I was running around 30-50 FPS in the Imperial Fleet during peak hours, and 70-100 depending on the planet I was on.

I read where it chews up everything thrown at it so I intend on doing just that. If there are any issues with the card I'll be sure to post them on here as soon as I find them.

Overall for now, I would recommend it to anyone with the space for it. I purchased it expecting a massive card and wasn't disappointed. Above the size though, it completely accomplishes what I was expecting out of it and I am greatly satisfied at this point.

UPDATE: Saturday Night Peak Hours, in the Imperial Fleet, I was ranging from 15-25 FPS and it went up to around 25-35 after turning off Anti Aliasing and Shadows. It was still operating around the 70-100 Range on the few planets I was on and then around 45-75 Range doing Space Missions. It seems the main issue has to do with the increase of players, but I haven't found any cards out there not an issue in peak hours. Temperature has been between 31-45 degrees consistently and I haven't been experiencing any major lag yet. Only time will tell.

This card has performed admirably. I has been able to run maximum settings on BF3, MW3, Rage and any other game I have thrown its way. Excellent cooling allows for good potential overclocking.

Pros:
-Lightning fast
-Integrates well using ASUS SmartDoctor and ASUS GamerOSD.
-Can be setup to be automatically or manually overclocked.
-Cooling fans push down and also out through 2 of the 3 PCI ports it takes up (expels air from the back of the case)
-After initial break-in of the computer, the card has not topped 55c, even under maximum load playing high end games on max settings. I doubt this figure will rise above 60c during the summer months.
-While I initially played with the overclocking features and found them quick and convenient, I have also found them unnecessary. At stock settings this card (no SLI/Xfire) has run every game at max settings without trouble, so I don't see much point in an overclock until Moore rears his ugly head.

Cons:
-Weight of the card
-Have been unable to determine real oc performance utilizing GamerOSD/SmartDoctor automatic overclocking feature.
-Size. Make sure to check out length dimensions in your case and make sure you don't need the 2 slots below the PCIe slot.
-If you plan on a dual-GFX card setup, two of these would basically take up the entire interior.
-Depending on the case, the size of this card might drastically inhibit airflow.

I just upgraded my video card to the ASUS GTX 570 Direct CU II so that I can play BF3. The game runs fine with all the setting set to the max.

The card is quiet and stays cools due to the 2 fans.

I am also able to run Folding at Home on the GPU with no issues. When Folding is running the card does get hotter but the fans keep it cool and quiet.