ASUS Radeon EAH6850 DirectCU Review - PAGE 1

The AMD Radeon 6800 series is still very new to the market, but we are already starting to see non-reference cards hit retail shelves. We have already tested an overclocked HD 6870, however all the cards in the series that have made it to our labs have thus far used the reference cooler. The ASUS model we are going to be looking at in this review uses a DirectCU cooler featuring dual heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. This is a design that ASUS has been using on multiple graphics cards lately, and is found in both AMD and NVIDIA flavors. The cooler is very efficient and aids in the overall cooling of the GPU, and VRM area. This allows the DirectCU series to support Voltage Tweak, which gives the owner of the card direct control of the voltage levels. This can enhance the overclocking capabilities of the card and in turn improve performance via additional overclocking headroom.

The ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU also includes a small factory overclock, but at only 15MHz the additional clock speeds might not yield a significant return. However, there is no price mark-up for this modest increase, so this model does not carry a higher premium than reference models. Also, most owners of the EAH6850 will purchase this specific model for the improved overclocking through the voltage control options, and not necessarily for the factory clock settings. With features such as improved cooling, Voltage Tweak and a very affordable price, this could be a card that appeals to the mainstream and enthusiast market.

In this review we will compare the EAH6850 against the current competition and see how it fairs at both standard and overclocked settings.