Pictures of Asus' 290x DCII card

[cmdrdredd]

I'm a fan of Asus ROG on facebook and just today they posted some pictures of their 290x with their DC2 cooling system on board. Should be a nice card. Looks to still be a dual slot cooling system, nice for those who want to add two in a smaller motherboard.

 

[Piklar]

Looks great! Good news for those waiting for aftermarket 290s..

 

[ViRGE]

So it's a 290X with the existing 280X DCII cooler?

 

[cmdrdredd]

So it's a 290X with the existing 280X DCII cooler?

It looks similar, but I don't know. There was no info released other than a couple photos. It can't be long until we have some official announcements with info and specs.

I've been waiting to see what happens with these aftermarket cards. Not just Asus but I want to see what MSI and others do as well.

 

[JDG1980]

I'm pretty sure that some people have already swapped Tahiti (7970/280X) coolers onto the Hawaii boards, so someone could try this with the 280X DirectCU cooler and see what kind of results they get.

 

[Teizo]

They stated on the site they are working hard to get the 290 to cool...so no word on the 290 yet. I imagine they will get it done and do a good job though.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I want one. Looks amazing, and I bet it will remain one of the best coolers.

 

[chimaxi83]

I thought top end cards got their triple slot DC cooler. This should be good anyway with decent case airflow.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I thought top end cards got their triple slot DC cooler. This should be good anyway with decent case airflow.

Maybe they have plans for an overclocked triple slot model or something. I prefer the dual slot models in looks anyway myself.

 

[Teizo]

Nice thing about this card is it shouldn't throttle in Quiet Mode, and should at least have some overclock headroom in Uber Mode.

 

[akahoovy]

Nice thing about this card is it shouldn't throttle in Quiet Mode, and should at least have some overclock headroom in Uber Mode.

Is there an on-board switch? I don't see one in the pictures.

 

[Teizo]

Is there an on-board switch? I don't see one in the pictures.

I don't know. I just downloaded the pics and shared them since the OP mentioned the card. Figured people would be interested in seeing the design.

I imagine as with all DirectCu cards it will be top notch. What Asus did with the 280X was awesome. No reason to doubt them here.

 

[nurturedhate]

So glad we are finally starting to see aftermarket coolers on these cards, means there still may be a sliver of hope in getting an aftermarket 290 (pref the dcuII to be precise) before Christmas.

 

[RussianSensation]

I thought top end cards got their triple slot DC cooler. This should be good anyway with decent case airflow.

That was the old DCU cooler or the Asus Matrix. The Asus DCUII 780 is a dual slot card:

What's interesting is that on the 780 only 3 of the 5 heatpipes are effectively touching the GPU die. Looks like some of the cooler's potential is simply wasted.

Source

I have a feeling there is a lot of pent up demand for after-market R9 290 series. Once these launch, they are going to be selling out. The days are counting until GTX780 needs a $100 price drop because noise, temperatures and throttle in quiet mode will all be history for R9 290.

 

[blastingcap]

That was the old DCU cooler or the Asus Matrix. The Asus DCUII 780 is a dual slot card:

Maybe it's just me but those fans look different. I wonder if a VGA company finally woke up and realized that you might want different fans for different purposes--depending on where they are blowing they might be tuned for static pressure instead of sheer airflow for instance. In this case I think the GPU fan gets high static pressure like it should, and the other fan is more for airflow.

 

[hyrule4927]

Maybe it's just me but those fans look different. I wonder if a VGA company finally woke up and realized that you might want different fans for different purposes--depending on where they are blowing they might be tuned for static pressure instead of sheer airflow for instance. In this case I think the GPU fan gets high static pressure like it should, and the other fan is more for airflow.

Is the fan on the left some kind of hybrid of an axial and centrifugal fan?

 

[blastingcap]

Is the fan on the left some kind of hybrid of an axial and centrifugal fan?

Edit: Your eyes are better than mine, they ARE hybrid fans! I didn't see the little radial part at first. I think this may be the first time I've ever seen heterogenerous fans on a video card, but then again, I don't pay close attention most of the time.

They are calling the design the "CoolTech" fan and it is supposed to be more directional--straight down air--than regular fans. http://rog.asus.com/222442013/graphics-cards-2/video-cooltech-fan-dual-bladed-tech-demo/
And they have had these fans since the GTX 670? (Well, a special version of it anyway.) How did I not know about this before?! So this fan should do a better job of directing air out the back of the card. Perhaps this is the ultimate evolution of VGA card rear fans. The right fan (away from the back of the case) does not need the radial action since you do NOT want it to spray air deeper into the case.

 

[moonbogg]

I'll take two of those in R9 290 flavor please.

 

[nurturedhate]

These cannot be released soon enough.

 

[Borealis7]

I'll take two of those in R9 290 flavor please.

and unlock to 290X?

 

[SlickR12345]

Looks great and with two different fans it should theoretically stay cooler.

 

[Imouto]

What's interesting is that on the 780 only 3 of the 5 heatpipes are effectively touching the GPU die. Looks like some of the cooler's potential is simply wasted.

The problem is the perception that heatpipes directly on the die is better and every single assembler following that trend. The DCU would work way, way better whith those pipes cooling a plate that would cover the entire die. making that plate thicker and extending it to the VRAM chips would be plain awesome.

 

[RaulF]

and unlock to 290X?

That would be nice. But those days might be over. Got a new sapphire 290 yesterday cannot unlock :|

 

[Erazor51]

Looks like the ram chips are not being cooled?

 

[RussianSensation]

The problem is the perception that heatpipes directly on the die is better and every single assembler following that trend. The DCU would work way, way better whith those pipes cooling a plate that would cover the entire die. making that plate thicker and extending it to the VRAM chips would be plain awesome.

100%!

Sapphire TOXIC R9 280X cooler follows this approach and it demolishes the already excellent temperatures of the Asus DCUII cooler when having to dissipate a similar amount of power.

Asus though throws in the Super Alloy components and their fans are of excellent quality. Let's hope that the Asus DCUII card has a small $20-30 premium.

Looks like the ram chips are not being cooled?

Looks like it. I doubt that R9 290 scales that well with memory bandwidth overclocking. The GPU clock speed yields a higher return on each % overclock. I think the Sapphire TOXIC R9 290 for $450 will be a real screamer. The cooler is more powerful than Asus DCUII and with binning that they have done on the R9 280X series, it should allow for 1.2-1.25Ghz overclocks on air.