Legit Video Card Reviews

ASUS GeForce ENGTX560 Ti DirectCU II Video Card Review

Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5
Date: Thu, Feb 10, 2011 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Nathan Kirsch -
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Retail Box and Bundle

ASUS GeForce ENGTX560 Top Video Card Retail Box Front

The retail box for the ASUS ENGTX560 lists the main features that the card comes with and that the card utilizes a 'dust-proof' fan that has 25% longer lifespan than a traditional cooling fan. The dust-proof fan is basically a fan that is designed with a different casing around the fan motor/bearing to help keep dust out.

ASUS GeForce ENGTX560 Top Video Card Retail Box Front

Turning the retail box over, we see even more marketing text in many different languages and more details on the three main features of this video card.

  • ASUS Exclusive DirectCU II Thermal Solution: ASUS uses a pair of cooling fans along with three 8mm flattened copper heat-pipes that directly contact the GPU for 20% lower temperatures than the NVIDIA reference designed GeForce GTX 560 Ti. 
  • Super Alloy Power: ASUS Super Alloy Power blends select elements under an exclusive forumula that results in a 15% performance increase, 2.5 longer product lifespan and 35C cooler operating temperatures. 
  • Voltage Tweak: ASUS Voltage Tweak technology allows you to boost GPU voltages via ASUS SmartDoctor to achieve up to 50% faster clock speeds. Overclocking capability may be varied by different cards and platforms. Extreme cooling is required to achieve 50% faster clock speeds.

ASUS GeForce ENGTX560 Top Video Card Retail Box Front

Inside the retail box the ASUS GTX560 Ti DirectCU II Top video card was perfectly packed in foam that was laser cut for this specific video card.  Notice the card didn't come with a static bag, which is a trend that we are seeing with a number of manufacturers.

ASUS GeForce ENGTX560 Top Video Card Retail Bundle

The ASUS GTX560 video card bundle included with the ENGTX560 TI DCII Top/2DI/1GD5 graphics card includes a quick installation guide, a drivers CD, a pair of 6-pin PCIe to 4-pin molex power adapters, a DVI-to-VGA adapter and a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter. 

ASUS GeForce ENGT430 Top Video Card Software

When you fired up the driver CD that comes with the card you'll see this GUI that allows you to check out the user manual and install the drivers and utilities if needed.

ASUS GeForce ENGT430 Top Video Card Software

Taking a closer look at the utility section of the VGA driver disc we can see that it also comes with two utilities that might come in handy.

  • ASUS GamerOSD - Overclock during gameplay
  • ASUS SmartDoctor - Overclocking and Intelligent Hardware Protection Tool

The one that we are highly interested in for this review is the ASUS SmartDoctor utility as that will allow us to adjust the card's voltages and to overclock it to the max!

Next Page - Test System


Review Index
Page 1 - The ASUS GeForce GTX560 DirectCU II
Page 2 - Retail Box and Bundle
Page 3 - Test System
Page 4 - Aliens vs. Predator
Page 5 - Just Cause 2
Page 6 - Metro 2033
Page 7 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Page 8 - H.A.W.X. 2 Benchmark
Page 9 - 3DMark Vantage
Page 10 - 3DMark 11
Page 11 - Unigine 'Heaven' DX11
Page 12 - Temperature Testing
Page 13 - Power Consumption
Page 14 - ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti GPU Overclocking
Page 15 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions