ASUS ENGTX 570 Direct CU II - The Monster is Quite Quiet

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD3R
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 6 GB DDR3 (3 x 2 GB)
Hard drive: WD Velociraptor  300 GB
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W

80mm fan offers great cooling solutions

Performance
The card was run through a variety of benchmarks and it fared well, overall. We pitted its scores against those of the GTX 580 and it did not fare very badly in comparison, either. The standard 3D Mark test which we ran yielded a result of 21619 as opposed to the GTX 580’s 24240.

The scores of most of the games we tested the card on were good. Games such as Crysis 2 and Mafia 2 fared well with both averaging above 60 frames per second. Heavy games such as Just Cause 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 also performed well in comparison with the GTX 580. The Heaven Benchmark also brought about a decent performance from the GTX 570 with it having an average frame rate of 35.3 fps.

Average frames per second in various benchmarks

Each of the scores denoted above are with video settings at maximum, anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering as well, at maximum.  While running these tests we noticed that the fan was awfully silent. This was a really good attribute of the card that has fared well in its price range. The lack of noise from the twin 80mm fans as well as a fairly cool card even at GPU intensive benchmarks like 3D Mark is something that is quite remarkable. This performance of the cooling was tested in air conditioned as well as non air conditioned environments. The fan could not be heard in a completely silent room, this by far is the best part of this graphics card. Overall the card may not have performed at the same level as that of the GTX 580, but the scores were not too far off.

Quietness of the fans are a great feature

Verdict
The ASUS GTX 570 Direct CU II is priced at Rs. 25,000, and though it may be on the slightly pricier side, this card definitely does deliver some stellar performances. The performances are almost on par with the GTX 580, it has same cooler in comparison to the GTX 580 and the fan is quieter than its bigger brother. A notable mention is the AMD’s flagship GPU the HD 6970, the  MSI variant of this card offers slightly higher performance at a price of Rs. 21,250, which is worth purchasing. So if you are a high end gamer looking to overclock, the ASUS GTX 570 Direct CU II with its massive cooling solution, is the way to go.