ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II has bigger cooler and more power

ASUS is preparing to release the GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II, this card has a custom PCB with enhanced power circuitry and is equipped with a better cooler with five direct-touch heatpipes and two 100mm fans. The cooling solution requires three slots, according to ASUS it keeps the card at 80°C under load (vs 92° with the stock cooler) at a noise level of only 31dBA (vs 42dBA on the reference card. Outputs include dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. Pricing and availability is unknown.

ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II will make the fastest single-GPU evern more powerful and it all starts with a custom made circuit board. This was a must to fit the new power circuitry that bless the board with 8 separate GPU phases, which is two more than NVIDIA's reference design. Besides more phases, each phase will be capable of delivering more power than before and offer a lot higher max capacity.

ASUS has also pampered the memory compartment where it unlike the reference design doesn't draw power from the PCIe port but directly from the 8-pin power connectors hidden behind the large cooler. At extreme overclocking it is not uncommon for the graphics cards to stress the motherboard through the PCIe slots, which is minimized with the ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II where only one of the two dedicated power phase pulls power from the PCIe slot.

Source: Nordic Hardware