ASUS unveiled their latest DirectCU III STRIX and Poseidon based graphics cards at computex 2015, based on the GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card. The new graphics card features a powerful new design scheme with a custom designed PCB and a cooler that is just as incredible as it gets. The first card to feature the new cooler will be the latest GTX 980 Ti DirectCU III STRIX which is a massive dual slot card.

ASUS Unveils GTX 980 Ti DirectCU III STRIX and ROG Poseidon GTX 980 Ti Graphics Cards at Computex

The GeForce GTX 980 Ti DirectCU III STRIX cooler from ASUS is the next generation offering for their discrete graphics cards offering better cooling performance than the DirectCU II cooler before it. The design has got a massive facial uplift with the addition of three large PWM controlled Cooltech fans with 0db technology that will switch off the fans from active cooling if the card has thermal loads in limit. This limit is predefined by ASUS but can be adjusted by user to meet his needs. Rest of the specifications of the card are listed below.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti DirectCU III STRIX is based on the GM200-310-A1 GPU core which was introduced today. The card has two SMMs cut or simply disabled compared to the GM200-400-A1 on the Titan X. This keeps the core configuration to 2816 cuda cores, 176 texture mapping units and 96 raster operation units. While it is rumored that the memory lane and ROPs might be affected by the disabled SMMs, just like the GTX 970, NVIDIA has better management built for their high-performance core offerings and we won’t see the same situation on the GTX 980 Ti. The card feature a 6 GB GDDR5 VRAM that operates along a 384-bit bus interface.

The 6 GB GDDR5 VRAM is clocked at 7 GHz and pumps out 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Clock speeds for core are not know yet but we will grab them from ASUS really soon. The main attraction of the card is the design scheme which is impressive. To start off, the three PWM Fans that have the STIRX label allow cross ventilation of air through the large aluminum fins based heatsink. There are three dense heatpipes that can be seen running on the side of the shroud. Display outputs include DVI, HDMI and three display ports. The card comes with a full length backplate that has a STRIX design on its back. There are two 8-Pin connectors that power this beast which adds more juice to the board to allow superior overclocking and stability. ASUS has a beast in their hands and the GeForce GTX 980 Ti DirectCU III STRIX launches this month at a price range that's premium over the reference cost of $649 US for the 980 Ti.

The second card is the ROG Poseidon GeForce GTX 980 Ti which comes with a hybrid cooling design which we saw on the GeForce GTX 980. The card features the black and red color scheme on the shroud. There are strikes of red on the front and back while the ROG cut outs give a decent look. The cooler shroud sticks with the ASUS ROG black and red color theme while the dual fans push air towards the center of the large aluminum fin array with heatpipe design. But since the ROG GTX 980 Ti Poseidon will be a hybrid design, you can select to use Air cooling, Water Cooling or both which is effective. The Direct contact base comes with a metal bracket which is pretty large and features two inlets provide water flow that transfers coolant to the copper base. Plus that ROG emblem on the side is a pulsating LED which will glow in red when under operation. An additional feature is a sexy ROG backplate used on the back side of the PCB which adds to the aesthetics of the card.

"ROG Poseidon GTX 980 Ti incorporates the DirectCU H2O hybrid cooling solution with a combined vapor chamber and water channels to give users cooler temperatures along with improved noise reduction for 3x quieter performance. ASUS graphics cards are produced via exclusive Auto-Extreme technology, an industry-first 100% automated process, and feature aerospace-grade Super Alloy Power II components for unsurpassed quality and reliability. ROG Poseidon GTX 980Ti also features GPU Tweak II with XSplit Gamecaster for intuitive performance tweaks and gameplay streaming." via ASUS

ASUS ROG Poseidon GeForce GTX 980 Ti In Action (Courtesy of Nordichardware)