Jul 1, 2011 09:14 GMT  ·  By

Asus has recently updated its product portfolio to include a new Radeon HD 6770 graphics card that uses its custom DirectCU design in order to deliver improved thermal and acoustic performance as well as better overclocking headroom.

As most of you already know, the Radeon HD 6770 is nothing more than a re-branded previous generation HD 5770, which has now received support for HD3D by including an HDMI 1.4a video output.

Otherwise, the card sports the same specifications as the Radeon HD 5770, meaning that it includes 800 streaming processors, 40 texturing units, 16 ROP units and a 128-bit memory bus, which is connected to 1GB of GDDR5 memory.

Moving to Asus' version of the card, this is built around the DirectCU custom cooler that occupies two slots inside the system's case and employs two direct contact copper heat pipes to draw the heat away from the graphics core.

All the heat gathered this way is then dissipated by a high-airflow fan that is PWM controlled in order to adapt its rotation speed to the temperatures recorded by the card.

Just as most other Radeon HD 6770 solutions that were launched until now, Asus's creation has its GPU clocked at the standard 850MHz, but for an unknown reason the Taiwanese company has decided to underclock the memory from the standard 1.2GHz (4.8GHz data rate) to 1GHz (4GHz effective).

On the rear bracket, users will find the usual assortment of video outputs that include VGA, DVI and HDMI ports.

The Asus Radeon HD 6770 DirectCU graphics card has the part number EAH6770 DC/2DI/1GD5 and is expected to become available worldwide in July 2.

Pricing wasn't disclosed, but this is already available for purchase from several online retailers, including Newegg, where it is priced around $134.99. (via Xfastest)