Difference between ASUS and original AMD 6950 card

The ASUS unit is a better card due to a better high-performance cooling system.

Yeah just like Alex said it's the special cooling system that ASUS put on the card. Now if you read the description for the ASUS card you will see that the beefed up cooling system is designed for people who want to over clock their GPUs. In addition to the cooling system the ASUS card has a special voltage tuner for the over clocking.

Now normally over clocking your GPUs is not recommended as the frame rate boost is typically only in the single digits but it causes the cards to usually have a very shot life span. Hence why ASUS improved the cooling on the card as most GPU over clocking will give you undesirable temps.

So unless you are going to over clock your cards, which I would not recommend, those cards are a waste of space and money. The advertised "2.5x longer life span" that ASUS is claiming on their site is subjective at best and more then likely completely bogus.

A non-overclocked GPU will last you more then 2 years and 2 years is how often you should be upgrading your GPUs to keep your rig current. Overclocked GPUs can often die in a year or less and that's why they need the "longer life span".


Edited by jmaster299 - 21 Jan 2012 at 1:26pm