The Basics:

Most companies follow the reference design for their video cards - resulting in a card that looks (and performs) much like any other card based on the same design. ASUS doesn't seem to be a big fan of sticking with the reference design, and they have deviated from it on this GTX 560Ti.



The first thing to notice is that instead of the single fan, ASUS has implemented dual 80mm fans. Next the cooling shroud is different - instead of being made out of plastic, it is black aluminum which can also help with cooling. What you can not see is that the ASUS DirectCU II includes 6 copper heatpipes that are in direct contact with the GPU, which then pipes the heat away to other heatsinks. The back of the video card doesn't feature anything that special to look at.



On the top edge of the GTX 560Ti are two 6-pin PCIe power connections. A reference design Nvidia GTX 560Ti needs a 500W power supply as the GTX 560Ti pulls 170W on its own. As shown, the SLI connector has a little piece of plastic protecting it - which needs to be removed if you happen to want to run a pair of cards together. The second picture shows one end of the cooler, which is of interest because instead of ending the cooler's shroud at the edge of the card, it is folded over the end which will help direct airflow across the cooler instead of out the back of the cooler.



This picture shows the two slot expansion port bracket, where one of the slots is used to vent hot air out of the case. The other slot is where we find the two Dual Link DVI ports and the Mini HDMI connection. While there are three video connections available, only two can be used at a time. As was previously mentioned, the card wasn't placed in an anti-static bag, however each of the ports were covered by a piece of plastic which might offer similar protection to some extent.