ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II vs Gainward GeForce GTX 580 Phantom3

Over the past couple of weeks, while the GTX 560 Ti was being released, a number of manufacturers released enhanced GTX 580s which were designed to offer desirable alternatives to the reference model. Some have enhanced coolers or redesigned PCB's. Others use higher quality components and have factory overclocks to appeal to enthusiasts. Today on our test bench we have two of the most impressive looking models to compare, Gainward's 3GB GTX 580 Phantom3 and the massive Asus GTX 580 DirectCU 2. We will be comparing these cards to the reference 580 and an overclocked 6970 to find out how good they actually are. Tests will include real world gaming, 3DMark 11, media playback, and GPU computing. Then, for the first time on Hardware Heaven, all gaming tests will include stereoscopic 3D testing.