The ASUS HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP ($489.99 list) is the company's upwardly tweaked take on AMD's Radeon HD 7950 video card, the not-quite-highest end in the gamer-oriented "Tahiti" family of its 7000-series line (code-named Southern Islands). The card supports the PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 bus standard, for delivering twice the performance over the current PCIe 2.0 standard.

Asus has implemented a number of changes to AMD's reference design to help inspire greater performance and efficiency for gamers and enthusiasts. Among these is overclocking the card's engine clock from 800MHz to 900MHz (almost to the 925MHz of AMD's current single-GPU flagship card, the Radeon HD 7970). To aid with keeping heat down, Asus has added dual-fan DirectCU thermal drivers, which the company claims improves cooling by up to 20 percent and moves 600 percent more air than AMD's base design.

Those who want to overclock the card still further, make additional adjustments for improving performance, or monitor the card's vital stats in real time, can use the included GPU Tweak software. It supports a graphical interface to simplify the process even for neophyte users.

The Asus HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP also supports the full range of proprietary technologies found on all of AMD's newest video cards, such as Eyefinity (for easily connecting and configuring up to six displays at once), ZeroCore Power (for shutting down the GPU when it's not in use to decrease power draw), and more. For more information about AMD's base configuration using its 7950 GPU, check out our review of the reference design of the Radeon HD 7950.

Read PCMag's Video Card Reviews:
•   Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (Founders Edition)
•   ASUS Radeon RX 550 4G
•   AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
•   AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
•   Asus GeForce GTX 1060 OC Edition (9Gbps GDDR5)
•  more