Hello,

I don't think I wrote down the exact message. I think it was something like nvkernal stopped work nvkernal restarted.

Hey guys. Some of the MSI GTX 580 Frozr II OC have issues because the voltage is to low, you can read about it on the msi forums http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?board=9.0. The solution seems to be to RMA your card, slightly overvolt it or put it back to stock 580 clocks. BTW you can also flash the bios of this card to reduce the minimum fan speed to 30% or below.

I now have the Sparkle GTX 580 and have found that Crysis and Crysis Warhead will crash when run in DX10 mode. Crash in this context means I get a black screen while the background music continues to play. This problem hasn't shown up when I play either of these games in DX9 mode. A search of the Nvidia and EVGA forums reveals that other GTX 580 owners are having similar problems. Consensus seems to be that it is a driver issue. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.

The DirectCU is in. Some quick comparisons-

DirectCU is bigger, not only triple slot, but longer too. It barely fits in my Lian Li PC-B25S.

DirectCU gives the impression of being better made, subjective, of course.

DirectCU seems to run a bit cooler at the same load.

DirectCU factory GPU overclock is lower than Frozr (782 vs 822, no memory overclock).

DirectCU noise is about the same at idle and load as the Frozr, both at default auto settings. The MSI Afterburner software allows for quiter operation of the Frozr at the minimum fan setting compared to the lowest allowed by the Asus SmartDoctor software while still keeping reasonable temps.

DirectCU bundle was nothing. Frozr came with a few extra cables and a free copy of 3DMark11.

Only had it going an hour or so. Will know in a couple days if the graphics crashing issues is resolved.

So far, not a single crash in 4 days. I also increased my memory back to XMP speeds (1600C8) a few days ago and I'm running the fan set at manual minimum (1100 RPM) regardless of load.

At that fan speed, it is somewhat louder than the minimum fan speed of the Frozr. It's certainly not silent, but the noise is low enough in my case to be very tolerable.

On the other hand, it is always almost 10C cooler than the Frozr, at idle and even at loads that drove the frozr to kick up the fan speed based on the fan profile.

I wish I had seen sizza's comments that MSI is addressing the defective cards before I RMA'd it. With a BIOS fix for the crashes and a 30% fan speed minimum, I would have kept the Frozr without a doubt.

My only wish with the Direct CU is that I could set the fans to 800-900 RPM, then it would rock.

The Asus card is very nice, but for those looking for a silentPC, I would still consider the Twin Frozr, given what sizza said regarding a BIOS fix that allows for an even quieter setting. The Asus card is not loud, but it is far louder than the other 4 fans in my otherwise relatively silent system. I'm probably going to keep it nonetheless, but it would be nice if I could reduce it below the 1110 RPMs that seems to be the minimum setting.