FRONTPAGE ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP Graphics Card Review

Today we're going to look at another NVIDIA GTX 670 card; this time by ASUS - their GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP. While the name is long and a bit cumbersome, the card is sleek and fast. So grab a cold one, sit back and enjoy the show.

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good lord I'm about drooling over that thing I wish I had two in SLI to replace my old 260 216's ")

I guess even one for starters

nice review mate. Pity the OC didnt go that high. ( a lot of people getting 1300mhz + on the core on the asus gigabyte and evga) ONe thing i would say is could you possibly put the resolutions/graphics settings on the graphs? ( or i might be missing something )

In the Test Setup section, I linked to the Overclockers’ Updated Video Card Testing Procedure article, which outlines every setting used.

As far as the overclock, it actually ran at 1356MHz. The setting isn't that high because the boost takes it so far above its set frequency. You can't just look at the setting in GPUTweak, it's where the GPU actually runs that counts.

I have the Asus GTX 570 DCII and love it. The fans are can hardly be heard and it stays so much cooler then a reference card. That 10-15c cooler will help keep everything else cool. I do like how they were able to go to a Dual slot with the 670 unlike the triple slot size of the 570. mmm I wonder if it's time to upgrade.

It's a killer card for sure. Depends on whether you're happy with the GTX570 or not. If you're lagging a bit in newer games or want some more detail, this would be a great card to go to.

Awesome review Hokie, actually read it all, i rarely do as i usually skip to the results and graphs
....and damn thats one very impressive card

hokiealumnus said:

It's a killer card for sure. Depends on whether you're happy with the GTX570 or not. If you're lagging a bit in newer games or want some more detail, this would be a great card to go to.

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I want to upgrade, which is sad since I really don't need to. My SLI 570s will kick a single 680 right in the teeth, but I still thought about selling them for one (or even a 670). The only thing that bothers me is the 1.2GB of Vram, I'm worried that's going to be a crutch for me soon.

Great review hokiealumnus

It really is a quiet card. I can't hear it at all.

I'd imagine it is quiet, I might have to make this my next purchase on an upgrade.

It looks very similar to an old 4870X2 GPU I had modified with an aftermarket (Artic Cool I think it was) aftermarket GPU cooler setup before I took it out and played around with it when I shouldn't have and killed the card

Sometimes you can play around too much I guess, I had that thing running perfect then took it out and tried putting different thermal compound on it and trashed the card *sigh*

so what ever happened to that custom bios?

As of last week they were trying to test the card out and see if they could do it via software or if it required actual flashing of the BIOS. They're supposed to let me know when it's done and email it.

thats good news that it is still being worked on.

After reading the review, ASUS shared some feedback and response to add some information and to discuss one item mentioned (the accessory stack). Please check it out below!

Re: The DirectCU II cooler - The fans on the cooler have a dust-proof design that keeps dust out of the bearing, leading to longer life. In the version of the reviewer's guide available prior to publication of our review, they didn't have anything on this but they've since updated it to include a couple slides explaining what they did.





They would also like to note that the backplate design was intended to stiffen the card as well as help cool the components on the back.

Re: Accessory Stack - They didn't include any adapters because the GPU already has full size connectors and they saw no reason to increase the cost of the card. While I appreciate that, some people still have VGA-connected monitors and a DVI-to-VGA adapter could be thrown in with no cost increase to the consumer.

Additionally, some people (*cough* me *cough*) have three DVI monitors. In order to take advantage of Surround, they'd have to purchase a DisplayPort to DVI or HDMI to DVI adapter. One of those may have added to the cost however; they're not as simple as a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

After bringing those points up, in the end they agree about VGA adapters to a point, and do include them with lower-end cards. However, they (rightly) assume the vast majority of people buying this level of GPU have a 1080p or higher monitor, which should have at least one of the on-card connectors available.

Re: DIGI+ and overall power design - One item they wanted to hilight was the greater effeciency of their power component selection. With improved efficiency, it helps the card stay within its power target more easily and give you higher clocks per watt drawn. The power section also runs cooler than less quality, reference components.



There are also SAP CAPs behind the GPU (as seen in this photograph, and the slide below, which was also added to the reviewer's guide after our review published). For multiple generations of cards, they have placed these capacitors in the best location for capacitance for GPUs - right behind the GPU. While it's the ideal location for strong capacitance, it's also the most difficult place to put a capacitor. It is worth it though, because it allows instant access for current, which gives more stable power delivery.



They also point out that other manufacturers have put caps close to the GPU in an attempt to obtain a look similar to ASUS, but they say it's all marketing hype because the other manufacturers don't put it in the proper location to deliver the capacitance as quickly as ASUS.

Re: GPU Tweak - Lastly, I didn't mention that there is built-in GPUz functionality right from the GPU tweak sofware.





Still no word on unlocked BIOS and/or software though. I'll keep you updated when that comes.

Might want to wait a bit if you want one of these until they work out the bugs. Mine still blue screens under heavy stress (arkham city). The newest bios lowers the boost clock by about 100mhz which helped me play about an hour instead of only 15 minutes but that's not good enough. Maybe I'm just unlucky but if you google for problems with the card it seems to be widespread. I hope it's a driver problem but if it is then why does lowering the clocks make it more stable than before? I also noticed that arkham city ran badly in the ocforums review and hope it's just that game with a problem that can be patched. Gonna run metro 2033 at high settings when it's done downloading and see what happens.

I've never had any blue screens despite playing hours in Metro2033 and BF3 in surround, FWIW.

Omg you mean Asus puts Tantalum caps between VCC and GND right behind the core directly connected to those planes?! Like, exactly the way every other manufacturer does!?
Whoa.

I hate most marketing departments, but Asus is really outdoing themselves this time.

hokiealumnus said:

I've never had any blue screens despite playing hours in Metro2033 and BF3 in surround, FWIW.

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Can you try arkham city with high settings in dx11 mode with physx and see what happens? I'm genuinely curious if this game just has issues or what. Still downloading metro 2033. If I can run metro on high I won't be sure what to think. Crossing my fingers on this one because amazon is out of this card and can't do a replacement. All they can do is give me my money back after I pay to ship it back then go awhile without gaming until it comes back in stock somewhere where I get to pay shipping again as well as (probably) a higher price with CA tax if it's from newegg.