ASUS GTX660-DC2-2GD5 Pro Reviews

If you are in the market for the best value in terms of GeForce GTX 660 non-Ti performance, the ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II OC is the best video card at this price point that we have had in our hands so far. At its incredible price of $219, plus a rebate that can take you down to $199, it really is an excellent option for great performance around $200. By offering a lower price and having its out of box performance already maximized, this is a great go-to card in this price range.

ASUS has put together a solid video card with the ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II. Its power profile puts its full-load usage between an overclocked Radeon HD 7850 and Radeon HD 7870, yet it performs closer to the overclocked 7870 level. That means it is an efficient power design, and won't hog your system for power. The DirectCU II heatsink and fan combination keep this video card cooled well during gaming. This is the kind of heatsink that will allow good overclocking where temperature is not a concern. We look forward to overclocking this video card in a follow-up article and seeing how high we can take it, we have a feeling the new GTX 660 is also going to be an excellent overclocker. ASUS has built this card from the ground-up to overclock. The custom digital power circuitry and custom design is all there to ensure stable overclocking. ASUS has set the price on this video card at $234.99 for the standard model. At this price there is now stiff competition from Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850 video cards thanks to a recent AMD pricing change. This has put pressure on the just announced GTX 660. At its current, standard, clock speeds it doesn't have what it really needs to compete with a factory overclocked Radeon HD 7870.

The GTX 660 is not an overclocker’s GPU. It isn't the fault of ASUS however. It is the NVIDIA specified strict limit to the Power Target that is keeping us from achieving good overclocks. If some manufacturer were to come out with a custom GTX 660 that is able to provide us a higher Power Target, we could see some great overclocks out of this GPU. Unfortunately this kind of thing is frowned upon this generation by NVIDIA. NVIDIA is being very strict on the TDP, Power Target, and overvoltage with the Kepler generation. Perhaps NVIDIA is trying to keep RMAs and support calls down compared to the last couple of generations or perhaps going to greater lengths to stratify its product stack? The point is, for us enthusiast overclockers the GTX 660 is one of the most strictly capped GPU generations to date when it comes to overclocking abilities. The ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II is still a great video card; the cooler keeps this GPU very cool at idle and full load. Even overclocked the temps were in the 60s with this video card. We did get that 10% overclock, which isn't a lot, but it did give us 10% more free performance out of the video card. There was no reason to test the overclock against a 7870 with the highest possible overclock as our results show the 7870 better performing anyway. In the two games it wasn't, the Radeon HD 7870 can be overclocked further taking it over the performance of the overclocked GTX 660. The point is, you can get more gaming performance when overclocking a Radeon HD 7870 than you can out of an overclocked GTX 660.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II is a surprising and powerful card. At less than 250 bucks, you get a card that is right at the heels of the GTX580 in most scenarios. This card has a very low power requirement with its single 6 pin PCIe connector and even smaller thermal dump with the help of the DirectCU II cooler. The SAP powered VRM makes for an amazingly efficient and very overclockable and stable card as well. The performance is very good and the size of the card means it should fit in most smaller cases including most LANBOX style chassis. The card runs and runs well, there is little else I can say besides it simply handles business in the gaming department and even supports PhysX for more in-depth gaming. If needed for processing CUDA apps are fully supported as well. The GPU Tweak app helps to unlock the full potential of the card quickly and easily with easy and intuitive interface. Anyone looking for a strong mid-range performance card that can really punch out some gaming performance at a decent price point, I find no reason why the ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II would not make your list of considerations.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 660 adds to the company's product stack by providing a fully featured gaming solution at the crucial price point of around $200. In terms of performance, the reference design sits right between AMD's Radeon HD 7850 and HD 7870. Thanks to its overclock out of the box, the ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II TOP is able to match HD 7870's performance, ending up 8% faster than the NVIDIA GTX 660 reference design. This is enough gaming power for most titles at full HD (1920 x 1080), with maximum details and anti-aliasing enabled. The new GK106 graphics processor offers significantly improved non-gaming power draw compared to GK 104 based cards, like the GTX 680, 670, and660 Ti, beating anything similar AMD has to offer, especially while running multiple monitors or Blu-ray. The HD 7800 series is the winner when it comes to gaming power consumption despite NVIDIA having the better boost clock technology to improve performance per Watt. AMD also has ZeroCore power, which, for example, turns the card off while the screen is off during overnight download sessions.

ASUS' GTX 660 DirectCU II TOP hits the performance marks set for it in convincing fashion with an expansive feature set that includes high quality components, excellent cooling, and great looks all wrapped up in the $250 price point. For 1920x1080 gaming on a budget, the GTX 660 DirectCU II TOP has the ability to leverage the right price/performance point with the latest DX11 feature set to entice gamers to make that next upgrade to enjoy all that DX11 gaming has to offer.