ASUS GTX680-DC2T-2GD5 Pro Reviews

The DirectCU II cooler is a beast at triple slots thick but it keeps the card super cool while also not being overly loud in the process. Add to this that the card comes in at a price point that meets or beats many much slower and less featured cards head on its really hard to find something to bitch about with it. If you want a 680 and you want the baddest ass one you can get you are on eth right track with the GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP. The only real negative I could think of would be the fact that it is triple slot so fitment for multi GPU could be problematic especially if looking to go 4 Way SLI as many boards will not be able to accommodate these beasts. All in all the GTX 680 DCII TOP is a force to be reckoned with and with a price of some much less featured contenders I find it hard to recommend any other card if in the market for a 680.

Both the ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II and GTX 670 DirectCU II cards were found to be well designed cards that would make any gamer happy to own. The GTX 680 comes with unique features like VGA Hotwire, but will the average gamer actually use that functionality? The performance difference between the two on our 30" monitor with a 2560x1600 resolution was usually 3-4 FPS. Is it worth paying an extra $150 to get that extra frame rate, larger cooler and features? If money is an issue we think it isn't worth the price jump, but that is a choice that you need to make. Both cards are more than impressive, so you can't go wrong with either!

The ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP video card is a complete behemoth. Not only will this video card take up three spots in your computer, it is like a solid rock that could probably withstand physical punishment. It is very well built and nearly every inch of the video card is covered by a sturdy aluminum plate which not only protects mounted components, but can help spread heat and direct airflow off the video card. Through all of our gameplay testing the ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP lead the field. ASUS is one of the first companies to do away with weak factory overclocks and delivered a video card with some real muscle in its stock operating frequencies. We found that the ASUS GeForce GTX 680 DC II TOP had a noticeable performance advantage compared to both the reference GeForce GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970. Not only that, it drew less power during testing and was much cooler and quieter than both video cards.

The GeForce GTX 680 remains our first choice for a truly high-end, single-GPU graphics card. Despite being relatively quiet and power efficient, NVIDIA's reference design manages to power through the latest DX11 games with consummate ease. It's all you need for high-quality gaming today, and if you are planning ahead there's always the option to add a second card further down the line. Such is the card's prowess that it's difficult for NVIDIA's partners to produce a custom GTX 680 that's fundamentally better in every way. ASUS has made a bold attempt with the DirectCU II TOP, but the card isn't perfect. It's quicker than reference - and by that rationale the quickest single-GPU solution we've tested - but there's no getting around the fact that it's monstrously large. It's also admirably cooler and quieter than reference, but those improvements are offset by a lofty £90 premium. And, despite the high asking price, there's no increase in the amount of on-board memory, which suggests that ASUS's DirectCU II TOP may still run into framebuffer limitations at ultra-high resolutions. We'd challenge anyone not to be impressed by a card as striking as this, but there is room for improvement and we'd really like to have seen ASUS go with less cooling and more memory, preferably overclocked.

When receiving the GTX680 DirectCU II TOP card, we were kind of wondering if all of the bells and whistles would be worth it but then we saw the price and realized it was actually quite a value. These cards are very popular and sell out almost instantly, but with the extra performance out of the box we can definitely see why especially since it is the highest card we have seen from browsing cards available on retailers websites. The card has many cool factor points such as a massive cooler capable of keeping excellent overclocks within reasonable temps with little to no increase in temps. The fans are quiet even when pushed hard which is a very nice plus as a normal system load of fans will likely drown out any noise these fans may put out. The VGA Hotwire connectors opens the possibility to much easier volt modding of the card for those looking to push for the extreme. the GPU Tweak software is easy to use and has seemingly endless amounts of adjustability. Add to this that the GPU Tweak software also has GPUz integrated and it just gets better and better as every software needed for the most part is all within one utility. The SAP components along with the DIGI+ controller helps with reliability along with higher efficiency and performance potential to make a great card combo that should stand up to pretty much anything.

The ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP Edition may not have been widely available since the GTX 680’s launch but we just can’t ignore its place in the current GPU market. Rather, its mere presence on retailers’ backorder listings has caused some to take a wait and see approach instead of purchasing a competitor’s product. And with good reason since this is currently one of the best graphics cards money can –or rather, can’t- buy. From a framerate standpoint the DirectCU II TOP places itself among elite company by bridging the gap between NVIDIA’s GTX 680 and the ultra high end GTX 690. Granted, the real world performance between a reference design and ASUS’ overclocked version isn’t extreme but the difference was enough to be noticeable in quite a few instances. This was mostly due to the DirectCU II heatsink granting the additional overhead necessary for the core to Boost well beyond its on-paper specifications. Speaking of the heatsink, we really can’t fault ASUS’ focus in this area even though the end result of countless engineering hours is laughably oversized. NVIDIA’s GK104 core runs cool and as a result the DirectCU II obviously has thermal mass to spare which leads to the acoustical footprint being kept to a minimum. Not only is it quiet but even with a default fan speed profile, overclocking was a breeze, particularly with ASUS’ excellent GPU Tweak utility.

ASUS has taken the already great NVIDIA GTX 680 reference design and put some work into improving it. The company is a leader in triple slot cooling solutions, so it is only natural that releasing a GTX 680 Direct CU II was one of their top priorities. A triple slot cooler promises lower temperatures, lower noise and better overclocking at the cost of increased space consumption and potential issues with multi-GPU configurations. I am happy to report that the GTX 680 DC II TOP is a worthy successor to the GTX 580 Direct CU II. The card offers 7% increased real-life performance over the NVIDIA GTX 680 reference design, thanks to a healthy overclock out of the box. Manual overclocking worked well, we got an extra 50 MHz out of the card compared to the reference design. Memory overclocking wasn't impressive, but still reached over 1750 MHz.