ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 Pro Reviews

Featuring an only slightly cut-down GK104 GPU compared to the top-end GTX 680, we were big fans of the GTX 670 when it first tipped up. It was only a little slower than the top GeForce card and was much cheaper. It also had a performance lead on the HD 7950 and was on par with the original HD 7970.

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!

ASUS built a monster video card with the ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP. The factory overclock boosted the performance so much that it out performed a stock GeForce GTX 680 in nearly every game we tested, and completely obliterated the Radeon HD 7950's performance. Users that expect to get this video card and overclock it themselves should not expect to see much higher operating speeds. The factory overclock pushed the card close to its limitations. None the less, our manual overclock did increase performance enough to enable more settings in several different games. The DirectCU II Cooling system impressed us again, providing very cool temperatures without excess fan noise. In fact, with fans at 100% we still could not distinguish those over the computers normal operating noise. If you are looking to upgrade from a last generation video card and $400 to $450 is your price range, the ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP is a worthy candidate for your consideration. The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP is currently in stock and available at Newegg for $429.99. You can find a GeForce GTX 670 with lower clock speeds and stock cooling for as low as $400. For the additional $30 dollars you are getting the fastest out-of-box GeForce GTX 670 with one of the most efficient and quiet cooling systems on the market that certainly proves its premium price value. Kudos to ASUS for great design and execution.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP 2GB is the best GTX 670 we've come across thus far, and, by extension, it's the best premium graphics card to date.

When we first laid eyes on the ASUS GTX670 DirectCU II TOP card weI thought it looked very much like its 680 big brother but being lower spec we knew it was a cut down in performance and therefore was made for a slightly lower budget than the ultra extreme. The feature set is almost identical between the two minus some of the extreme cooling features such as the VGA Hotwire. However, we think a most (if not almost all) users can survive without that. Most gamers want to get the most from their hard earned dollars. After seeing this card walk all over the reference GTX 680, we have to ask ourselves how this is possible. The answer: high clock speeds mixed with top level performance and a great build quality. All in all, the card bleeds excellence and it does so at a price point $70 below reference based GTX 680s which it outperforms anyways.

The ASUS GTX 670 DirectCu II TOP is one of the few cards on the market that offers something for everyone. It should be appealing to those who want top-tier performance without stepping up to a pricy GTX 680, there are enough features to keep overclockers content for weeks on end and silent PC enthusiasts will fall in love with its low acoustical footprint. With that being said, ASUS finds themselves fighting an uphill battle against some very stiff competition. Let’s start with the obvious first: for a GTX 670, this card is one hell of a performer. An abnormally high core frequency pushes framerates into and beyond GTX 680 territory at nearly every resolution and IQ setting. NVIDIA’s flagship does pull ahead in cases where its additional cores can flex their muscles but even then, the DirectCu II TOP hangs on tenaciously. This is paired with an impressive list of features which help increase efficiency and should be able to aid overclocking enthusiasts in their quest to hit the highest clock speeds possible. However, don’t expect to use ASUS’ GPU Tweak to achieve those results (at least not in its current form) since it doesn’t allow the core to pass the 1359MHz mark.

Yes, you've seen correctly, the ASUS GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP is the first graphics card ever that I gave a perfect ten score. The stock GeForce GTX 670 provides already great performance, but ASUS has topped that by boosting it with a large overclock out of the box which catapults it beyond GTX 680 performance levels. Averaged over all our testing we see the card 1% faster than GTX 680 and 8% faster than GTX 670. The card does so without massive power consumption increase thanks to an efficient VRM design and low temperatures. ASUS has done away with NVIDIA's cheap voltage regulation circuitry and put a much better CHiL controller on the card, which also supports voltage control and monitoring. The ASUS DC II cooler is a revelation on the GTX 670, it provides incredibly low noise levels. In both idle and load the card emits almost no noise, it is actually quieter under full load than most other cards on the market are at idle. Not only noise is low but temperatures are great, too. With only 74°C under load the card is quieter than most other GTX 670 cards tested today.