ASUS GTX 670 Direct CU Mini Review

Today we are looking at a new video card from ASUS - The GTX 670 Direct CU Mini. This is a compact graphics card that should be powerful enough to play the latest Direct X 11 games on a 1080p monitor. This cute little card only measures 170mm and requires a single power connector. We will find out how it handles and whether it is worth the considerable asking price. With the release of the latest GTX770 and GTX780, it seems a weird time for ASUS to send us a sample of a 'last generation' card for review, but they are clearly targeting the diminutive little solution for a high performance system with limited physical space. Building a Mini ITX rig? then look no further. The PCB of the GTX 670 Direct CU Mini measures only 170mm. It is certainly a feat of engineering if the company have been able to provide adequate cooling inside such a small physical footprint. Previous reviews have highlighted excellent cooling performance from the Direct CU cooler, so we are very interested to see how this adopted, constricted model handles under load. The Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini is slightly overclocked, from 915mhz on the reference model to 928mhz, with a core boost speed of 1006mhz. The 2GB of GDDR5 memory is clocked at 1,502mhz (6Gbps effective) and is connected across a 256it memory inteface. It has 1344 CUDA cores onboard with 32ROP's and 112 TMU's. The GK104 core is built on a 28nm manufacturing process. Asus have been using this 'beast' style artwork now for a long time - the three red claw marks which stand out so dramatically. The back of the box is packed with information - highlighting what we said earlier - the focus for using the solution in a small form factor case. The size makes it an ideal choice for this kind of rig. Inside the box is a software disc, a dual 6 pin to 8 pin PCI power converter cable and a little setup pack. It really is a tiny little graphics card, built around a black PCB. The cooler and fan are black, with a red strip featuring the company name in the bottom corner. The I/O panel features dual DVI connectors alongside a full sized HDMI and DisplayPort connector. Its is SLI capable in 2, 3 and 4 way configurations. It takes power from a single 8 pin power connector. The adapter the company include will convert the power from 2 x 6 pin PCIE connectors into the single 8 pin header. It is impressive to see the Direct CU Cooler has been re-engineered to fit into such a small form factor. The copper base is directly connected to the aluminum fins , hidden behind the plate. this metal plate also offers cooling for the memory modules and VRM's. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. For our review today we are using the latest versions of both AMD and Nvidia drivers. Using the latest 320.18 driver with the Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini. We built a very high end liquid cooled Core i7 3960x system and overclocked it to 4.4ghz. We paired it up with 16GB of 2,400mhz memory and an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. We need to raise a point about the price of this card as ASUS are charging around £330 inc vat for the GTX 670 Direct CU Mini. The best price we found was on Overclockers UK @ £323.99 inc vat. We can get the Sapphire HD7970 OC Boost for £329.99 inc vat. The ASUS GTX670 Direct CU Mini may be tiny, but there is a premium involved for ownership. Graphics Card: ASUS GTX 670 Direct CU Mini (Forceware 320.18 beta) Cooler: Antec 920 H20 Memory: 16GB G.Skill 2,400mhz @ 10-11-10-30 Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1250W Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case Boot Drive: Patriot WildFire 120GB Secondary Drive: 1TB Samsung Monitors: Dell U3011 and Dell U2410 x 3. Other video cards: Sapphire HD7990 Sapphire HD7970 Toxic 6GB (1200mhz core /1600mhz memory) Sapphire HD7970 OC Boost 3GB Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X XFX HD7870 Core Edition XFX HD7850 Core Edition Sapphire HD7790 (1GB & 2GB versions) XFX HD7770 Core Edition Nvidia GTX690 Nvidia GTX Titan Zotac GTX670 Gainward GTX660ti Gainward GTX660 Zotac GTX650 Software: Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit Unigine Heaven Benchmark Unigine Valley Benchmark 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 3DMark Fraps Professional Steam Client FurMark Games: Alien V Predator Total War: Shogun 2 Dirt Showdown Sleeping Dogs May Payne 3 Tomb Raider All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page. Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11. The ASUS GTX670 Direct CU Mini scores an average frame rate of almost 75, falling around 3 frames per second behind the Sapphire HD7970 OC Boost Edition. Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user. We used the settings above at 1920×1080. Excellent performance from the ASUS GTX670 Direct CU Mini, averaging just over 75 frames per second. This is around eight frames per second less than the Sapphire HD7970 Boost OC however, which is almost identically priced. Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. In this older Direct X 10 benchmark, the GTX670 Direct CU Mini scores just behind the overclocked Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X, with a total of 33,103 points. 3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page. The ASUS GTX670 Direct CU Mini scores just over 9,000 points, just behind the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X. 3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance. Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good. To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.” The Asus card scores reasonably well, but it does lag behind both overclocked HD7950 and HD7970. Shogun 2 is set in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Ōnin War. The country is fractured into rival clans led by local warlords, each fighting for control. The player takes on the role of one of these warlords, with the goal of dominating other factions and claiming his rule over Japan. The standard edition of the game will feature a total of eight factions (plus a ninth faction for the tutorial), each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths. We run the DX11 Graphics High 1080p benchmark, available for this game in STEAM. You can therefore directly compare against your own system. The Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini averages 72 frames per second, 3 frames slower than the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X. Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 1920×1080 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. Good results, leading to smooth game play. The GTX670 is massively behind the GTX770 however - as well as the Sapphire HD7970 Boost OC. Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights. We are using the highest possible image quality settings at 1080p, including the high resolution texture pack. A very demanding game, especially at these ultra high settings. The Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini just manages to scrape through the smooth frame rate test, dropping once to 25 frames per second. Still, a good result considering. Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable. In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail. New to the series is a “Last Stand” mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession. Another demanding Direct X 11 engine which brings the lower cost graphics cards to their knees. The Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini scores well however, maintaining smooth frame rates throughout. After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We used the Ultimate quality setting at 2560×1600 with the settings detailed above. At 2560x1600 resolution with the 'Ultimate quality' setting, the Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini struggles to maintain perfectly smooth frame rates, dropping a couple of times below the 25fps sweet spot. In real world gaming terms, it is possible to notice a little juddering in some sections of the game. We can see the benefits brought by the 'new generation' MSI GTX770 OC, which averages between 5 and 7 frames per second. This may not seem like a lot, but it is the difference between silky smooth and slightly juddery in this game at these settings. Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007. We configured the game at the ULTRA preset with a 1080p resolution and 8x MSAA. Smooth performance at these settings although this engine particularly favours AMD hardware - the first time the HD7870 Core has scored above the GTX670. The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic. The cooler on the card copes well, with the temperatures peaking around the 67c mark under gaming load. This increases further under synthetic Furmark load to 75c. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA – Threshold of Pain 140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum The Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini is actually a little quieter than the Zotac GTX670, even though the cooler is smaller. The fan spins between 1,300rpm and 1,900rpm depending on the situation. When playing Crysis 3, the fan was spinning around 1,700 rpm. The Furmark Synthetic load test pushes this higher to 1,900 rpm, which is audible although never that intrusive. Not the quietest video card, but considering the size and power on hand, it is impressive. We used the latest version of MSI Afterburner to handle the overclocking today. We were able to increase the core clock speeds from 928mhz to 1,077mhz, translating into 16% additional headroom. The memory hit a peak at 1,595mhz, from 1,502mhz. This translates into a 6.1% clock increase. Overclocking will vary from card to card, but these are very good results. Let us see how it will affect the overall 3dMark score. The healthy overclock translates into a very healthy score improvement. The score increases from just over 6,000 points to 6,701 points. This puts it past the overclocked Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X card and 300 points behind the Sapphire HD7970 3GB Boost OC. In the world of high performance hardware it is refreshing to see diminutive, yet powerful components. The Asus GTX670 Direct CU Mini certainly falls into this category - delivering smooth frame rates in the latest Direct X 11 games at 1080p resolution. More and more people are moving to an mATX or Mini ITX build, to save space and to fit in beside a high definition television set without taking up masses of space. I have always owned a media center system, used in the living room for general gaming duties and for playback of bluray discs and MKV files. In this regard, the ASUS GTX670 Direct CU Mini is ideal as it will easily fit into a wide cross section of smaller chassis designs. There is plenty of power on tap to run demanding games such as Max Payne 3, Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs and the redesigned, compressed Direct CU cooler is very capable. ASUS have balanced the fan profile to deliver modest noise levels under load, while maintaining a <80c thermal curve. Considering the cooler is only 17cm long, this is an impressive feat. Your chassis will need decent airflow however, or you can expect the Direct CU fan to work harder. The card is supplied with a minor overclock, although we found that our review sample had plenty of headroom available. We were able to get another 16% core clock speed, peaking at 1,077mhz. This pushed the performance levels ahead of an overclocked HD7950, but behind the Sapphire HD7970 3GB Boost OC Edition. This leads us into the biggest concern we have. The price. You can currently pick this card up on Overclockers UK for around £325 inc vat. There can be no argument that this card is outperformed by the overclocked HD7970's currently available. Sadly for ASUS, these cards are available for only £5 more - this Sapphire HD7970 3GB Boost OC Edition is available for £329 inc vat for instance. Further challenges also come from the Nvidia stable - many of the GTX770's are available for around £330 inc vat, including this overclocked dual fan model from KFA2. There is no doubt that we admire the engineering prowess of ASUS. They consistently release some of the finest hardware known to the enthusiast audience. Sadly, it is difficult for us to wholeheartedly recommend the GTX 670 Direct CU Mini, when you can get a significantly more powerful solution from AMD and Nvidia for close to the same price. If this card ever drops to around £280- £299.99 inc vat then it would be a fantastic purchase. We are actually hoping with the recent release of the GTX770 that ASUS may indeed be considering a price reduction. Today it earns our Worth Buying award, but it comes with a reservation, based around the slightly over the odds pricing. If you need a small, powerful graphics card, then this should certainly be top of your shortlist. Just be prepared to pay top dollar. Pros: tiny, tiny tiny! excellent all round performance. not too loud. plenty of overclocking headroom. ideal for a powerful media center system build. Cons: not very cost effective when compared to high performance HD7970's and GTX770's. Kitguru says: A marvellous little card and very capable of handling the latest Direct X games at 1080p resolution. The price needs to come down though.