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Today we are taking a look at two interesting graphics cards from ASUS – the GTX760 Direct CU Mini and the HD7850 Direct CU II. The GTX760 Direct CU Mini is specifically designed for use in mini ITX builds, measuring only 170mm. The HD7850 Direct CU II is going to target a large gaming audience as it is currently available in the United Kingdom at a very competitive £149.99 inc vat.
We have reviewed many ASUS graphics cards in the last year featuring their proprietary Direct CU coolers and they perform very well. ASUS don't tend to skimp on component selection so you can be generally guaranteed a high quality product.
The GTX 760 Direct CU Mini is only 170mm long, or around 70mm shorter than a reference Nvidia GTX760, which measures 240mm. Asus have not only managed to fit their GTX760 Mini onto a super small PCB but they have also overclocked the core to 1,072mhz.
Such a clever, diminutive design will demand a price premium and it is currently available from SCAN in the United Kingdom for £227.71 inc vat.
The Direct CU Mini adopts a single Cooltech fan which delivers a wider airflow under the components underneath. This Direct CU cooler features a vapor chamber which Asus claim reduces the temperatures by 9c under load.
The Asus HD7850 Direct CU II V2 is remarkable due to the competitive pricing right now in the United Kingdom. It is available from OCUK for £149.99 inc vat, sporting the latest Direct CU II cooler. This twin fan cooling system adopts direct contact heatpipes to improve cooling performance.
To make the review more interesting we managed to get hold of two of the Asus HD7850 Direct CU II V2 cards, so we could show performance in Crossfire. After all, if you are short on funds you could pick a single card up now, and add another a later date. For reference we throw in some comparisons against a Palit GTX760 JetStream, a VTX3D HD7870 Tahiti LE and a Sapphire HD7950.
The 760 mini is lovely – really nice idea, if a little expensive.
The cards are good, but the cooler on the 760 is too small to really be that good for such a high end board – I would rather get a case that can take a full sized GPU, even if it was small, like a prodigy.
Too bad my three month old Asus 7850 DCUII V2 can’t even reach any core clock over 960mhz without crashing while in a game. Touched nothing but the core clock and 5% power addition.
1000mhz ran fine on tests. rock solid on 3Dmark11 and MSI kompressor though. Could be a driver issue, could be a bad card. Clean install though.
Still, goes to show that overclocking is not absolutely dependable.