Asus GTX 670 DirectCU Mini 2GB Graphics Card Review

Normally when I comes to this part of reviewing a graphics card, I generally have a good idea whereabouts it will end up getting to, but due to the extensive amount of redesigning that Asus have put into this card, I’ve left myself a little open to choice due to two key factors. The first of these is very much in favour of the card with the improved voltage controller, concrete chokes and the SAP CAP on the rear of the board to deliver smoother power to the core, all of these being great ingredients for a great overclock.

Where my optimism dies a little is whether or not the cooler can handle the extra heat generated when increasing the power target and thus the voltage whilst bringing up the clock speeds as well. In other words this will push the cooler to its limits on the GK104 core.

Keeping an open mind working solely on the core clock to start and working in increments of 5MHz from the 1100MHz barrier (one that I know all GTX 670 will handle with ease), the card eventually started to drop out at 1155MHz. A very remarkable start to the overclocking process. Naturally this clock will have to be lowered a little to allow for the memory clock to be brought right up and sure enough by dropping it back to 1140MHz, the memory was able to go right up to 1780MHz (7120MHz effective).

Considering my initial reservations on the cooling front and its potential for restricting the overclocking potential, I have yet again been silence by the performance on hand. To put this all into perspective, the GTX 670 mini at its stock clocks achieved X3151 points within 3DMark 11 and overclocking the core by just under 23% and the memory by 18.5%, sees a gain of just under 15% (X460 points).

To further put this score into perspective and to show really how well it has done, Gigabyte’s GTX 680 SOC at stock achieved X3607 points, meaning that the 670 mini has brought itself right up to a very high level of performance.