ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU Mini - The Most Powerful Small Form Factor Card
Posted on May 15, 2013
It feels like we've been posting a good deal of Small Form Factor products lately, and as I seem to mention in each of these posts, it's all on the heels of an impending HTPC / SFF revolution. Rather than use multiple 3rd-party boxes, faster internet speeds and the proliferation of streaming have encouraged more consumers to run home entertainment from a unified PC.
Like Lian-Li and SilverStone, ASUS acknowledges this and aims to tap-in to a developing market demand for high-power, SFF video cards. They've done so by shipping the smallest GTX 670 to-date, named the ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini Video Card. The new card comes complete with 2GB of on-card memory, a 256-bit memory interface, and 1344 CUDA cores, as we've come to expect from GTX 670 products.
The company calls this video card the "world's first GTX 670 for ITX/mATX gaming PCs," and after some research, it appears that they may be correct; most mATX cases will pretty easily fit larger cards, but ITX cases are certainly more limited (the noteworthy exception being SilverStone's SG08.
ASUS GTX 670 DCMOC-2GD5 Specs (Small Form Factor)
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 |
| Bus Interface | PCI-e 3.0 / 2.X |
| Video Memory | 2GB GDDR5 @ 1502MHz (6008MHz effective) |
| GPU Clock | Boost Clock: 1006 MHz GPU BCLK: 928MHz |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Resolution | 2560-1600 DVI Max |
| Video Output | 1xDVI-I; 1xDVI-D 1xHDMI 1xDisplayPort HDCP Support |
| Power | 1x8-pin |
| Software | ASUS GPU Tweak |
| ASUS Features | DirectCU Mini Overclocked |
| Dimensions | 6.7" x 4.8" x 1.6" 170x121x40mm |
| MSRP | $400 |
| Release Date | 5/20/2013 |
In the marketing text, ASUS mentions that the chip has be pre-overclocked and uses a CoolTech fan with more efficient cooling technology to increase power and diminish thermals. The on-board heatsink uses vapor chambers (explained in our article) and a noise-conscious fan to help achieve a thermally-acceptable-yet-quiet cross. We haven't yet tested this 670, so I can't speak to whether it achieves the low noise threshold demanded by living room PCs, but the on-paper specs look promising.
Everything else is pretty standard for what you'd expect in a 670. The card will be available for purchase on 5/20/2013, roughly ten days from the rumored GTX 770 ship date.
This card was first announced back in April, but ASUS has finalized the ship date and price. The GTX 670 DCMOC will be on sale for $400 and is available for pre-order on Newegg.