ASUS GeForce GTX 680 Direct CU II 2 GB

[eidairaman1]

Ouch. Quite a bit longer than reference.

Ya and a bit too tall for those who want to run SLI.

Others are keeping this series cool with a dual slot configuration, why not Asus

 

[RevengE]

Awesome card. I really liked the Direct Cu II technology on my Crossfired 6950s I had before my GTX 480.

 

[Krahl]

Hello folks and pardon this - in your eyes most likely - newbish question ( as follows):

Can I use 2 DVI cables on this card like I do on my gtx570 or am I forced into a displayport/mDP solution or heck even a mix of it all?

Not my first visit here - but first post. Been reading your reviews for quite a while now - just lurking

 

[BenchZowner]

Hello folks and pardon this - in your eyes most likely - newbish question ( as follows):

Can I use 2 DVI cables on this card like I do on my gtx570 or am I forced into a displayport/mDP solution or heck even a mix of it all?

Not my first visit here - but first post. Been reading your reviews for quite a while now - just lurking

Of course you can use 2 DVI cables.

 

[cadaveca]

I see 3 reviews of the DCUII online today and none of them tested the card with the VGA Hotwire feature of the Rampage IV Extreme.
What's up with that ?
I'm pretty sure that Asus would like to see it included in the reviews.

If they really wanted that, they'd send out review kits with RIVE and CPU included. Do you really think W1zz would turn such down?

Soldering wires isn't for the faint of heart, the feature was shown, in a way, can't get more than that without the other supporting parts. IF ASUS had sent me RIVE for review, I'd have gladly sent it to W1zz for such testing, but TPU does not currently have one. Perhaps in the future.

 

[W1zzard]

i dont have a R4E, and my soldering skills might only be good enough for breaking the card -> no review

i see no reason why this wouldnt work as expected, hotwire is actually very simple technology (a great idea though)

 

[cadaveca]

I've been watching the extreme guys use it, seems nice, but for benching only... I have also seen that a few times, it's also tied into VCORE settings, and in some instances, this wil lead to excessive vcore to CPU for daily cooling options.

Shamino has a guide here:

http://91.121.148.119/downloads/PDF/R4E_shamino_guide.pdf

**ONLY For the Extreme Overclocker who is adept at doing soldering!!**

 

[Krahl]

Of course you can use 2 DVI cables.

Yeah I did made sure in my own post that I'd make a complete and utter twat out of myself
Packing bags for a trap with the kids and wife tomorrow, so didn't add the bit which would make my post make just a wee bit more sense:
I'm using a Dell U2711 with 2560x1440 resolution - will this card support that with it's 2 DVI slots or is it the mDP/DP path like the 7970 lightning?

 

[W1zzard]

will this card support that with it's 2 DVI slots or is it the mDP/DP path like the 7970 lightning?

if it were you'd see me complaining all over the review still fighting my lightning to get it working at 2560x1600 .. 4th adapter now and still not working right

the 2 dvi slots are both dual link and can be used at the same time without any adapters or other gotchas.

 

[Krahl]

Thank you very much W1zzard! Putting my preorder in tonight... for som obscene amount of money here in Denmark
Close eyes - enter creditcard info!

Long discussion on a danish hardware site about the lightning - we were very dissapointed

 

[illli]

i'm glad you took a picture of the bottom of the heatsink. i notice many reviews from other sites dont even bother to remove the heatsink at all, but i like to see what is under there

 

[cowie]

I've been watching the extreme guys use it, seems nice, but for benching only... I have also seen that a few times, it's also tied into VCORE settings, and in some instances, this wil lead to excessive vcore to CPU for daily cooling options.

Shamino has a guide here:

http://91.121.148.119/downloads/PDF/R4E_shamino_guide.pdf

:

I'v only just started using asus x79 me board that has this feature and with my asus 680 it was not tied to vcore,i think on some other mb's/bios its true
only did 2 680's and a ref 275 using this hotwire mod so simple for a volt mod noob like me.it saves on vrs too
You need to treat it as any mod thuo read volts live cooling and all,its great feature it looks like one could do a solderless hotwire mod like so easy on the dcII
good review On the 680dcII Wizz and dont blame you about not doing any hardmods on a review card.

 

[BenchZowner]

i dont have a R4E, and my soldering skills might only be good enough for breaking the card -> no review

i see no reason why this wouldnt work as expected, hotwire is actually very simple technology (a great idea though)

Thought you had one.
What's up with Asus nowadays.
In the past you could get several motherboards to review easily, but VGA's harder.
Can't believe they haven't supplied you with a R4E.

I don't blame the crisis though

With the DCUII apart from any shorts that you need to do ( can be done with conductive ink pen ) you can get away without soldering the cables to the "holes" ( you can use some relatively thin cheap multimeter beads [probes] to connect them )

Modding review hardware before completing your tests would be stupid in deed, but I see no harm done ( no offense of course as always ) if applied afterwards ( assuming that you have somebody to mod the card safely for you ).

I've been watching the extreme guys use it, seems nice, but for benching only... I have also seen that a few times, it's also tied into VCORE settings, and in some instances, this wil lead to excessive vcore to CPU for daily cooling options.

Shamino has a guide here:

http://91.121.148.119/downloads/PDF/R4E_shamino_guide.pdf

It's a pretty good idea, although I prefer the hard way ( VRs or DIP switches and VID mods )

 

[Krahl]

Order in place...now lean back and wait for it to hit shelves.

Great review - totally convinced me going for nvidia again instead of the price cut 7970s

 

[MicroUnC]

if it were you'd see me complaining all over the review still fighting my lightning to get it working at 2560x1600 .. 4th adapter now and still not working right

the 2 dvi slots are both dual link and can be used at the same time without any adapters or other gotchas.

Hey W1zz! is there any benifit form PCi-E 3.0???

 

[NHKS]

I see 3 reviews of the DCUII online today and none of them tested the card with the VGA Hotwire feature of the Rampage IV Extreme.
What's up with that ?

how abt this?

 

[Assimilator]

Best thing about this card = non-retarded PCI-E power connector arrangement.

 

[cadaveca]

It's a pretty good idea, although I prefer the hard way ( VRs or DIP switches and VID mods )

I do as well. You can use the same points with VRs no problem, board just have that control built in. With UEFI, there is much more possible with BIOS than ever before, so I am glad to see stuff liek this, just wish it was on more boards.

I'v only just started using asus x79 me board that has this feature and with my asus 680 it was not tied to vcore,i think on some other mb's/bios its true
only did 2 680's and a ref 275 using this hotwire mod so simple for a volt mod noob like me.it saves on vrs too
You need to treat it as any mod thuo read volts live cooling and all,its great feature it looks like one could do a solderless hotwire mod like so easy on the dcII
good review On the 680dcII Wizz and dont blame you about not doing any hardmods on a review card.

The VGA HOtwire is only available on one motherboard, that i know of, the RIVE. THe issues come from using cards other than the ASUS DirectCU II cards, yet to me, this is 100% acceptable....it's just not really for 24/7 use unless you are watercooling your cards, or just use the rig to bench.


Personally, I'd love a RIVE and a couple of DirectCU II cards, and I would NOT hesitate to do the VGA HOTWire either.

 

[GC_PaNzerFIN]

The performance is insane for single GPU. On par with GTX 590 at full hd res! And only downside I see is the price they are asking for it over here.

 

[Delta6326]

Nice card! I was expecting higher price.

So W1zz are you going to upgrade your ASUS GeForce GTX 580 Direct CU II to this one

 

[W1zzard]

So W1zz are you going to upgrade your ASUS GeForce GTX 580 Direct CU II to this one

i'm tempted, not 100% sure yet. maybe asus can make me a low noise bios =)

 

[avaya]

GTX 580 DC II has been $500 to $550, although Newegg now has one listed at $430 as of today

 

[BenchZowner]

how abt this?

They in deed show how VGA Hotwire is done, etc, but they don't seem to mention their overclocking experience ( clocks ) with raised voltages.
The 1328MHz GPU Core clock measurements in the charts were done with the stock voltage of the card ( 1.175V which in reality is more around 2.08V ).

Perhaps they kept those results for another article, or just wanted to show it and use it later for extreme overclocking on liquid nitrogen, anyway, it would've been nice to see what kind of clocks they'd manage with reasonable additional voltage for 24/7.

 

[Nelly]

Good review, I am not keen on the way these have to be modded slightly to enable voltage adjustment.

This card would be great to review in my opinion click >> KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 LTD OC Hall Of Fame Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WHITE PCB**

I think in America it's this >> http://www.galaxytech.com/__en_gb__/Product266.aspx

Sorry mate, this card hands the Phantom its arse in comparison. These things are capable of 1400MHz region with air cooling, 1500MHz+ under water and with LN2/Phase these should pass beyond 2000MHz.

Source

• 2x 8pin Connectors, so upto 300W TDP
• 3x 90mm Fan Cooling design, powerful yet quiet
• Custom GX31 controller chip for software voltage control
• WHITE PCB DESIGN
• 8+2+2 Power Phase Design

 

[MeanBruce]

Dynamic OC cannot be turned off! Ok, I don't know NVidia tuning software, but AMD CCC lets you drop the mem and gpu speeds down to reference levels even if your card comes OC'd a little out of the box.

Is that not possible with the GTX 680? It might be a dumb question but I am an NVidia noobie!


My current card Asus 6870DirectCu fans spin at 15% (inaudible) in auto mode. Wondering if there is an auto fan speed control in the NVid software and if so what % the two fans spin at idle?

Major learning curve moving to another gpu brand!