ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU Mini 2 GB

[cadaveca]

expect to pay 10-20k for that if it comes with the right certification paperwork, much much more if you want emp hardened so you can still play crysis while the nukes go off around you

Well, from my point of view...


MSI: OK, we got the MPower..."OC Certified", Military Class.




Me: ...but can it handle condensation?




MSI: Oh, there's a MIL test for that too?




Me: Oh, you didn't bother...



oh.



So, nice weather?



(not actual conversation).

 

[Frick]

it doesn't exist. it's a marketing invention like "gives you wings". msi sometimes references some certification which has no serious requirements

expect to pay 10-20k for that if it comes with the right certification paperwork, much much more if you want emp hardened so you can still play crysis while the nukes go off around you

Yeah I know. Would be sort of interesting though. I did some basic IPC checkups at school and when they started with that Military Class nonsense my initial thought was "wait seriosly?" but realized it wasn't it. I was sort of dissapointed.

EDIT:

Well, from my point of view...


MSI: OK, we got the MPower..."OC Certified", Military Class.




Me: ...but can it handle condensation?




MSI: Oh, there's a MIL test for that too?




Me: Oh, you didn't bother...



oh.



So, nice weather?



(not actual conversation).

That would be a april fools prank I can support!

 

[Ikaruga]

Card and review, both well done.

 

[Casecutter]

Got to say it so cute (and powerful) it wants me to think about some neat SFF enclosure builds. While a mini-ITX in a compact case is in the realm possibility, that would take some serious engineering or a chicken wire enclosure… While good luck finding a 500W power brick.

A Vapor chamber sweet... but I'd like to see the shroud off, and more pictures on the cooler and fan parts.

 

[cadaveca]

Got to say it so cute (and powerful) it wants me to think about some neat SFF enclosure builds. While a mini-ITX in a compact case is in the realm possibility, that would take some serious engineering or a chicken wire enclosure… While good luck finding a 500W power brick.

Thermaltake has already thought of this, perhaps.

http://support.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1432&ID=1710


I can smell some killer modded cases with such thoughts in mind...

 

[W1zzard]

While good luck finding a 500W power brick.

A 300 W PSU should handle this card and decent gaming rig just fine

 

[Emperor_Piehead]

Jesus, that card is so much win!

Run that little guy on a small water loop in a Mini ITX case would be sweet!

people do run that in a watercooling loop the reference pcb is the exact same length

 

[terrastrife]

Jesus, that card is so much win!

Run that little guy on a small water loop in a Mini ITX case would be sweet!

WHYYYYYY there's already blocks for the stock 670 which is just as small XD

Kinda wish that the red accent was blue, to look the same as the asus itx deluxe board.

 

[Animalpak]

now who expect a waterblock ?

 

[OneCool]

expect to pay 10-20k for that if it comes with the right certification paperwork, much much more if you want emp hardened so you can still play crysis while the nukes go off around you

 

[Lionheart]

What an awesome little card, I feel the urge just to build a mini ITX build now just for this tiny beast

 

[OnyxVulpe]

Now they just need to throw that cooler on the rest of the line up.

 

[OneCool]

Its small.

I just put a NZXT Nemesis case back in gaming action for less than this mini card.

 

[Assimilator]

Hmmm... now if only we could get the 660 and 660 Ti in this form factor...

half the size nearly but costs more ?

The same reason why palm-sized smartphones cost more than a PC with much more power.

 

[NeoXF]

Wow, awesome card... congrats to the makers... and by that I mean mostly ASUS.

 

[chinmi]

I totally want two of these....!!!!

 

[miluthui]

This card looks great but it comes out too late I already bought the Zotac GTX 660 Ti AMP! Edition which is also quite small and compact for my new mini ITX build

 

[Held213]

Good review

Not all Mini-ITX cases support dual-slot graphics cards

But this cant be a disadvantage of the card. If you want performance like this and a quiet card in an ITX system the card has to be 2-slots high.

Its a disadvantage of the case if its not supporting 2-slot cards.

 

[W1zzard]

But this cant be a disadvantage of the card. If you want performance like this and a quiet card in an ITX system the card has to be 2-slots high.

Its a disadvantage of the case if its not supporting 2-slot cards.

i completely agree, and it didn't influence the review, scoring or conclusion in any way. i still thought it important to mention that fact

 

[Held213]

Well OK then.

I would also point out (as a disadvantage), that the PCB and the cooler are higher as the mounting bracket. Could ba a problem in some cases, maybe with the Prodigy. Higher card cause troubles or crashing with the ODD slot: http://pics.computerbase.de/4/1/8/7/6/29.jpg

 

[MxPhenom 216]

WHYYYYYY there's already blocks for the stock 670 which is just as small XD

Kinda wish that the red accent was blue, to look the same as the asus itx deluxe board.

Still rather have this card then the reference 670s.

 

[Am*]

Good card, but it is WAY WAY overpriced. They must have given you the gold of all golden cards right here to make it function that quietly and cool.That heatsink looks cheap as hell to be honest (looks a lot like the older Intel stock cooler with the copper base) and will probably struggle cooling the GPU for most people that get it. They should move all the power components on the back of the card to make space for a much beefier cooler with 4 heatpipes, stick it on a GTX 680 and you have an instant win. Why this thing costs more than a normal GTX 670 is beyond me, since in terms of materials used, this thing is an all round cost-cutting exercise.

 

[Casecutter]

Thermaltake has already thought of this, perhaps.

While with 270W available the Thermaltake (A2422RU) might do it, but it never says it an 8-pin, they never specifically what it has. I suppose you might find/make a 6-pin +Molex to 8-pin adapter. You better hope that's a single rail. It fills what's almost certainly your only 5.25” bay and then you have to consider moving the heat from that out of a chassis that wasn't design to dissipate such BTU’s from that drive bay.

A 300 W PSU should handle this card and decent gaming rig just fine

As it needs a 8-pin (150W) and then say a i5-3570K (you don't want to be CPU bound ), and other peripherals like a HDD and SSD... to me 350W is more the bare minimum. If you're constrained with Mini ITX/Micro FLEX (Slim-line PSU's) many of those have 2 rails, so you better hope your adapter works the same rail. You're basically looking at something like the Athena Power AP-MFATX40 400W Mini ITX, it’s got two 6-pins that can adapt into one 8pin. Though good luck killing all that Spaghetti… in a Mini ITX chassis.

While a novel idea I just don’t see any real big saturation or demand for a small M-ITX/SFF size, powerful card for gaming machines, I applaud the innovation.

 

[Random Murderer]

So... the NDA is up(obviously) and these have been reported as "released" by multiple sites. So where the hell are they?

 

[Animalpak]

Crazy the world is full of crazy people !!!!

500 bills for this card ?? Are you kidding me ??

My best hardware retailers shop sells this card at 500 swizterland francs ( the francs value are very close to dollars )

http://www.steg-electronics.ch/it/article/asus-gtx-670-dc-mini-266137.aspx