ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II Detailed

[btarunr]

ASUS unveiled its GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC graphics card, featuring a non-reference PCB, and a new-generation DirectCU II cooler. Its PCB features a strong 10-phase VRM, which is tuned to offer a 30% higher voltage threshold, that much better electrical noise suppression (159 mV vs. 239 mV), and an array of tantalum capacitors that ensure clean power delivery to the GPU. ASUS is offering factory-overclocked GPU speeds of 889 MHz core, 941 MHz GPU Boost, compared to NVIDIA reference speeds of 863 MHz and 900 MHz.

A star attraction with the GTX 780 DirectCU II, is its new-generation DirectCU II cooler. It uses a CoolTech fan, which made its debut with the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini, and which is a cross between lateral-flow and top-flow fans, ensuring greater sweep. The cooler uses a combination of one CoolTech fan, and a conventional top-flow fan towards its rear. This is to ensure the lateral sweep of a CoolTech fan doesn't push hot air back into the case from its rear. The one in the front pushes it out through the rear vent. Beneath these fans is a conventional aluminum fin-stack heatsink, in which a combination of four 8 mm thick, and a central 10 mm-thick copper heat pipes make direct contact with the GPU. The card ships with a back-plate, even though there's nothing to cool on the back side. ASUS plans to launch the card soon.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[W1zzard]

should have review sample very soon (days)

 

[RCoon]

So unless it has unlocked voltage that higher voltage threshold is almost pointless

 

[d1nky]

thats the best looking card ive ever seen!

if their HD8*** doesnt look like that i may be inclined to get one.

 

[THE_EGG]

hmm good to see Asus continuing their use of their funky fan. I'll be interested to see how this works on a dual fan card as far as heat/noise goes.

 

[douglatins]

Why 2 different fans? Not a fan here.

The first one looks like cool and innovative, the second, lame fan
And i believe 3 slots?

 

[d1nky]

Why 2 different fans? Not a fan here.

The first one looks like cool and innovative, the second, lame fan
And i believe 3 slots?

not sure if its 3slots as people moan quite a bit about that, and asus started bringing back 2slots because of this.

The cooler uses a combination of one CoolTech fan, and a conventional top-flow fan towards its rear. This is to ensure the lateral sweep of a CoolTech fan doesn't push hot air back into the case from its rear. The one in the front pushes it out through the rear vent

 

[kinc]

Why 2 different fans? Not a fan here.

The first one looks like cool and innovative, the second, lame fan
And i believe 3 slots?

2 slots.

 

[radrok]

So unless it has unlocked voltage that higher voltage threshold is almost pointless

Well, this card is voltmod worthy since it doesn't suck on the VRM department.

Who wants more voltage is gonna get more voltage

 

[Animalpak]

I feel this will be the best direct Cu2 card ever produced from Asus.

Beefy beast !

 

[haswrong]

questions, questions

2 slots.

http://i.imgur.com/TuWPxo7.jpg?1

-are the memory chips cooled as well? evga uses thermal pads for memory cooling.

-does asus plan a superclockable gigahertz edition of titan with custom pcb?

 

[badtaylorx]

So unless it has unlocked voltage that higher voltage threshold is almost pointless

gpu boost TWO pushes the cards clocks based on a temperature threshold....

so if you design a BALLZ OUT cooler.....it will clock itself higher.....

 

[douglatins]

not sure if its 3slots as people moan quite a bit about that, and asus started bringing back 2slots because of this.

I dont think even 10% of the hot air gets pushed to outside.

 

[Widjaja]

Another ASUS Direct cu II cooler with different fans.

The last one they had which was for the 7870 - 7850 was considered quite loud by reviewers for a a cooler which intentions were to be low noise.
I wonder if this design will follow the rather loud noise side of things or be a winner in the quiet category as Direct cu II coolers are intended to be.

 

[radrok]

-are the memory chips cooled as well? evga uses thermal pads for memory cooling.

Memory doesn't need to be "heatsinked", passive air flow over it is more than enough.

 

[DinaAngel]

i might get this one, i wonder if EK comes out with waterblock for this one

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Little wary of those fans. The old design was pretty great at silence and performance. Hope this isn't a gimmick arrangement. Ideally they tested fans and found one design to be best for over the gpu and another to be best for being over the vrm.... though I have a hard time imagining why that would be.

 

[d1nky]

the vrm heatsink is part of the baseplate and i guess they need more air pushed between heatsink fins to cool vrms.

 

[newtekie1]

Another ASUS Direct cu II cooler with different fans.

The last one they had which was for the 7870 - 7850 was considered quite loud by reviewers for a a cooler which intentions were to be low noise.
I wonder if this design will follow the rather loud noise side of things or be a winner in the quiet category as Direct cu II coolers are intended to be.

I think the 7870 Direct CU II wasn't really an issue with the two different fans, but rather an issue of a weak heatsink(only 3 heatpipes and 1 fin array), and poor fan profiles that ramped the fans up too high too quickly.

 

[Wastedslayer]

Been waiting on this one, based on Wizz's review this might be my jump into the 700 series of cards. my Direct CU GTX 670 TOP, has been a really solid card for me no matter how far I push it.

 

[OneCool]

Damn this 780 is awesome..my poor rig wouldnt even push it tho :shadedshu

 

[W1zzard]

w00t .. card just arrived .. review soon

 

[buggalugs]

About time Asus:......I've been harassing their websites to update the cooler. It looks like a 2 slot cooler to me. It doesn't have the 3 slot back plate of the 7970 and 680

I ditched Asus DirectCU II cards because of cooler problems. Its OK when it works but Asus have fixed a few problems with them over the last couple of generations.

The 6970 version had a very flexible cooler/card. Felt wonky and cooling performance was hit and miss. The 7970 was better, they made the card/cooler more rigid but still had issues with poor contact. It wasn't unusual for the VRM to reach 100 degress.

The old Asus cooler was big but not that efficient when you consider its huge size. The MSI lightning cooler got better numbers with 30% less heatsink.

This looks like a better quality cooler, looking forward to performance numbers.

 

[d1nky]

Ok, so now they have my attention!

apparently best overclocker out of them all and to me the sexiest, i may be having a nvidia card soon!

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/57817-asus-geforce-gtx-780-directcu-ii-oc/?page=11

 

[Frick]

From the site itself:

Your overclocking mileage may vary, of course,

That just means that particular card is good. Yours might not be.