ASUS Readies GeForce GTX 660 Dragon Edition Graphics Card

[btarunr]

ASUS is ready with its third "Dragon Edition" graphics card, after launching ones based on GeForce GTX 660 Ti and Radeon HD 7850. The GTX 660 Dragon Edition (model: GTX660Ti-DP-2GD5) from ASUS is a premium custom-design implementation that's a couple of notches above its DirectCU II TOP (DCU2T). The card features a cooling solution largely identical to DirectCU II, with the exception of those blue stripes, and an aluminum back-plate to cool memory chips on the reverse side of the PCB. It also features ASUS' Direct Power vGPU passive signal-noise dampener that's found on the company's GTX 670 DirectCU Mini.

The GTX 660 Dragon Edition features GPU clock speeds above those of the DirectCU II TOP, with GPU Boost speed of 1150 MHz (compared to the DCU2T's 1135 MHz). Strangely, despite better memory cooling, it features NVIDIA-reference memory clock speeds of 6.00 GHz, even as the DCU2T offers 6.10 GHz. Based on the 28 nm GK106 silicon, the GeForce GTX 660 feature 960 CUDA cores, and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. Based on what we learned about availability of the other Dragon Edition cards, it would be safe to conclude that this card will be sold only in the Greater China region (PRC, ROC, HK, MO).



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[RejZoR]

Wow, a 15MHz boost over DC2. And whooping 50MHz for VRAM. Is this even worth wasting time to type the text for the news? These "boosts" are so tiny that they fall within error margin...

 

[micropage7]

that theme looks like MSI
and sorry asus, that product not like 'dragon'

 

[RCoon]

Wow, a 15MHz boost over DC2. And whooping 50MHz for VRAM. Is this even worth wasting time to type the text for the news? These "boosts" are so tiny that they fall within error margin...

The point is it makes retards who are in for a new card but dont want to OC buy the highest clocked card for their money. 15mhz higher means they'll choose this one.
Or maybe, they want a card to match their colour scheme.

 

[LDNL]

Why didn't they just called Greater China edition instead. That would sell way more.

 

[btarunr]

Why didn't they just called Greater China edition instead. That would sell way more.

They already did that by naming it "Dragon Edition."

 

[m1dg3t]

Why didn't they just called Greater China edition instead. That would sell way more.

They can call it w/e they want, it's still Asus! LoL

 

[Animalpak]

uhmm will be better if they apply this mod to the 670 series.

 

[blibba]

uhmm will be better if they apply this mod to the 670 series.

Please, tell me more about your in-depth knowledge of the Chinese discrete GPU market.

 

[DaMobsta]

Where's the dragon?

 

[btarunr]

Where's the dragon?

On the back-plate.

 

[Animalpak]

Please, tell me more about your in-depth knowledge of the Chinese discrete GPU market.

calm down bro

 

[blibba]

calm down bro

I'm calm, bro. Just also highly prone to sarcasm.

 

[EpicShweetness]

At least the stripes are BLUE and go better with their BLUE motherboards.

 

[Dave65]

I'm happy with my ASUS 660's in sli..
They overclock pretty well..

 

[Animalpak]

I'm happy with my ASUS 660's in sli..
They overclock pretty well..

I had your setup, i mean the 3770k plus Maximus V gene, it becomes so common this setup cant believe !

Is like everybody have iphone now all get the 3770k and the Maximus V gene.

 

[jihadjoe]

that theme looks like MSI
and sorry asus, that product not like 'dragon'

Well MSI's new G-series gaming motherboards look exactly like ASUS's ROG boards. I guess they decided to trade designs.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

difference is MSI's red and black boards are cheaper than the ASUS ROG boards lol.

 

[newtekie1]

I like how the area where the word "Dragon" is on the fan shroud is still clearly imprinted in the shape for "DirectCUII"...

 

[Jorge]

I want that blue stripe cooling system as I'm sure it will improve my graphics performance...or NOT!

 

[alwayssts]

What I don't get is why they don't just call these parts GTX660 '7870 edition'.

Clearly that is the whole point of both products. They are spec'ed exactly the same (equal to stock 7870 is 1143/6000mhz on paper). Give it 100mhz higher ram clock and a slightly lower engine clock, or 1150 engine and a even ram clock...it's still essentially the exact same thing.

 

[CoD511]

Whilst lacking the sense to avoid creating it in the first place, at least it's limited to the Greater China region The so obviously blatant rip-offs from both MSI and ASUS to each other are quite hilarious though it does make me cringe at times.