The space constraint of Small Form Factor casings have always been the sole factor being the inability to pair a high-end graphic card into the system as high-end graphic cards tend to be long, nearly double the length of low / mid range cards.
With the introduction of cards like ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini, SFF casing users now have the opportunity to upgrade their gaming experience.
On the left, is the Sapphire HD 7750 2GB DDR3 and on the right, the Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X 3GB GDDR3.
It’s small, it’s rectangular all the way. Nothing fancy but it looks quite neat too. No fancy copper heatpipes running around. No fancy heatsink chassis.
As you can see, it only requires a single 8-pin PCI-E power connection.
It’s so rectangular, it’s the only graphic card I know that can stand on it’s own, that I can photograph the I/O ports without having to support it.
Here’s the GPU-Z of the card.
Test Setup
| Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K |
| RAM | Avexir Core Series 8GB DDR3-1600 |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z87M OC Formula |
| Cooler | Cooler Master Seidon 120M |
| Monitor | 40″ LCD TV |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W |
| Casing | Cooler Master N200 Casing |
| Operating System | Windows 8 Pro 64bit |
| Driver | nVidia GeForce 331.58 |
Benchmark
Here we go!
Metro 2033
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 670 | 55.0 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 55.5 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 76.5 |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 71.5 |
Unigine Heaven 4.0
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 670 | 48.5 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 45.2 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 59.5 |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 55.4 |
Resident Evil 6
*Full HD at 1920×1080 – pardon me for the wrong screen resolution in the shot above.
| Card | 1080p (score) |
| ASUS GTX 670 | 10031 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 9677 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X (13.11) | 11441 |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 10741 |
Just Cause 2
| Scene | Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Dark Tower | ASUS GTX 670 | 100.84 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 98.32 | |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 121.90 | |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 115.27 | |
| Desert Sunrise | ASUS GTX 670 | 119.75 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 118.76 | |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 153.28 | |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 146.16 | |
| Concrete Jungle | ASUS GTX 670 | 59.56 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 59.62 | |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 87.42 | |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 84.92 |
Sleeping Dogs
| Card | Score |
| ASUS GTX 670 | 56.3 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 55.8 |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 45.5 |
3DMark
Default settings
| Card | Score |
| ASUS GTX 670 | 5116 |
| MSI GTX 760 | 5002 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X (13.11) | 7513 |
| Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 6845 |
Temperature
Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.
| Card | Idle(°C) | Load (°C) |
| ASUS GTX 670 (auto) | 29 | 78 |
| ASUS GTX 670 (manual : 100%) | 29 | 63 |
Overall the noise level was low even on load when in auto mode but the temperature comes close to 80°C. Needless to say, it becomes a wind tunnel when it’s on full load.
The Verdict
The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini retails at RM 1,299. You’re paying not just for the card and Asus quality product but also the small sized nature of it.
I was excited to uncover this web site. I wanted to thank you for your time for
this fantastic read!! I definitely liked every little bit of it and I have you book marked to look at
new information in your site.