Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC Review

If you are shopping this month for a high performance video card and want to keep the cost to a reasonable £200 inc vat, then today's review product will be particularly interesting. The Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC is currently on offer at OverclockersUK and comprises a custom two fan cooler to reduce noise emissions and to improve cooling performance. When Nvidia released the GTX760 in June it was warmly received by both press and consumers, taking the performance crown from AMD between £200-£230. We already reviewed the highly overclocked KFA2 GTX760 EX OC around launch time and today we study the cost effective Asus offering. Is this the card you want to get around the £200 sweet spot? Specification:- - Core Clock: 1006MHz (GK104) - Core Boost Clock: 1072MHz - Memory: 2048MB GDDR5 - Memory Clock: 6008MHz (Effective) - Memory Interface: 256-Bit - Processing Cores: 1152 - Shader Clock: 2116MHz - Bus Type: PCI-Express GEN 3.0 (Backwards compatible) - Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I, 1x HDMI 1.4a & 1x Displayport - SLI Ready (Up to 3-Way SLI Supported) - HDCP Capable - DirectX 11 Support - OpenGL 4.0 Support - PhysX Enabled - CUDA Enabled - 3D Vision Enabled - NVIDIA Surround Enabled - Lower power consumption (Maximum consumption 170 watts at stock speed) - Warranty: 3 Years The Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC ships in a box featuring claw marks top right. The cooler get focus on the front, alongside some specifications listed along the bottom of the box. The bundle includes a software disc, some converters and literature. We always recommend you grab the latest drivers direct from the Nvidia website. The drivers on the CD may be several revisions out of date. The Direct CU II cooler is predominately black with red highlighting, which follows the Republic Of Gamers scheme. The dual fans are high grade and feature Asus branding in the centre. The PCB is black which matches the cooler and we can see from the rear that the cooler overhangs the PCB by around an inch. The 'Direct Power' plate on the rear of the card is a piece of copper which is connected to GPU voltage. The GPU has to get operating voltage on both planes. The copper acts as a short circuit to avoid shifting voltage around the GPU. This dual slot card demands power from a single 8 pin PCI connector. This is interesting as the KFA2 EX OC model we reviewed in June ships with an extra 6 pin connector. We will find out if this negatively affects overclocking later in the review. The GTX760 is SLi capable in 2 and 3 way configurations. ASUS ship the card with little blue protective covers over all the ports. The card has two dual link DVI connectors, alongside a single HDMI and DisplayPort connector. The cooler is high grade, with four thick nickel plated heatpipes running into two separate racks of aluminium fins on either side of the core. If you are paying attention you will notice that these are direct touch heatpipes which offer arguably better heat transfer. An overview of the Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC. The GK104 core is built on the 28nm manufacturing process. The card has 32 ROPs, 96 TMU’s and 1,152 CUDA cores. The 2GB of GDDR5 memory is connected via a 256 bit memory interface. As we mentioned earlier, the core is overclocked from 980mhz to 1,006mhz which will give it a slight edge over the reference sample. They are slightly disappointing out of the box figures however. I would have hoped for 1,025mhz at least from an 'OC' model. We will try overclocking it higher, later in the review. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. For our review today we are using the latest AMD Catalyst 13.8 beta and Nvidia Forceware 320.49 drivers. We have retested the cards in this review today, to ensure they are still relevant with the latest driver fixes and performance enhancements. If you are interested in buying the Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC then head over to this page on Overclockers UK. We built a very high end liquid cooled Core i7 3960x system and overclocked it to 4.4ghz. We paired it up with 16GB of 2,400mhz memory and an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. Test System Processor: Core i7 3960 X Extreme Edition @ 4.4ghz Graphics Card: ASUS GTX780 Direct CU II OC (Forceware 320.49) Cooler: Antec 920 H20 Memory: 16GB G.Skill 2,400mhz @ 10-11-10-30 Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1250W Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case Boot Drive: Patriot WildFire 120GB Secondary Drive: 1TB Samsung Monitors: Dell U3011 Other video cards: Nvidia GTX Titan Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition Sapphire HD7970 3GB Boost OC MSI GTX770 TF OC MSI GTX670 Power Edition Nvidia GTX760 Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X XFX HD7870 Core KFA2 GTX760 EX VTX3D HD7870 Tahiti LE eVGA GTX660 TI SC Gainward GTX660 Asus GTX660 Direct CU OC Software: Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit Unigine Heaven Benchmark Unigine Valley Benchmark 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 3DMark Fraps Professional Steam Client FurMark Games: Alien V Predator GRID 2 Dirt Showdown Sleeping Dogs May Payne 3 Tomb Raider All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page. Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11. The results are good, averaging over 71 frames per second at these demanding settings. Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user. We used the settings above at 1920×1080. Good results, falling in between the reference GTX760 and the higher clocked KFA2 GTX760 EX. Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. The score is as we would expect ... just above the reference GTX760 solution. 3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page. An excellent score, just shy of 9,000 points, in behind the highly overclocked GTX660 Ti SC card. 3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance. Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good. To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.” A score of 5,822 points is very healthy, scoring just behind the KFA2 GTX760 EX. Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 1920×1080 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. Excellent results, averaging 50 frames per second, remaining smooth and playable at all times. Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights. We are using the highest possible image quality settings at 1080p, including the high resolution texture pack. A tough game to power at 1080p, but the Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC maintains the frame rate at 25fps>, even if it is borderline. After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We used the Ultimate quality setting at 2560×1600 with the settings detailed above. We loved this game and it looks brilliant on the GTX760 at these settings. Perfectly smooth frame rates at all times, excellent. Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable. In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail. New to the series is a “Last Stand” mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession. No problems powering this game at 1080p, maintaining a frame rate well over 30 fps at all times. Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007. We configured the game at the ULTRA preset with a 2560×1600 resolution and 4x MSAA. This engine dramatically favours AMD hardware, but the GTX760 scores well, averaging over 40 frames per second, and holding a +30 rate at all times. Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools. We set the resolution to 2560×1600 and the settings shown in the screenshot above. Again, the frame rates are smooth at all times, holding at 30+fps at all times. Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility. We tested at 2560×1600 with 8x AA and ULTRA settings, shown above. A game which runs well on all the hardware on test today. The ASUS GTX760 Direct CU II OC averages 45 frames per second at these settings. The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic. The Direct CU II cooler is excellent, and the results are almost identical to the same cooler running via the GTX780 Direct CU II OC. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA – Threshold of Pain 140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum This is a very quiet cooler, barely audible over a couple of standard case fans. We have tested many Direct CU II coolers in the past and they always deliver great results. To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results. This is a very efficient solution, demanding around 10 watts when idle, and rising to 155 watts when gaming. We overclocked the card with various software utilities and got the best results with the MSI Afterburner tool, which is based around RivaTuner. Increasing the power limit past a certain point exhibited negative results. The overclocking headroom is quite good, peaking at 1,148mhz on the core before artifacting or hard locks would occur. The memory exhibited around 7 percent headroom. The overclock improves the score noticeably, increasing from 8,858 points to 9,432 points. My opinion of Nvidia's GTX760 hasn't changed since it was launched several months ago, it is one of the best performing, value for money graphics cards available today. The Asus GTX760 Direct CU II OC is sold with a tiny overclock, which is somewhat disappointing. While every card will exhibit different core headroom, our overclock to 1,148mhz would indicate that Asus had more room to play with. A figure around 1,050mhz was easily possible and would have translated into more substantial real world performance gains. A 3 percent overclock to 1,006mhz is hardly worth talking about. Asus have adopted the latest Direct CU II cooler, a metal construction with two fans and heatpipes which make direct contact with the GPU core underneath. In our tests, this cooler delivers class leading results, while emitting only a modicum of noise from the two slow spinning dual fans. Even when we manually set the fans to 100%, the noise levels were bearable. If overclocking is your focus, while maintaining low temperatures, the Direct CU II cooler is a wise choice. In regards to performance, this solution has no problems powering the latest Direct X 11 titles at 1080p, and in some cases (as our testing highlights) even at 2560x1600 with the eye candy set at a high level. This is impressive for a card that costs less than the HD7950. While we are still surprised why ASUS didn't push for a more substantial overclock, however it is the price point that really appeals. OverclockersUK are offering it this week at a little over £200 inc vat. You can grab one here. Pros: small size fans are quite quiet. decent overclocking headroom. solid construction. superb price point around £200 in UK, inc vat. Cons: 'Out of the box' overclocked speed is very disappointing. Kitguru says: If you have £200 to spend on a video card, this should be one of the first choices.