A More Detailed Look at ASUS's GTX 670 DirectCU II 4GB

ASUS will no doubt launch its share of GeForce GTX 650 Ti video cards, as it is unlikely to stay quiet during the launch day tomorrow. Fortunately, for variety's sake, it has other things to offer as well, like this new GTX 670.

Called 4 GB GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II (GTX670-DC2-4GD5), it has 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM instead of 2, but the other performance numbers are left alone.

That means that the GK104 GPU, with its 1,344 CUDA cores, runs at 915 MHz / 980 MHz GPU Boost, while the memory (operating on a 256-bit interface) is clocked at 6 GHz.

Thus, the (arguable) uniqueness of the adapter stems from the custom-designed PCB with 6+2 phase Digi+ VRM, the SuperAlloy chokes and, of course, the CirectCU II cooler.

All in all, this is a powerful graphics card which has the extra memory chips only for marketing purposes and, perhaps, to help reduce the problematic worldwide DRAM inventories.

Granted, high-end video cards aren't likely to sell in large numbers, so the doubled VRAM won't help that much.

On the other hand, ASUS will draw customers with no more than rudimentary hardware knowledge, through the sheer might of the “more is better” principle.

That said, we wouldn't go as far as to advise against buying this card, but with the 2GB GTX 670 selling for as little as $380 / 380 Euro, we know what we'd choose. The extra memory is nice, but not really needed, even in high-profile games.

Nevertheless, those interested in buying this thing, for its smoother multi-monitor performance if nothing else, will have to search online stores and prepare $450 / 450 Euro, give or take. After that, they'll only need one or more monitors with support for DVI (two ports), HDMI and/or DisplayPort (one of each outputs is present on the ASUS card).