14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS has launched a video card that may very well become the oddball on the graphics industry, due to its power configuration and the cooler that was once used on the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini.
In many ways, the GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU Mini is the successor to the GeForce GTX 670mDirectCU Mini, which came out back in April.
Bearing the part number GTX760-DCMOC-2GD5, the new video controller has a 5-phase VRM (voltage regulation module) that wouldn't normally be found on such a card.
Sure, the GTX 760 isn't a weak board, but it isn't a particularly powerful one either, so you'd expect a 6-pin connector to be used on it.
That's not the case, however. An 8-pin connector is available instead, to supply the energy needed by the 5 phases.
It's a good thing that mainstream and low-end PSUs nowadays always have 6+8-pin PCI Express connectors, instead of just 6-pin ports.
Curiously, the new product from ASUS doesn't stray from the specifications NVIDIA implemented originally.
That means the graphics processing unit works at 980 MHz most of the time, and 1033 MHz when applications prove particularly troublesome.
Likewise, the 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM operate at the clock speed of 6 GHz (6008 MHz).
Thus, in addition to the VRM, the cooler is left to justify the extra cost of $50 (the adapter costs $299 / €223).
Sure enough, it's not your average heat disperser. It uses a vapor-chamber plate that draws heat from the GPU. An aluminum fin array shaped like a bagel takes that heat and gets rid of it thanks to the air sent in by the fan that happens to possess both top- and lateral-flow blades.
All in all, the newcomer looks good, and it's even short. It won't fit into any HTPCs, but it should go just fine with small form factor desktop cases.