
As with a few other manufacturers today, ASUS have taken the decision to prevent users from removing the heatsink without invalidating the warranty thanks to a small 'screw seal'. For an enthusiast card which offers voltage monitoring via multimeter we find this an odd move to make overclocks taking advantage of this feature will add a waterblock or extreme cooling.

Regardless, we removed the heatsink via four spring loaded screws. The heatsink is stunning, comprising of 3 heatpipes that dissipate heat through the aluminium finned array.

DirectCU translated for those not familiar with the periodic table means the core comes into direct contact with the copper (Cu) heatpipes. The heatpipes are flattened at the baseplate but spring out, furnished with a layer of nickel coating across the heatsink. The contact area was very flat and while the paste was a little dry/chalky in consistency, the mount was very good.

The PCB is matt black, not that this is of any concern as you will be hard pushed to see it with both heatsink and backplate attached. The layout is fairly standard with the core being framed by the memory chips with VRM (separate heatsink attached) being closest to the power points for smooth, noise free power delivery.

The VRM is a ten phase power design comprising of Super Alloy Power components which translated means high quality solid state chokes and capacitors. The ten phase VRM will, ASUS claim, minimise power noise level by 30% and enhance power efficiency by 15%. This in turn should equate to enhanced overclocking stability.

Controlling the VRM is the DIGI+ ASP1212 voltage regulator.

The memory carries the product code of K4G20325FD-FC28 which are specified to run at 1750MHz (7000MHz GDDR5 effective). We know from experience that these little chips can be overclocked quite well!

Finally we reach the core of this VGA card. While the GK104 has been inherited from the 6XX family of GPU's, a few tweaks by NVIDIA ensure that the beating heart of the GTX 770 is stronger than ever.