To keep the heatsink and thus the core cool ASUS have used their new and advanced 360-degree CoolTech axial fan. Even in DirectCU Mini form, the proprietary design delivers up to 20% (claimed) cooler temps and three times quieter performance than reference.


Again, we see the dreaeded sticker of doom. Remove or destroy this stick and you will invalidate the warranty of the GPU. ASUS clearly do not want you to remove the cooler as the only way to do so is to break this sticker which covers one of the spring loaded screws holding the GPU to the heatsink.


After removing the heatsink (thereby ending the cards warranty), we see that the DirectCU mini cooler is made up of a vapor chamber which has direct contact to the GPU core. The TIM used was like glue, so much so that it took much more 'persuasion' than usual to break the seal between Core and heatsink. Removing the TIM was also very difficult as it had set like concrete! Thankfully our sample had very good contact with the core so if our example is anything to go by, you should have little need to break the warranty and replace this TIM.


The PCB is the same size as the reference design and a similar layout. Half of the memory is on the core side while the other is exposed on the rear. The VRM is furthest away from the power socket and has also been tweaked slightly.


The voltage regulation module is a 4+1 power phase design and is made up of ASUS' 'Supper Alloy power' modules. These allow for 30% higher voltage threshold. Dedicated SAP CAPs and alloy chokes ensure those crucial overclocks are reached without the resonance/buzzing of traditional power chokes.
The Direct Power design acts as a highway between components and the GPU. Rather than having a single route which causes electron congestion, the Direct Power allows for alternate routes for a cleaner power delivery which lowers impedance (-56%) and thus PCB temperature (-7.4c).


The memory modules are HYNIX and carry the product code of H5GQ2H24AFR R0C which means while they are the same ones used on the reference design, they overclock exceedingly well.


The final piece in the jigsaw is the beating heart of the GTX760, the 6 x SMX GK104 core.