ASUS GTX 770 DirectCU II OC Review

👤by Richard Weatherstone Comments 📅23-08-13
Conclusion

It's been a while since we had the pleasure of reviewing an ASUS GPU here at Vortez so when the GTX770 DirectCU II OC landed on the office desk we were eager to see what ASUS had in store for us. We were not disappointed.

To begin with, the card is great to look at. The aesthetics are sublime throughout thanks to the understated Matt black colouration. With only a hint of red, the card will appeal to all but particularly those who have a ROG motherboard. We were grateful for the backplate which adds massively to the looks of the card once installed and perhaps more importantly, protects the card from damage be it a dropped screw creating a short circuit or static discharge.

Stripping the card back to the PCB we saw that the excellent engineering was not only skin deep. The DirectCU II cooler, while not exactly ground breaking in design, performed extremely well so the design cannot be faulted by us at all. It ran cooler than the TITAN-esque reference design which is no easy task and thus testament to the excellent cooling properties of DirectCU II.

Overclockers will be happy with the features the card provides however we were a little perturbed to see a seal atop of a screw head preventing heatsink removal without invalidating the warranty. That aside, the card did overclock well although the factory overclock was very conservative compared to factory overclocked competitor models which was a shame.



The ASUS GTX770 DirectCU OC is priced competitively at around £340 which is an average price for a GTX770. ASUS usually carry a slight premium and because of the DirectCU II cooler we expected this card to be more expensive so while it isn't an absolute steal, it is not overly expensive either. There are competitor cards however which weigh in at a similar price but carry a faster factory overclock which is perhaps the only chink in the ASUS armour we can find. Were it clocked higher than the competition we could have had a 'Platinum award winner but alas, the ASUS GTX770 DirectCU II OC will have to settle for our esteemed and very respectable Gold award.

To summarise:
If you are looking for a high end GPU that ticks all the right boxes, we highly recommend you take a long hard look at the ASUS GTX770 DirectCU OC because not only is it cool and quiet, it's also scorchingly fast.

Pros
+ Good Overclocking features
+ Great cooling ability
+ Factory overclocked
+ Fantastic looks
+ Competitive price

Cons
- Warranty void if heatsink removed
- Some competitors are faster at reference clockspeeds
- Disproportionately high latency in DiRT Showdown and Skyrim games




Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.


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