ASUS kicked off the launch of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 with a DirectCu II TOP model. Pictured below, ASUS' card utilizes its in-house design DirectCu II double-slot cooling solution, mounted on a custom-design PCB. The cooler utilizes two 90 mm PWM-controlled fans to ventilate an aluminum fin stack, to which heat is transported by nickel-plated copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the GPU die. According to ASUS, this solution provides 20% better cooling performance than NVIDIA reference design cooler, and is "vastly quieter". The PCB implements ASUS Digi+ VRM, which coupled with its GPUTweak software, provides voltage fine-tuning capabilities to the end user. The TOP variant features core boost clock speeds as high as 1,137 MHz out of the box (vs. 980 MHz reference), 1,110 MHz core base (vs. 915 MHz reference). ASUS also has a standard model of the GTX 670 DirectCu II, which sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 915 MHz (core, base), 980 (core, boost), and 6.00 GHz memory. The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCu II (standard) is priced at US $399, while the ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCu II TOP goes for $419.
