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Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC 2 GB Graphics Card Review (Part 2)

4/23/2013 2:08:47 AM

DirectCU II cooler: performance and noise level

Besides the enhanced power system and pre-overclocked GPU, ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC features the special cooler DirectCU II.

DirectCU II cooler

DirectCU II cooler

It consists of heat-sink aluminum and 3 copper 8mm-thick heat pipes covered with nickel.

The radiator’s base stands out with direct-touch tech with 1.5-mm gap between heat pipes.

Despite that, its finish quality isn’t perfect. The central pipe is the only one to be used 100% whereas the other two get most of the heat through the aluminum coat that fills the gaps between the pipes.

The entire system is cooled off with 2 75-mm fans fixed safely in a metal frame.

Firstd FD7010H12S fan blades are compatible with speed for setting PWM platform.  

Bộ cánh quạt FirstDFirstD FD7010H12S fan-blade suite FD7010H12S

FirstD FD7010H12S fan-blade suite

The speed changes automatically in a range from 1000 to 3500 RPM. The highest power consumption of each fan is not higher than 4.2 watts. The fans seem to run on pretty loose axis.

To test the cooler’s efficiency we perform five consecutive tests with Aliens vs. Predator (2010) game with the highest image quality settings in 2560x1440 resolution and 16x anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing in graphics images are 4x. We use MSI Afterburner 2.3.1 and GPU-Z 0.6.7 as controlling tools. This test was performed in a closed system with 24°C room temperature. All thermal tests are carried out before we took the card apart, which means that with its default thermal platform still remain unchanged.

And here are the temperature data of Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC:

Automatic fan mode and Max fan mode

Automatic fan mode and Max fan mode

At regular automatic fan mode, GPU only has max temperature at 62°C, the fans rotating at 1590 RPM only. At the maximum speed of 3540 RPM the GPU temperature is 53°C. Advanced power system-DirectCU II proved its highest efficiency but we wanted more. So, we perform and additional test at 25% fan speed, which was equivalent to 1170 RPM. The DirectCU II, one more time, did a well job, keeping the GPU always cool at 68°C.

When running 25% fan speed

When running 25% fan speed

This performance is impressive but does DirectCU II operate quietly? We measured its noise level by our traditional method.

We measured the level of noise using a noise-level meter CENTER-321 in a closed and quiet room about 20m2 wide meters large. The noise-measuring process was done outside the system case, when the only noise source was the cooling system and its fans. The noise-level meter was fixed up on a tripod at a distance of 15 centimeters from the fan rotor. The mainboard with the graphics card was placed right at the edge of a desk on sheet with polyurethane foam. The lowest noise reading that our noise-level metering device measured is 29.8 dBA and subjectively the noise level in testing condition from this distance is 36 dBA (not low, acceptable). The rotating speed of the graphics cards’ fans was changed with the help of a special controller collative with 0.5 V voltage adjustment increments.

Here’s the graph (the vertical dotted lines represent the top speed of the fans in the automatic regulation mode).

Graphs illustrating noise level

Graphs illustrating noise level

ASUS DirectCU II obviously works quieter than the other two graphics cards with original coolers. The difference is very valuable. Moreover, DirectCU II doesn’t lose the useful readings in the automatic mode. In other words, we can’t hear any sound from a quiet computer. This is in fact one of the quietest graphics cards we’ve ever tested.

Overclocking ability

First, we tried to overclock our ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC at default GPU voltage and found that it have good overclocking ability in terms of GPU frequency and average level in terms of memory frequency. Without ensuring about stability and image quality we tried increasing GPU and memory clock rates by 140 and 780 MHz, respectively.

Check the overclocking ability

Check the overclocking ability

Measured clock rate is 1160/1225/6788 MHz:

Result table of clock rate

Result table of clock rate

It’s a good result, especially as the GPU’s clock rate is increased to 1255 MHz when opening at max with temperature no higher than 62oC.

Illustrating with graph

Illustrating with graph

The top speed of DirectCU II fan is only 30 RPM higher than the default clock rate, at 1620 RPM.

Power-consuming process

We measured the power consumption of our test equipped with different graphics cards using a multifunctional Zalman ZM-MFC3 panel, which can report in detailed how much power a computer (without the monitor) consume. There were two test modes: 2D (editing documents in Microsoft Word or web surfing) and 3D (three times running the Metro 2033: The Last Refuge with standard at 2560x1440 when set at maximum image quality settings, but without antialiasing).

For comparison purposes, we also added the results for ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti DirectCU II TOP 2 GB, Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2 GB and HIS 7850 IceQ Turbo X 2 GB to the distribution table. Let’ see what’s the result:

Power-consuming result

Power-consuming result

Configurations with different graphics cards don’t affect their power consumption much. The system with Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 OC consumes more than the others, up to 408 watts when opening at peak level, which is 30 watts higher than required power level by ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti TOP. The overclocked ASUS GeForce GTX 660 consumes 10 watts more but has the same power consumption as the 660 Ti TOP at the default clock rates. The HIS Radeon HD 7850 IceQ Turbo X system is the most power-saving one.

We can only add 500-watt PSU and it is going to be enough for any of aforementioned configurations. Each of them needs no more than 220 watts in 2D mode.

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