ASUS 670 DirectCU II TOP or MSI 670 Power Edition OC
 

hello everyone

I have been looking for a new GTX 670, now my choice is between ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP or MSI GTX 670 Power Edition OC.

my question is, who is better? btw I dont care about backplate (Since many people are worrying about it), because what I want from a graphics card is a overall performance, not style.

By the way, I am truly sorry for my Bad english, not too good in english, because I am an Asian People :(

btw forget about price.

Btw my "new" specs are :

Intel Core i5 3570K
MSI Z77 MPower Mainboard
8 GB of RAM
Corsair HX650 80+Gold PSU
GPU : ?
etc

I want to gaming on 1080p resolution, and overclocking.

Any Help would be much appreciated. :D

Thank you very much.

I vote MSI. But I also own 680 lightnings and i'm a fanboy of MSI. :sad: Yet with the MSI consider that you can get voltage unlocked which you cannot on the asus model. (note that you need to modify a profile within afterburner for this functionality.) Also, note that the asus card will likely throttle more frequently than the MSI card, MSI cards are more "stable" with their boost speeds.

Thanks for the response

yeah in ASUS model, I cant overvoltage the Memory, and PLL but I can still Overvolt the GPU, right?

About Overvoltage, I heard from MSI user in many forums, that the GTX 670 Power Edition Card, can't overvoltage the GPU beyond 1.175volt, (which likely the same as other GTX 670).., is that true? If true, oh man :sad:

To my knowledge you can overvolt the core on the 670PE card, someone correct me if i'm wrong? I've heard from others that you can, but you have to modify afterburner 2.2.4 a bit for that functionality. Or you can just use 2.2.3 as is. Sky did a review on this card and he found great OC functionality as well:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...review-20.html

You can't overvolt the asus model unless you do a hardware modification (with a solder gun). To me with all things equal, the MSI has more features than the asus for a similar price - and it also looks pretty darn cool :biggrin: I like the color scheme of MSI GPUs.

I ended up buying the MSI GTX 670 OC Power Edition having read the review on HardwareCanucks, the actual ability to overvolt was the main reason and oc potential.

I already have a Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2GB that does (+150/+700) 1340 Mhz boost on stock 1.175mV, will keep the MSI card regardless, as I only game at 1920x1200 anyway, so it will be great.

I was tempted with the GTX 680 Lightning, but abit too expensive for me, will get a GTX 780 Lightning if they release one, whenever they come out. :biggrin:

As far as I have come to know, the ASUS card can be slapped with a modified BIOS to allow voltage. You can do the same with 680's. The extent of how well it works varies of course. I have seen 680's with the Lightning BIOS hit 1.3 volts no problem. The 670's work pretty similar from what I've read lately. Though for the best out of box experience I would have to say the MSI PE.

This isn't quite true. All 670 / 680 cards can reach 1.21V out of the box, it is just not advertised. I have actually used quite a few GTX 680 cards that reached 1.21V per DMM out of the box, yet software reports 1175mV.

I reiterate again that you cannot go past 1.21V or 1.175V without a hardware modification, period. It is just not possible on the asus card. You can reach 1.21V and software may or may not report it, but the only way to guarantee a higher voltage is by getting the MSI card.

I have read a thread over at OCN with people making a big deal about how their cards are supposedly "overvolted" when they only reach 1.21V. 1.21V is possible out of the box with no modifications. So what? If you want to guarantee a higher voltage you go buy the MSI card.

The last thing to note is that software doesn't always report proper voltage. In fact, it rarely does. The only way to properly measure voltage on the kepler is with a digital multimeter, period end of story. Case in point, my lightnings report 1175mV in software while (on the LN2 BIOS) they are using 1.26V with no software overvoltage. Bottom line is don't take any software reported voltage seriously, DMM is the only method to get a proper reading with kepler cards, period.

I'll help you out a bit. Per extensive testing yes the cards do 1.21 out of the box from a DMM. But with the BIOS mod they do 1.21 software, 1.265 on the DMM. And pushing 680's farther than 1.21 on software the consistency remains the same for .055 average as the difference between the software and hardware readings. Through a memory editor you can confirm this yourself as I have done it very thoroughly. You can take a ASUS card with the Lightning BIOS that now does 1.212 software and 1.26 hardware to even higher with the memory editor. So yes you are right they do 1.21 out of the box, but it is still 1.175 as the cap displayed in software. There is no play in it from what I have tested on a few cards. When the software says the voltage reading, the hardware reading is .055 above it on average. Can be .045 all the way to .06 but the gap range is constant.

I've read stories from DC2 users attempting to use a lightning BIOS getting nothing but visual artifacts. In any case, point me to proof that you can get 1.26V on a DC2T without hardware mods, who has a picture of a DMM reading? I suspect its stuff like the thread over at OCN, where people are thinking they are getting something useful with their modded BIOS'. Sounds like placebo to me - the people posting in that thread are hilarious. In any case, I'm quite sure you're not correct. I could be wrong and if I am, picture proof of a DC2T with a multimeter would be appreciated.

Like I said it varies. Not all cards work. But the DCII has the ability to do it if the flash worked. I just told you you can confirm that when it says 1.212 in the software for people with successful flashes that you can hook up the meter and confirm that it is not 1.212 on the meter. The voltage does go up. When you flash to the lightning BIOS and you have reached that success then you can use a memory editor and raise it from there. There is a thread on OCN that shows exactly this. The link below is for a successful flash and also the thread for increasing voltages on 670's and 680's. I'm sorry not many people dig out meters and post about it, there are a few that have just not taking time at the fire station to do a thorough search.

The GTX 680/670 Unlocked Voltage Discussion Thread