ASUS GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini

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MertArm

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In a bid to be the first with a mini-ITX friendly graphics card based on the GeForce GTX 900 series, ASUS is giving final touches to the GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini (model: GTX970-DCMOC-4GD5). At the surface, this card looks identical to the GTX 760 and GTX 670 DirectCU Mini graphics cards from the company, since it uses the same exact cooler.
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Specs (so far):
Core Clock: 1088 MHz
Boost Clock: 1228 MHz
Memory Clock: 7Ghz

Display: Two dual-link DVI, one HDMI 2.0, one DisplayPort 1.2
Power Connector: Single 8-Pin

No word on pricing or availability yet.

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More Info Here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/207609/asus-readies-geforce-gtx-970-directcu-mini.html
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/41546...tiny-geforce-gtx-970-directcu-mini/index.html
http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-...0-DirectCU-Mini-More-Mini-ITX-Gaming-Goodness

We have our second GPU to enter the "Mini GTX 970 Wars". Gigabyte finally has a competitor and both cards have their advantages and drawbacks.
 
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pointfiveo said:
Now I'm really torn between this one and the Gigabyte. Obvious difference is the IO config. Any chance to theorize which may cool better, anyone? This is a vapor chamber? vs. the Gigabytes heatpipes. The backplate is sexy.
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One of the drawbacks (regarding cooling) of the Gigabyte GTX 970 is that it has an open cooling design, so all the air just scatters around the case. It also doesn't have much ventilation in the I/O due to the multiple video ports.

This is where the Asus DCU Mini shines. It has a closed design. The GPU takes in the air through its fans and exhausts it out the back. Asus placed some ventilation holes in the back for the exhaustion. The ventilation in the I/O is still a drawback because Asus gave up on having multiple video ports, which is where Gigabyte shines. As you can see, we've gone full circle.

Both companies are using their own special fan designs for better air intakes.
 
MertArm said:
This is where the Asus DCU Mini shines. It has a closed design. The GPU takes in the air through its fans and exhausts it out the back.
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:confused:

It's not closed. One end is entirely open, and the top and bottom are 50% open. Hardly any of the airflow will be exhausted through the expansion bracket. The only way to do what you are suggesting is to have a centrifugal fan and close the whole shroud so that the air has nowhere else to go.
 
I recall JJ from Asus saying something about a closed design or something in a video regarding the GTX 670 Mini, though it's been years since that launched. I'll try to find it somewhere.
 
MertArm said:
I recall JJ from Asus saying something about a closed design or something in a video regarding the GTX 670 Mini, though it's been years since that launched. I'll try to find it somewhere.
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You posted pictures of it yourself, you can see the openings...
 
Too bad they choose to extend the top of the PCB, this way some cases might become an issue with the power cable sticking out.
 
Second? Do you mean Third? Theres the Galaxy itx 970 card as well.

Also, this card, like the Gigabyte card, are a non standard tall (from pci-e connector edge to sli connector edge) form factor. So might have a problem putting it in tight enclosures. The Galaxy ITX card has the standard height PCB.
 
Thanks for the links, Medeyer. I forgot to put up the ones I found on OC.net.
 
Fourth if you count the Zotac card, but aside from that, I'm not complaining about more high end GPUs for SFF options.
 
Screes and deruber, I don't know how you guys could consider Zotac and Galax's GPUs as "Mini" or "ITX" branded cards. Sure, they're tiny, but they don't have the qualities of an ITX card.

I reposted the Asus GTX 970 Mini topic in the Video Cards forum and someone made some comment about how both Gigabyte's and Asus's cards were bad (based on overclock, cooling, price) when compared to Galax's solution. I replied to him with this:
Even though this GPU would be the best of the three in terms of cooling, performance, and silence, I wouldn't exactly qualify this as an "ITX" GPU. ITX/Mini GPUs aren't really an official form factor for GPUs, but rather a niche for the small form factor PC communities and consumers. Because of this, there is no real way to define a true ITX/Mini GPU. In my opinion, a mini GPU has a length ≤170mm, uses a 6 or 8-pin (or no connector at all, if it's very power efficient), uses a custom PCB, and (this part is mostly arguable) the card uses a special innovative cooling system (ex. MSI's Radax fan), and it would be clearly marketed as an "Mini" or "ITX".

It's a good card, but it's just one of the lower end models of Galax's GTX 970s. It's smaller than their HOF GTX 970, but it's definitely not an ITX/Mini GPU.
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Anyway, Zotac and Galax do have very short cards, but they just don't apply to this niche. This is just my opinion.
 
Some of those parameters are certainly arguable.Why does it have to use a single/no power connector? Why does it have to use a custom pcb? A while ago Zotac released the twincooler 670, which used both dual 6 pins and a reference pcb. And I'd definitely call that a 'Mini' gpu.

Also card length can be a bit longer. Like the Sapphire 285 compact is 171 mm. And I personally have never seen an x16 card shorter than 170 mm.
 
rawrr said:
Some of those parameters are certainly arguable.Why does it have to use a single/no power connector? Why does it have to use a custom pcb? A while ago Zotac released the twincooler 670, which used both dual 6 pins and a reference pcb. And I'd definitely call that a 'Mini' gpu.
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Agree.

According to PCI-sig specifications a single 8-pin has the same electrical rating as 2x6-pin: 150W. For an 8-pin that's spread on 4.1666 amps per 12V wire, while for double 6-pin it's 2.08333 amps per 12V. You could argue that the 6-pins are safer: less resistance (R=V/I), less heat spread over more wires, bigger overhead for overclocking certainly.

Also the Asus PCB being taller is more of a detriment than the Zotac shroud being longer. There are plenty of SFF cases where you will struggle with that extra height. E.g. SG05, SG06, FT03-mini you lose the drive tray; in the NCase the connector will push against the side panel; it wouldn't even fit in slimmer cases. Whereas the extra 1 inch longer shroud doesn't disquality the Galax nor Zotac from any cases that I could name off-hand.

Lastly, I've not yet seen any review comparing the short 970s (or 670s/760s) where Asus/MSI "innovative" cooling system of a single fan is quieter than Zotac's double fan solution, with same temperature target. It's obvious: more blades, more air moved at lower rpms.


What does seem to be true is that the perceived small size of the Asus card makes it attractive to look at. It's a nice idea and will work fine for many users. But I'm afraid those parameters do not translate to any tangible advantage over the other short cards.
 
Yeah, MertArm, those are arbitrary criteria you have there.

I've got three cases on my desk right now: an SG05, Elite 110 and an ISK 300-150. I don't have room for any standard size high-end GPU.

Way I figure, it, an "ITX" or "SFF" video card is designed to be significantly shorter than the "standard size" of a video card of that type. In the case of the galax card, it's pretty clear: 7.6" long (193mm according to their website), vs 10.6" (271mm) on their other 970 card (and 11" / 281mm for the one with the blower-style heatsink). The Zotac is the same way: 8.1" vs 10.5".

In both of those cases it means the difference between a card that can fit in a Silverstone SG05 vs. one that cannot. In fact, both of them will fit in a Cooler Master Elite 110 (max length, 8.25"), which is a notoriously stubby case. In my mind, that clearly qualifies them as "ITX" video cards.

I suppose you could use the standard mini-ITX motherboard dimensions (6.7" x 6.7") as criteria, but there's going to have to be some room around the motherboard to actually be able to install the thing, so 6.7" vs 6.8" wouldn't matter in actual practice. Also, as WiSK pointed out, the taller PCB of the Asus card might be a problem in some ITX cases. So does it still qualify as "mini" if the length fits your definition, but it's too tall for some ITX cases (especially ones that are such a "standard" like the SG05) anyways?
 
Honestly the OP sounds more like an Asus marketing rep trying to spin faults for the product as "features" to make it seem better than the competition when it may or may not, instead of taking an objective approach to the products. Either that or an Asus fanboy.

It's a nice card, don't get me wrong, but its no first, or second for a short GTX970, and it does have its issues. Biggest for me being the non standard PCB that is excessively tall. I'd honestly rather have the standard size GTX 970 PCB without the heatsink/fan overhanging the back end like Galaxy did. Its only slightly longer, and i don't think i've ever seen a case that doesn't have at least an extra inch of space in front of the motherboard for a little extra length. Height on the other hand, some of the upcoming steambox like enclosures are going to be really tight on how tall the card is, especially with the power plugs on the side of the card and no GPU power connectors available that are low profile.
 
I had the Asus GTX670 mini in my SG05. I had a 1TB laptop hard drive on the floor of the case and there was exhaust spit back onto my hard drive and it rose the temperatures about 20degC.

It's a great card, and my 670 mini worked very well and stayed cool, but it does put heat back into the case. I ended up switching it out for a reference cooler 780ti, and all that heat goes out the back.

The card and cooler itself were built solid and were surprisingly heavy.
 
CaribouNuggets said:
I had the Asus GTX670 mini in my SG05. I had a 1TB laptop hard drive on the floor of the case and there was exhaust spit back onto my hard drive and it rose the temperatures about 20degC.

It's a great card, and my 670 mini worked very well and stayed cool, but it does put heat back into the case. I ended up switching it out for a reference cooler 780ti, and all that heat goes out the back.

The card and cooler itself were built solid and were surprisingly heavy.
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Thanks for the input. So the cooler is definitely not a 'closed' design.
 
rawrr said:
Thanks for the input. So the cooler is definitely not a 'closed' design.
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Bummer on that. I thought the Asus had a closed blower that would exhaust. You'd think some of these aftermarket folks would do a blower design. I mean they're marketing to SFF builds right? The smaller you go with SFF, the bigger the benefit to exhausting the heat.
 
Just need to wait for a review for temps. Now the next question is will it be 4gb or 8gb.
 
Runamok81 said:
Bummer on that. I thought the Asus had a closed blower that would exhaust. You'd think some of these aftermarket folks would do a blower design. I mean they're marketing to SFF builds right? The smaller you go with SFF, the bigger the benefit to exhausting the heat.
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The problem is that the designers developing these products don't seem to realise the trends and issues that come with SFF. We see the same thing with the cases with almost no ventilation holes or in the wrong places, we see it with these "ITX" GPU cards that exhaust heat into the case (bad with limited airflow) and we see it with the SFX PSU's with crappy fans.

All it takes is for one large manufacturer to have a few engineers to think like an SFF enthusiast and they'll have the market. Look at the Asus ROG series, they revolutionised overclocking motherboards, a once very taboo topic for an entity that has to issue warranties. Now even Intel has an Unlocked series of CPU's.

But what do we have for SFF right now ? Shorter GPU's that need plenty of airflow, mITX cases that have bad spatial efficiency, flexibility, cooling capacity and compatibility, SFX PSU's that can't work without some form of annoying noise.

Without people that are bringing us the Ncase M1, the DAN A4, the mATX NOVA, we'd still be salivating over Lian-Li's terribly inefficient and inflexible designs and Silverstone's flaky compatibility and cooling capacity. I'm glad I could buy an Ncase M1, it allowed me to directly support two skilled people, which gave me and many others finally a worthwhile option. I'm looking forward to the other cases that are sprouting from this forum, letting the industry know they are lightyears behind a booming market.
 
Runamok81 said:
Bummer on that. I thought the Asus had a closed blower that would exhaust. You'd think some of these aftermarket folks would do a blower design. I mean they're marketing to SFF builds right? The smaller you go with SFF, the bigger the benefit to exhausting the heat.
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The obvious problem with a short blower card is there simply isn't enough room left for the heatsink. To illustrate:



Standard 10.5" blower card on top, hypothetical photoshopped 170mm "ITX" blower card on the bottom. At best, if you arranged things very efficiently, you might have enough heatsink for a ~75W TDP GPU. If only there were some way a blower and a heatsink could occupy the same space...

Enter the Radial Sandia Cooler (RSC). Utilizing an air bearing, it is in effect a spinning heatsink that pushes airflow radially outward just like a blower fan. Coupled with a shroud to direct the exhaust flow, it would allow for very compact blower GPU coolers (or CPU coolers, for that matter). The RSC is still in development, however, and it remains to be seen if it can be mass produced economically enough to be viable for this application. Still, something to keep an eye on.
 
deruberhanyok said:
What about something with a thinner fan, like the closed-ish 560ti heatsinks of yesteryear?

http://www.evga.com/Products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=321997DF-5E3D-4CD5-89F9-21307839592F

I had one of these in my SG05 and it did a pretty good job exhausting heat out the back. There's still a gab on the back edge, but if the card were designed with a shorter PCB, perhaps the fan could be moved back a little and achieve a similar effect?
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Based on the design of the cooler, at most half the exhaust is through the rear:



Here again, if the card were shortened to ITX size, the heatsink would have to be significantly reduced in size.
 
In the SG05, my GTX670 mini got uncomfortably toasty at the PCI slot bracket especially when playing Metro LL.

The card is pretty tall and extends above the PCI bracket, and it has the connector facing upwards in the SG05. So what I had to do was trim some plastic off the connector with some snips and fill it in with silicone RTV.

The GTX970 will probably run cooler than the previous, so I'd be interested to see what temps people are getting.
 
Necere said:
Enter the Radial Sandia Cooler (RSC). Utilizing an air bearing, it is in effect a spinning heatsink that pushes airflow radially outward just like a blower fan. Coupled with a shroud to direct the exhaust flow, it would allow for very compact blower GPU coolers (or CPU coolers, for that matter). The RSC is still in development, however, and it remains to be seen if it can be mass produced economically enough to be viable for this application. Still, something to keep an eye on.
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I hope someone can tell them that SFF people would generally (I'm not saying everyone) not mind paying a reasonable markup if it's quiet and efficient. This would allow even smaller cases without the issue of heat being dumped inside the case. This might also be a good solution for CPU's if the case would allow the airflow to have correct intake and exhaust vents.
 
Necere - yeah, I see that now. Looking at that shot, what I was thinking was basically: have two heatpipes go toward the front of the card, and shift the fan back to increase the amount of heatsink in front. Almost like flip-flopping it, and then trimming some off of the back. Then seal the back of the shroud, so most of the air is forced through the back.

Of course, then the issue of dust build-up on the back comes up. Perhaps placing the fan all the way at the back and angling it slightly could resolve that?

Ah, but then I've just reinvented a blower-style heatsink, and we're back to where we were. :/
 
Necere said:
The obvious problem with a short blower card is there simply isn't enough room left for the heatsink. To illustrate:



Standard 10.5" blower card on top, hypothetical photoshopped 170mm "ITX" blower card on the bottom. At best, if you arranged things very efficiently, you might have enough heatsink for a ~75W TDP GPU. If only there were some way a blower and a heatsink could occupy the same space...

Enter the Radial Sandia Cooler (RSC). Utilizing an air bearing, it is in effect a spinning heatsink that pushes airflow radially outward just like a blower fan. Coupled with a shroud to direct the exhaust flow, it would allow for very compact blower GPU coolers (or CPU coolers, for that matter). The RSC is still in development, however, and it remains to be seen if it can be mass produced economically enough to be viable for this application. Still, something to keep an eye on.
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That concept looks awesome! :D
 
Necere said:
The obvious problem with a short blower card is there simply isn't enough room left for the heatsink. To illustrate:

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How about a 3-slot ITX blower.. aka, mini-Titan Z?


I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that my 970 ITX dumps more heat out of the vented PCI bracket that's covering the bottom slot, than from the front or sides.
 
AFD said:
I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that my 970 ITX dumps more heat out of the vented PCI bracket that's covering the bottom slot, than from the front or sides.
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Guessing you don't have a way to verify this? Maybe a household thermometer could give an indication.
 
WiSK said:
Guessing you don't have a way to verify this? Maybe a household thermometer could give an indication.
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I'm using your favorite unsubstantiated method of testing temperature.. touch! :p

If I run some benchmarks til my GPU gets up to 75C, there's a little warm air coming up between the HDD and PSU and out the top, warmer air coming out the rear of the top above the CPU cooler, about the same from the rear exhaust, and hotter still from the bottom rear PCI bracket. Not at all accurate or scientific.. but good enough for my curiosity. Pretty sure my hand can tell hot air from noticeably less warm air.. maybe not?

I'm sure the hot air is getting mixed up a bit inside.. was just expecting to feel more heat blowing out the front/top from the card, rather than from the back.


I'll have to get a cheap IR temp gun for you someday.. seriously haven't found a standard thermometer just lying around the house :eek:
 
Necere said:
The obvious problem with a short blower card is there simply isn't enough room left for the heatsink. To illustrate:



Standard 10.5" blower card on top, hypothetical photoshopped 170mm "ITX" blower card on the bottom.
Click to expand...

The silver part of the rear (farthest away from the exhaust) is just extra shroud and VRM heatsink for higher end GPUs. The GTX 970 won't need it, especially since the reference PCB doesn't even have the VRMs there.

NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970-PCB.jpg

image source

Heck, while we're at it, I'd like to see a non-reference design which limits clock speeds. Anyone remember the 9600 and 9800 GT Green Edition cards? Those had lower voltages and slightly (losing 50-100MHz?) lower clocks. What else they lost was the need for a bigger cooler as well as the need for a 6-pin PCIe power plug.

What if the same thing was done to the GTX 970? Make a GTX 965, using a single 6-pin PCIe power plug, with a power envelope well under 150W and no overclocking headroom above that. Right now the GTX 970 has a power envelope of 145W at stock speeds, but has the two 6-pin plugs to give it extra juice for overclocks/boost. The VRMs wouldn't need to be as robust, and cooling requirements would be lower. Sure, performance would suffer, but it would still be on the high end of the spectrum.

EDIT: Original image was huge! Found a smaller one.
 
AFD said:
Pretty sure my hand can tell hot air from noticeably less warm air.. maybe not?
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Yes, relative temperatures can be fine with touch. You know my issue is when people say "I need more fans in my PC because this or that component feels hot."

Since I trust your observations AFD, I will eat my words from earlier: "Hardly any of the airflow will be exhausted through the expansion bracket" is wrong. Mea culpa @MertArm.

Still I would like to see a proper temperature v fan speed test between the Asus mini and the Zotac mini in the M1 or similar case.
 
WiSK said:
Since I trust your observations AFD, I will eat my words from earlier: "Hardly any of the airflow will be exhausted through the expansion bracket" is wrong. Mea culpa @MertArm
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Tried it again and got the same results. Just keep in mind that this is with the Gigabyte 970 ITX with front to back fins for the heatsink and an F12 fan directly below.. I'm guessing that's helping push some of the air towards the metal port cover and angling it down towards the empty PCI cover, and the rest is probably shooting out the front and cooling down slightly while my front F12 pushes it out the top-front.

Again, nothing scientific.. was just something interesting I noticed ;)
 
Necere said:
Enter the Radial Sandia Cooler (RSC). Utilizing an air bearing, it is in effect a spinning heatsink that pushes airflow radially outward just like a blower fan. Coupled with a shroud to direct the exhaust flow, it would allow for very compact blower GPU coolers (or CPU coolers, for that matter). The RSC is still in development, however, and it remains to be seen if it can be mass produced economically enough to be viable for this application. Still, something to keep an eye on.
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You may be interested to read this from here.

There's a section on manufacturability in the faq at the end. It's a mechanically simple design and apparently they are using cold forging, which is supposedly low cost. Some more interesting excerpts:

Q: I watched the video of the older version (v4) of the Sandia Cooler at http://youtu.be/JWQZNXEKkaU that Sandia prepared for the 2012 R&D 100 award
competition. Have you now implemented the silent brushless motor to address the noise problem?
A: Yes. In version 5 the brushless motor noise is negligible and the rotor cavity is completely sealed.
Q: When are you going to show data for CPU overclocking performance?
A: Soon. We are putting together a test bed with 3 identical Core i7 processors, one equipped with the stock Intel CPU cooler, one with a Noctua NH-D14 cooler, and one with our
version 5 Sandia Cooler.
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No idea what "soon" means or when this was posted.
 
About that radial fan/heatsink:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/09/coolchip-technologies-is-redesigning-the-humble-computer-fan/

Apparently I’m not the only one to notice that. Onstage, Sanchez noted that CoolChip has partnered with Cooler Master to bring its technology to market as aftermarket add-ons early next year, and Microsoft consulted with the startup to make quieter fans for the Xbox One games console, as well as an upcoming unannounced Xbox (likely an Xbox One Slim).
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Have we woken up in magical SFF candyland ? Quieter and better performing AND SMALLER ? Noh waiii !
 
I'd like to get my hands on ones of those prototypes they have running on that X79 board.

I can see what looks like a spindle, I assume that means it can run in a non-horizontal orientation?
 
Nice to see it's getting closer to market. In the video (now a year old), from the 3D printed prototypes it looks like they've simplified the fin geometry (straight instead of curved), presumably to reduce manufacturing cost. They also show a hybrid model with fixed heatsink fins at the outer edge. I wonder about additional noise from turbulence with that though.

Aibohphobia said:
I can see what looks like a spindle, I assume that means it can run in a non-horizontal orientation?
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It's designed very similarly to a centrifugal fan, with a central hub motor sitting on a spindle. It's just the body and fins that are made of metal instead of plastic, and utilizes an air bearing to facilitate thermal transfer from the base.
 
Oh god, imagine how slim PCs could suddenly be when this comes out. Put it on a thin mITX board with 12V input like the Gigabyte 1150 models, and use a riser to go from PCIex4 to 16, and your machine will be about 41mm thick. :eek: This so has to be an aftermarket product!
 
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