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Asus's latest creation is the Geforce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini, featuring a new dual-slot hybrid cooler that fits everything within 6.75" (~17cm), which makes it the ideal high performance graphics solution for space constrained Mini-ITX enclosures.

Asus's latest creation is the Geforce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini, featuring a new dual-slot hybrid cooler that fits everything within 6.75" (~17cm), which makes it the ideal high performance graphics solution for space constrained Mini-ITX enclosures.

For those who are unaware, the reference design launched almost a year ago also used a short length PCB, although it came with a much larger heatsink (10") to accomodate its stock 170w TDP. Even today, vendors including Asus have also been shipping factory overclocked cards with beefed-up VRMs and custom cooling systems. Strangely though, since Nvidia's own RMA/yields-driven "Green Light" program and driver-level locks prevents AIB/AICs from selling (significantly) overclocked models with core voltage adjustment controls, there really isn't the need for fancy big-assed cooling anyway

Other than the new cooling system, Asus made some improvements to the power delivery over the stock design, opting to deploy a single 8-pin PCIe power connector (rather than dual 6-pins) and soldering extra SAP capacitors at the back of the GPU to maximize core frequency headroom. Both SLI connectors are still present, thus allowing for up to four-way multi-GPU operation.

The usual display headers are also present – full-sized HDMI 1.4 and DP 1.2 and dual DVI (dual link) connectors.

Like recent cards from the company, the package bundle is disappointingly bare (only the mandatory documentation/driver CD and a dual 6-pin to 8-pin Y-cable is included). We will check with the local PR representative on whether the card qualifies for Nvidia's recent World of Tanks/Metro:Last Light gaming promos.