I picked up an Asus GTX670 DirectCU Top the other day, basically I thought it was the best 670 around for a few reasons, I thought I would share my findings 
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The Card looks pretty good but I can not help thinking these 670's (all) are cheap mid range cards sold at a real premium. They are nothing like the quality of a reference GTX570/580 regarding build/design quality.
I got unlucky with mine and its going back ! (core was stable only if I down clocked 25+ mhz....so much for binning and quality control there then
I don't think I like this "turbo" boost rubbish it seems very inconsistent and like all those sort of things very dependant on driver software, so older games will suffer !
I think the performance of this card is very good in newer games like Crysis 2 and I think 1 of these cards is about enough to enjoy the game @1920x1200 for older games there is no improvement (but we have sufficient performance from last generation cards)
The most impressive aspect was these things use about 50 watts less power that a GTX570 which is good as they really have rung the neck on the GK104 it was running about 1228 mhz on boost.
Disappointing was the running temps...In the real world in a PC Case they get hot you will get them to near 80c if you work them hard, another disappointment was although the heatpipes/cooling fins are longitudinal NO heat seemed to be exhausted from the case
, so as with all non blower cards you are going to cook the inside of the case. Saying that the Cooler capacity will hold the card in the 60c's but starts getting audible 65% fan and up ! (note I have a good Case with 4x 140mm fans)
Bottom line I still think these are the best 570's around but are £100 overpriced and I think I will just get a refund on my faulty card and as I thought previously "sit this generation out "
Advice to people who have to have one would be pick up the cheapest gtx 670 reference style cooler as I have also found Core clocks do a lot less than memory clocks if you need to wind one of these up. for the rest of You keep your 570/580's as they are proven solid/reliable whereas the 670 do seem problematical, which I'm sure will be sorted in time.
.The Card looks pretty good but I can not help thinking these 670's (all) are cheap mid range cards sold at a real premium. They are nothing like the quality of a reference GTX570/580 regarding build/design quality.
I got unlucky with mine and its going back ! (core was stable only if I down clocked 25+ mhz....so much for binning and quality control there then
I don't think I like this "turbo" boost rubbish it seems very inconsistent and like all those sort of things very dependant on driver software, so older games will suffer !
I think the performance of this card is very good in newer games like Crysis 2 and I think 1 of these cards is about enough to enjoy the game @1920x1200 for older games there is no improvement (but we have sufficient performance from last generation cards)
The most impressive aspect was these things use about 50 watts less power that a GTX570 which is good as they really have rung the neck on the GK104 it was running about 1228 mhz on boost.
Disappointing was the running temps...In the real world in a PC Case they get hot you will get them to near 80c if you work them hard, another disappointment was although the heatpipes/cooling fins are longitudinal NO heat seemed to be exhausted from the case
, so as with all non blower cards you are going to cook the inside of the case. Saying that the Cooler capacity will hold the card in the 60c's but starts getting audible 65% fan and up ! (note I have a good Case with 4x 140mm fans)Bottom line I still think these are the best 570's around but are £100 overpriced and I think I will just get a refund on my faulty card and as I thought previously "sit this generation out "
Advice to people who have to have one
would be pick up the cheapest gtx 670 reference style cooler as I have also found Core clocks do a lot less than memory clocks if you need to wind one of these up. for the rest of You keep your 570/580's as they are proven solid/reliable whereas the 670 do seem problematical, which I'm sure will be sorted in time.
We all know why Nvidia has got away with it ! and any business would do the same 
