The reference PCB is unbelievably short. Leaks were showing it that short, but I couldn't believe it.
Techpowerup has reference, Asus and Palit GTX 670 reviews, including power consumption:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVID ... e_GTX_670/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS ... ect_Cu_II/
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Pali ... et_Stream/
The Asus GTX 670 Direct CU II seems to be quiet, and may not need a cooler swap for less sensitive people.

I like the idle power consumption tests from Techreport, 68 W for a X79 system!
According to Anandtech, the PCB length matches the length of a mini-ITX board, I wonder when we'll see a short version.

The Palit GeForce GTX 670 JetStream and Gainward GTX 670 Phantom non-reference coolers look interesting.

The Palit makes just as much noise as the reference model, Asus seems to be the quieter one.

The Asus has a 6 phase GPU voltage regulation, so it's easier to cool it's VRMs than the reference 4 phase.
There is a problem with the heatsink on the VRMs of the reference GTX 670, it's quite tall.
Usually those heatsinks aren't two slots tall, but this one is. The best image I found:
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_imag ... 70-11b.jpg
IMO it will interfere with several aftermarket coolers. It probably does a good job, but would need to be replaced
with something equally effective when installing an aftermarket cooler that extends over it.

Oh, well I assume they're ALL too loud for SPCR standards. Those non-reference coolers interest me from a modding perspective. It looks much easier to work with those heat sinks than Nvidia's reference HSF.

99% of all stock coolers suck, big time. I just bought Accelero S1 Plus. That is a great and very efficient passive cooler. When needed you can attach a 12cm fan and the cooler will handle any GPU.

I'm not talking about SPCR standards, I'm just pointing out that the links you and the OP gave both shows that Palits version doesn't help in terms of noise.
The Asus model barely ramps up under load even though it runs at the same temp as the former..
Modding or not, I'd go with the Asus model anyway.

Not really comparable when the S1 needs one more slot, no wonder it performs better.

It's still out of my price range. I wish Nvidia would release the 660 variant already and create some competition with the 7850.

According to lab501, the fan on the stock models vibrates because of how it's mounted. Maybe Tzupy can confirm this?

I think I know what that means..

I'm not planning to buy a new GPU anytime soon, but the Direct CU II surely sounds interesting if it is as quiet as Techpowerup claims, on an overclocked version of the card even. And considering they are not slowing down the fan in any way with Afterburner or similar it might possibly get even quieter.

Hopefully some silence experts will test it out. *hint*

Another Asus review: http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-gefo ... -review/10

I bought the Gigabyte GTX 670 OC and I'm quite amazed by its power and quietness. The windforce triple-fan cooler is probably the best non-stock HSF that comes standard on any GTX 670 manufacturer right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zPKcfWgtt4

I have to agree with Spacey, bought the Gigabyte Windforce my self, i have three 120mm Noctua NF-P12 running at 900prm one each for intake and exhaust
and one for the CPU.
When idle the three fans on the Windforce only spin at 700rpm I'm seriously impressed with it, the only caveat is when the fans do spin up they are
audible but then again i cant hear them over the game
I wish i had the money to send Mike one of these as i would love to see a review

It looks like a very impressive card when it is 'only' 170W and a not as long as other high end cards. It's still a bit too high-end for me but I would think that the low power consumption bodes well for the 660 and 650 models. If no manufacturer puts an S1 Plus on it, I'm sure someone else will.

I was waiting for the GTX 670 to come out before buying my new card.

Now the 2 that really look nice are the Asus direct cu one and the Phantom, can't make up my mind yet. The Asus one seems to be really quiet if the reviews are correct.

I also saw that there are 2 versions a TOP one and a normal. I guess the TOP version is only overclock?

I replaced an Asus GTX DirectCU 560ti with this card and I'm really impressed too. I have two 120mm Akasa Apache case fans (~800rpm idle), and I can't hear it over them. The fans on the DirectCU only went down to ~1200rpm in comparison, and could be quite clearly heard.

Warning: the reference GTX 670 is incompatible with Thermalright Shaman, as I just discovered by trying to install it.
Some of the heatpipes of the Shaman are too close to the PCB and hit the capacitors of the VRM area.
So I had to put the stock cooler (EVGA but looks stock) back, and replaced the stock TIM with Thermalright CF3.
This dropped the temps by 4C in idle and 8-12C in load, also upped the turbo a bit, from 1110 to 1137.
The load fan rpm dropped a bit, but idle stayed the same at 30%, causing an annoying humm, although not really loud.
Anyone knows how to lower the stock 30% idle fan speed on the GTX 670?

1. Reduce it in software using Rivatuner or similar assuming that the 670 is already compatible. This is a pretty poor approach as you are depending upon software.

2. Edit the BIOS in NiBiTor to reduce the idle fan speed. The 670 is not yet supported so your mileage may vary on this. Download NiBiTor, use it to extract the BIOS and upload it to mvktech.net to help support imporve, see if you can change something then flash it back on rebooting with nvflash. If it fails, use onboard graphics to boot the system and run nvflash to restore the original BIOS ROM. I've done this loads of times but nothing this new.

I switched from a Sapphire HD6950 with TR Shaman ( stock fan, running at ~730 RPM all the time ) to the new ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II and I must say the ASUS is quite close in noise levels to the Shaman. At idle they sound very similar to me, but at heavy load the ASUS is just a bit louder ( I can faintly hear it in my case when playing games - the case is located at ~20cm from my ear ). At idle the fan sits mostly at 1230 RPM ( with temps sitting at 34C ), while at load I've registered a maximum of ~1700 RPM after many hours of 3DMark 11 looping ( with a maximum temperature of 73C ). Overall it's the best stock cooling I have ever seen ( at least for a high performance card ).

P.S.: I run the 15 mins Furmark 1.10.1 burn-in benchmark and the fan got to 2430 RPM ( 77C peak temp ), which is a lot more than what I got in any games until now.

Where did you find a DirectCU 670? I've been looking all over for one since they reviewed it on TeachPowerup. It looks like a great card.

Im thinking about buying the Asus one aswell, but at my shop they only have the non TOP version. What version do you have? The TOP means just overclocked ?

I have the normal version, not the TOP one. The TOP version is overclocked ( which in term means that its GPU is binned ), but in all other regards it seems identical to the non-TOP version.

The local shop where I get most of my hardware got me one ( I guess it's one of the first to arrive in my country ).

I can only get the TOP version at the moment, I think that one got reviewed by techpowerup. The fan/noise should be the same as the normal one I guess.

All in all seems like the only NVIDIA card worth it with decent noise!

I had an MSI 6870 hawk in an older system that my brother uses now, so aslong as the noise is the same I would be pretty happy!

Mod the bios! Decrease the minimum fan speed and all will be quiet

Heads up! Found a US seller who claims to have the ASUS GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP in stock: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AS-670D2D5

First one I've found anywhere in the US, and I've been looking pretty hard. I've never heard of SuperBiiz, but their website looks solid and they have really high reseller ratings, so I went ahead and ordered. They processed it quickly and status now shows "Released for Distribution" which means the order's been approved and sent to the warehouse for shipment. Now just hoping the warehouse doesn't come back with "Oops, not really here yet after all; so sorry, our bad."

Edit (4 hours later): Good news for me, I've got a tracking number. They really did have it in stock. Bad news for anyone just now reading this, note the "did". Not surprisingly, the first batch has already evaporated. But on the bright side, if one US vendor has finally received a batch to sell out of, that should mean the rest will start showing up with their own batches to sell out of in turn very soon now. Good hunting.

Just got the windforce and I can happily report: Finally highend cards silent enough for SPCR standards. I can not hear it in idle at 25% which is 660 RPM. And I dont mean "cant hear it over my 3000 RPM CPU fans and HDD" (like in other forums), I mean I cant hear the PC at all (no HDD, only 5 and 7v case fans,passive PSU).
But it is true that it spins up when booting the PC, which could be somewhat annoying. I read in another forum that you can flash the gigabyte with the BIOS of the asus and then it does not do that anymore. Im not sure how risky that is. I will do that if it is completely safe, other wise I will endure that 10 second noise 3 times a day.
Under load it is audible, but the temperature stays at 60 degrees, so theres plenty of room to set it to maybe inaudible under load, too. I have not tried yet.
I cant say personally, but judging from most reviews, the asus is just as silent in idle, although it spins at 1150 rpm there.

Looks like major retailers got some stock of the Asus cards today. Newegg.ca and NCIX are both showing availability in Canada, and, I assume, the US.

Oh my poor wallet. This is so tempting.

Why do you reboot 3 times a day? I reboot maybe once a week

The spin up will make sure the fan starts - my fan controller does that

Flashing one BIOS with another is one way. However the same could be managed with editing the existing BIOS with NiBiTor (how many times have I brought this up now?!? I'm not related to them or anything but it works very well). I would rather edit an existing BIOS as then you only change the factors you want, not differneces in memory timings or TV out settings which can get broken.

Well if you have free electricity from a renewable source or really do need your system on all the time, that's fine. Otherwise computers should be switched off when not in use. It saves electricty. Also the long running story that keeping computers on all of the time is more reliable does not hold true for modern desktops. That went away in the 1970s.