Price and Availability
UPDATE: The Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II OC 2GD5 is now only $329.99. That’s already a $90 mark down on its price, and it’s becoming a good deal already.
As of to date, the Asus GTX770-DC2OC-2GD5 is priced at $399.99. Price is significantly higher compared to its predecessor, the Asus GTX 760 DC2 OC which is currently at $219.99, since this is already considered as a top tier graphics card. Meanwhile its AMD counterpart, the Asus Radeon R9 280X (ASUS R9280X-DC2T-3GD5) is currently priced at around $350 $304.49. The Asus R9 280X is not only on par or slightly better in terms of performance, but it’s also cheaper. No wonder the R9 280X cards are really popular nowadays.
Review Conclusion
The Asus GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU II OC Edition is no doubt a better card than its predecessors. It’s at the top of the GK104-based graphics card. It’s fast, solid and a stable graphics card. It still has room for overclocking thanks to its DirectCU II cooler and Super Alloy components built into this graphics card. But this card is already getting old and newer competitions are coming out armed with latest technology.
For a typical PC gamer who is not really particular about the frame rates produced as long as he/she can play modern day games smoothly at max settings, one might ask if this will be a good or practical investment or not. Performance wise, there no doubt that the GeForce GTX 770 is the fastest card using the GK104 chip, and Asus’ GTX 770 DirectCU II is even faster compared to the reference card, thanks to its factory overclocked settings.
But when it we put the price as one deciding factor, it becomes less attractive. An Asus GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 can very much handle modern day games at full HD resolution. And anyone who is playing games like DOTA, Diablo III, BF3, BF4 or even Crysis 3, Assassin’s Creed and the likes would be happy with its performance at 1080p resolution. The Asus GTX770-DC2O-2GD5 would only make sense if you are using multiple displays or a gaming monitor with a resolution larger than 1080p. Otherwise, you are better off getting the new R9 280X that has a more attractive price to performance ratio. Or if you can stretch your budget a little more, get the Asus GTX 780 DirectCU II OC Edition instead which is based on a newer and faster GK110 chip.
Pros:
Faster than the GTX 760 and GTX 670
Silent even on load, not to mention extremely silent on idle
Still has room for overclocking despite already overclocked out of the box
Excellent body and design
Backplate support
Great cooling performance
Supports up to 4 display monitors
Hotwire support
Cons:
Its current pricing
One final thing, the Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II OC is not a bad graphics card, in fact its a fantastic card and I would recommend this. Its price was just right until the R9 280X showed up. If Asus could lessen its price by around $50, then that would be great. It would also be great if new games where bundled with this card.
