ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC - Watercooling EK-FC GTX780 DCII vs. Aircooling
Category : Aircooling vs. Watercooling
With their GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC, ASUS has an interesting graphics card in its portfolio, which features their capable DirectCU II cooler. In the following article we're going to find out what difference a full-cover water block can make when put on this very card. In this regard we're having a look at the new EK-FC GTX780 DCII waterblock and it will be interesting to see what is going to be possible with this block on a GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC.
As we already mentioned, in this article we're going to have a closer look at the
possible differences between a watercooled and an aircooled ASUS GeForce GTX 780
Ti DirectCU II OC. For this purpose EK Water Blocks shipped us one of their brand new
EK-FC GTX780 DCII fullcover waterblocks. First of all we're going to have a
closer look at both, the water as well as the aircooler and afterwards we will
run both cards through our set of recent games with stock clocks as well as
overclocked to the coolers specific maximum. Apparently we will also show you
some temperatures.
ASUS
GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC -
Watercooling EK-FC GTX780 DCII
EK Water Blocks is the first company to come up with a custom,
full-cover waterblock for ASUS' GTX 780Ti DirectCU II graphics card. The block
establishes direct contact to GPU, memory as well as VRM area. This way you can
be sure there is going to be best possible cooling whereever it's needed. The
cooler EK Water Blocks provided us with has been made from nickel plated
electrolyte copper. Above the GPU there is a thin channel structure to provide
additional surface area, where it actually makes sense to have it. On top of the
cooper block there is a plexi cover and on the
right hand side you can see a brushed stainless steel plate. Looking for threads
we find G1/4'' inch one's where you can attach a vast majority of fittings. The
threads have been cut into black POM acetal, which is a rather hard plastic
material.
Nevertheless it's enough to tighten fittings by hand to achieve sufficient
sealing and you don't have to use a gripper. In fact by using a gripper you can
break the plastic. Manufacturing quality on EK products
is exceptional. These blocks are just perfectly made and the looks are
breathtaking. The big picture above shows the cooler with blue coolant inside.
In case of an ASUS ROG graphics cards you might certainly want to use red die,
but in order to show the effect blue does the job perfectly well too.
For this card EK Water Blocks also provide a back-plate, which is kept
completely in black and suits perfectly to the overall design. If there is a
backplate as well as the full-cover block from EK the card looks simply great in
the end.
ASUS
GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC - Aircooling
DirectCU II
This version of the DirectCU II cooler comes with no less than five
heatpipes, which feature GSG shaping. There is one heatpipe with a massive
diameter of ten millimeter and other than there are two more with eight
millimeter diameter and another two which measure six millimeters. The heatpipes have been nickel plated and are in direct contact with the GPU core. Soldered to the heatpipes you find the fin stack which is being provided with fresh air via two 95mm fans. The fan closer to the I/O shield is a hybrid axial/radial fan ASUS like to call "CoolTech". They claim that this fan is able to provide a higher airflow than standard axial or radial fans at the same noise level. In case of the second fan you find a standard axial fan. Both fans are being manufactured by Everflow and strangely share the same model name, T129215SU.
Overall the cooler is well made and the finish is on a very reasonable level too.
[pagebreak]
Test Setup
Hardware
|
Mainboard |
- ASUS Maximus V Formula (BIOS 1707)
|
| CPUs |
- Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.0 GHz (Turbo On / HT On)
|
|
Memory |
- G.Skill Ares Dual Channel 2x8GB @ CL11-13-13-31-1T-Auto DDR3-2400 MHz
|
|
Graphic Cards (Driver) |
-
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC - Aircooled 1.21 GPU Voltage
-
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC - Watercooled - EK-FC GTX780
DCII
1.21 GPU Voltage
- Radiator: EK CoolStream RAD XTX 360 triple
|
| Drivers |
- NVIDIA ForceWare 331.40 Beta
|
| Games and OS |
- Windows 7 x64 Up to date
on the 25/07/2013
- All
games were up to date on the 25/07/2013
|
|
HDD |
- OCZ Technology Octane 512 GB SSD
|
PSU
|
- Seasonic Patinum SS-1000XP / 1000 Watts
|
[pagebreak]
3DMark - Fire Strike
| Stock Clocks |
Points |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
10'303 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
10'425 |
101.18 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
Points |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
10'714 |
103.89 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
11'074 |
107.38 % |
| |
More is better |
3DMark - Fire Strike Extreme
| Stock Clocks |
Points |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
5'248 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
5'263 |
100.26 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
Points |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
5'478 |
104.38 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
5'689 |
108.40 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Unigine Heaven 4.0 Extreme Preset
| Stock Clocks |
Points |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
2'035 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
2'046 |
100.54 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
Points |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
2'075 |
101.96 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
2'105 |
103.43 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
BattleField 4
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
76.00 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
76.60 |
100.79 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
78.26 |
102.97 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
83.33 |
109.64 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
BattleField 3
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
107.40 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
108.70 |
100.41 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
108.81 |
101.31 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
111.48 |
103.80 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Bioshock Infinite - Benchmark
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
117.30 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
120.45 |
102.69 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850
MHz) |
127.19 |
108.43 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
130.41 |
111.17 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Crysis 3
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
38.80 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
39.10 |
100.77 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
39.70 |
102.32 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
41.20 |
106.19 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Call of Duty Black Ops 2
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
159.40 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
160.21 |
100.51 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
168.92 |
105.97 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
173.08 |
108.58 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Sleeping Dogs - Benchmark
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
78.80 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
79.90 |
101.39 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
82.50 |
104.70 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
84.60 |
107.36 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
134.80 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
136.42 |
101.20 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
135.00 |
100.15 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
141.54 |
105.00 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Metro: Last Light - Benchmark
| Stock Clocks |
fps |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
52.60 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
52.80 |
100.38 % |
| |
More is better |
| Overclocking |
fps |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
55.82 |
106.12 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
57.65 |
109.60 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Power
Consumption
| Stock Clocks - Idle |
Watt |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
59 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
60 |
101.69 % |
| |
Less is better |
| Overclocking - Idle |
Watt |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
77 |
130.50 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
81 |
137.29 % |
| |
Less is better |
| Stock Clocks - Load |
Watt |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
382 |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
383 |
100.26 % |
| |
Less is better |
| Overclocking - Load |
Watt |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
402 |
105.24 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
416 |
108.90 % |
| |
Less is better |
[pagebreak]
Temperatures
Idle
| Stock Clocks |
Idle |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
35 °C |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
25 °C |
| |
| Overclocking |
Idle |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
38 °C |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
28 °C |
| |
Less is better |
Load
| Stock Clocks |
Load |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
69 °C |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
45 °C |
| |
| Overclocking |
Load |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
71 °C |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
53 °C |
| |
Less is better |
Battlefield 3
| Stock Clocks |
Load |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
63 °C |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
40 °C |
| |
| Overclocking |
Load |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
58 °C |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
49 °C |
| |
Less is better |
[pagebreak]
Index
| Stock Clocks |
Index |
|
Aircooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
100.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 954 / Mem 1750
MHz) |
101.02 % |
| |
| Overclocking |
Index |
| Aircooling
ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1100 / Mem 1850 MHz) |
104.00 % |
|
Watercooling ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC (GPU 1200 / Mem 1950
MHz) |
107.60 % |
| |
More is better |
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
Running the card at stock clocks shows, that when we equipped it with the
EK-FC GTX780 DCII watercooler scores were on average 1 percent higher than with the
aircooler. This is actually already a hint, that the card is very close to
overheating even with the powerful DirectCU II aircooler and at stock clocks. The
smallest performance difference we found with Metro Last Light, where
the watercooled card was only 0.38 percent quicker. On the other
hand there is Bioshock: Infinite where we see that the watercooled card is no
less than 2.7 percent quicker.
Once we started overclocking the cards, we noticed that 1100 MHz on the GPU and
1850 MHz on the memory were maximum stable clocks to run the card aircooled with
the DirectCU II aircooler. In order to show there is quite some potential still
slumbering in the GTX 780 Ti cooler, when appropriately cooled, we overclocked the
card a little bit hihger. In this case we ran it at 1200 MHz GPU clocks and 1950 MHz memory clocks.
Let's discuss the results again now. In 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme we see the scores
increase by 4.3 percent in case of aircooling OC and 8.4 percent when it comes
to watercooling OC. This means there is a gap of more than 4 percent inbetween aircooling
and watercooling, which apparently comes from the higher overclocking of the
watercooled version.
Overall the aircooled version is able to gain 4 percent
performance with the overclocking and the watercooled variant got 7.6 percent
faster. One value that was especially interesting at this point was Battlefield
4. In this game the watercooled and overclocked cards gains no less than 9.6
percent, whereas the aircooled and overclocked card "only" gains 3 percent.
On another note we had a closer look at temperatures. There is actually nothing
much to say then the obvious. Even under full load and overclocked the
watercooled card didn't get hotter than 53°C, whereas the aircooled version ran
at 71°C.
Even though the GTX 780Ti doens't product as much heat as the R9 290X we had for
testing it appears, that even the GTX 780Ti combined with the powerful DirectCU II
cooler from ASUS is very close to overheating. If you put a watercooler on
top of this card, then you can basically unleash the full potential of this
chip. This becomes clear as soon as you start overclocking the card.
In our case it was possible to run the card stable even at 1200 MHz GPU clock,
whereas the maximum with the aircooler was at 1150 MHz. Overall we can say if
you go get yourself a high-end GTX 780Ti and you want to get the maximum out of
this card, then we'd recommend you to go for a custom watercooling loop and the
EK-FC GTX780 DCII is certainly doing a great job. Obviously if you do not own
any watercooling gear at all, this is going to cost you quite some money, but at
least you'd have to buy a new radiator and pump only once. If you buy an new
card in a few years you just need to buy a news waterblock. The EK-FC GTX780
DCII we've used for testing in this article is going to set you back
102.96 Euro.
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