Asus dual rtx 2070 8g mini review in Spanish (full review)

This time we are going to analyze a graphics card a little more special, it is the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini, a beast compacted in a small heatsink that with outstanding performance and typical of the high-end. This GPU is ideal for those who are looking for the best graphics card to mount a MiniPC or reduced ITX format. In fact, the manufacturer lists it as ideal for the Intel NUC 9 and NUC 9 Pro Extreme Kit, impressive MiniPC gaming with i9-9980HK and Xeon processors.

With the versatility of a portable GPU and desktop-level performance, this is the RTX 2070. Asus has put in it a dual-fan ITX heatsink whose efficiency will surprise you. A slightly more discreet factory Overclocking with 1650 MHz, but without giving up the 8 GB GDDR6 at 14, 000 MHz. How far will you be able to go on our test bench? Right now we will see.

But first, we thank Asus for their trust in us by giving us this graphics card to do our in-depth analysis.

Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini technical features

Unboxing

Well, this little beast Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini has reached us in its official sale bundle, which consists of a flexible cardboard box of compact dimensions. In it we see a photo of the graphics card on the front with its badges, and on the back as always information about the personalization carried out by Asus.

Without further ado we open the box and find another one inside. This is made of rigid black cardboard with a case opening. Inside we have the card perfectly accommodated in the polyethylene foam mold that almost all manufacturers use and in turn in an antistatic bag to preserve it.

The bundle in this case contain the following elements:

• Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini Card Support Manual

Nothing else, so drivers and software like Tweak II will have to be downloaded from the manufacturer's page. As always, all ports and connections are well protected with plastic plugs.

Exterior design

If what we intend is to choose a card that combines some desktop specifications but that occupies a minimum space in the box, one of the best options is this Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini. Although it is true that there are usually ITX variants of almost all cards on the market, very few have a high-quality block heatsink with a double fan.

In fact, this card is not for the typical ITX chassis, which almost all already have space for a full-size graphics card, such as the InWin and other models. In this case it is a more specific market such as Mini PC gaming. Normally they are very small and narrow chassis where almost no dedicated GPU fits. Specifically, it is based on the Intel NUC 9 and 9 Pro, two teams with Intel Core i9-9980HK and Xeon E-2286M respectively that could be completed with this RTX 2070.

Whether this is the case or another chassis or PC, we will have to make sure that we have a space inside that is 197 mm long, 121 mm wide and 39 mm thick, or greater. These are the dimensions of the graphics card, which has been occupying 2 full-size expansion slots as usual.

Focusing on the design of the heatsink, in this Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini we have a single block aluminum configuration with a good thickness and completely rigid ABS plastic cover or case. The design of this is quite sober, since it uses the black color entirely for it, although we have a symmetrical "X" grooving that helps it to be a little more striking. It is indicated to be IP5X certified, so the interior should be safe from dust.

Continuing with the upper area, there are two fans that will occupy a large part of this face. Its design coincides with the Axial-tech that Asus uses in ROG Strix cards and others, so they are 82 mm in diameter. Two axial fans with 9 blades and an outer ring that hold them together so that the air flow is more concentrated and acquires more static pressure in the heatsink.

The Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini has not given up on 0 dB technology either, even being a tiny GPU, in light load or idle it will allow you to turn off your fans to increase its life and reduce noise to 0 dB. The system has been optimized in this case to start operating at 55 ^o C and to shut down when it falls below 50 ^o C.

Using Asus Tweak II software or any other compatible software such as EVGA Precision X1, we can customize the operating profile of these fans to our liking, or increase the RPM in external cases. These fans can reach up to 3700 RPM, while in automatic profile they barely reach 1600 RPM and even so the temperature does not exceed 64 ^o C under load.

We even have a small lighting element in the side area and part of the top area with a blue gradient. But it is a fixed LED lighting, and we will not be able to manage it with AURA Sync at any time. Continuing with these sides, we always have only the fan area covered, while the aluminum block is kept exposed to disperse the hot air. The serigraphy of the part visible by the user has no lighting, being simply white paint.

Now we go to see the backplate area of ​​the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini, although in this case it is conspicuous by its absence. And the truth is that we would have liked it to be included, since many generic small chassis have glass and would be an excellent complement to this card. At least this way the heat will have nowhere to stay, but the PCB is completely exposed to dust.

Ports and connections

We already leave the design of the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini and focus on its ports, which in this case will be few but varied. So we have:

• HDMI 2.0bDisplayPort 1.4DVI-D

One of each, for all types of current monitors. Although we honestly would have liked the typical configuration, with only HDMI and DP in a total amount of 4 outputs, after all it is a desktop GPU and its capacity has not changed in this regard. Recall that HDMI supports a maximum of 4K @ 60 FPS, 2K @ 144 FPS, and 1080p @ 240Hz, while DisplayPort supports 4K @ 240 FPS, 2K @ 240 FPS, 1080p @ 240Hz, and up to 8K @ 60 FPS. We go from DVI, so the best option will always be DisplayPort due to its greater bandwidth.

We continue in this section, because along with its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface the manufacturer has chosen only an 8-pin connector for power. This means that through the BIOS the TDP to the GPU will have been lowered a little to adjust its consumption and heat, a double connection not being necessary a priori. Let's note that MiniPCs typically don't have a large PSU and are also not expected to be overclocked.

And finally we have a single 6-pin connector to connect the two fans and the heatsink light. Both fans can be managed separately.

Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini: PCB and internal hardware

We now go to see more of the interior of the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini, not for being small we will not disassemble it. For this we only have to remove the 4 screws from the socket and another two to improve the fastening. The process involves the loss of the card's guarantee.

Dual fan heatsink

First we will see the heatsink, which in this case is a single block made of aluminum with finned in longitudinal rather than transversal configuration. Approximately half of this we have the respective cold plate, presumably built in not too polished aluminum as we see in the image. Its extension is larger due to the fact that it makes contact with two silicone thermal pads that are responsible for cooling 4 of the 8 memory chips.

Three large nickel-plated copper heatpipes protrude from this wide plate , visible from the outside. Each one of them goes back to the heatsink crosswise so that the heat is better distributed over the entire surface. These will be about 6 mm in diameter, obviously hollow inside. The other 4 GDDR6 memory chips will be cooled by another thermal pad directly placed on the finned block. Finally a small metal band with another silicone pad connects with the MOSFETS that make up the VRM.

Architecture and PCB

In this Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini the VRM is made up of 7 main power phases, not that it falls far short of full-size models in capacity. For this, metallic chokes and solid capacitors are used in the throttling and smoothing of the signal. Also, directly into the socket we have more polymer POSCAP capacitors that will help improve power delivery.

The PCB does not keep a lot of secrets, so let's focus on the chipset, which in this case will be a 12nm FinFET TU106 and a non-TU104 as it is not from the Super family. Recall that this silicon has 10.8 billion transistors that make up 36 SM. Inside, we have 2304 CUDA cores, 288 Tensor cores and 36 RT cores. They all use 4 MB of shared L2 cache and 64 KB of L1 cache for each SM.

In the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini we have chosen not to touch the frequency of this chipset too much compared to the reference model, so we have a base frequency of 1410 MHz, boost frequency of 1620 MHz, and it has added an OC mode to 1650 MHz, so it is little thing as we can understand with a more limited heatsink than full models. The TDP remains at 175W as normal.

Where we have no changes is in the memory configuration, using a total of 8 GB GDDR6 that work at a clock frequency of 1750 MHz, which makes an effective frequency of 14, 000 MHz. These 8 32-bit chips that generate a 256-bit bus width and a bandwidth of 488 GB / s. We just have to see how far it can go with our test bench and in overclocking, so without further ado, let's continue with the tests.

Test bench and performance test

Let us now continue to see the performance of this Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini. For this we have used the same tests and games as for the other cards. Our test bench is made up of:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i9-9900K
Base plate:	Asus Maximus XI Formula
Memory:	T-Force Vulkan 3200 MHz
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	ADATA SU750
Graphic card	Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

All the synthetic tests and tests have been carried out with the filters as they come in the configuration of each program. The tests consist of tests that run in the three main resolutions, Full HD, 2K and 4K. We have run all of them on the Windows 10 Pro operating system in its fully updated 1909 version and with the GeForce drivers also in their latest version 441.87.

What are we looking for in these tests?

First, the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS the more fluid the game will go. Benchmark scores will help us compare this GPU to the competition. To slightly differentiate the quality, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS based on the quantity we get in each game and resolution.

FRAMES PER SECOND
Frames Per Second (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 ~ 40 FPS	Playable
40 ~ 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Really good
Greater than 144 Hz	E-sports level

Benchmarks

For benchmark tests we will use the following programs and tests:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normalFire Strike UltraTime SpyPort Royal for RTXVRMARK Orange Room

Game testing

We are now going to evaluate the real performance in games, thus having a more palpable proof of what our Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini will be able to deliver under DirectX 12 and OpenGL in this case.

The tests will be carried out at the three most used resolutions in gaming, we refer to Full HD (1920 x 1080p), QHD or 2K (2560 x 1440p) and UHD or 4K (3840 x 2160p). In this way, we will have a complete range of results to be able to compare them with other GPUs. For each of the games, we have kept the settings in high quality in all three resolutions.

• Final Fantasy XV, standard, TAA, DirectX 11 DOOM, Ultra, TAA, Open GL / Vulkan Deus EX Mankind Divided, Alto, Anisotropico x4, DirectX 12 Far Cry 5, Alto, TAA, DirectX 12 Metro Exodus, Alto, Anisotropico x16, DirectX 12 (without RT) Shadow of the Tomb Rider, Alto, TAA + Anisotropic x4, DirectX 12 Control, Alto, without RTX, rendered at 1920x1080p, DirectX 12 Gears 5, Alto, TAA, DirectX 12

And we've added a new table to test specific performance with Ray Tracing and DLSS with the following games

• Metro Exodus, Alto, Anisotropico x16, DirectX 12 (without RT) Shadow of the Tomb Rider, Alto, TAA + Anisotropico x4, DirectX 12 Control, Alto, without RTX, rendered at 1920x1080p, DirectX 12 Call Of Duty, Alto, Ray Tracing High, Active DLSS, Rendered at native resolution Wolfenstein Youngblood, High, Ray Tracing

Overclocking

As in other cards, we are going to overclock this Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini to see how far we can increase its performance. For this we have used EVGA Precision X1 for its ease of use. In this way we have carried out a new test in 3DMark Fire Strike and new tests of Shadow Of The Tomb Raider in all three resolutions.

Shadow of the Tomb Rider	Stock	@ Overclock
1920 x 1080 (Full HD)	122 FPS	124 FPS
2560 x 1440 (WQHD)	85 FPS	86 FPS
3840 x 2160 (4K)	48 FPS	49 FPS
3DMark Fire Strike	Stock	@ Overclock
Graphics Score	22866	23829
Physics Score	23672	23744
Combined	20215	21052

This time we have been able to increase the GPU's clock frequency by about 130 MHz, although during the test it has not exceeded 1620 MHz at almost any time. Meanwhile, we have raised the frequency of the memories to 1950 MHz to reach 15, 600 MHz effective, which is quite a lot.

Likewise, the voltage has been increased by about 0.781 V, to make it stable, since to the maximum we lost performance and the temperature increased too much. Finally, the fans have also been set to maximum for this test in order to achieve optimal performance.

All this has served to increase the records in Full HD only by 2 FPS, and 1 FPS in 2K and 4K, which is little. So we conclude that its overclocking capacity is just acceptable, although the heatsink has behaved phenomenally.

Temperatures and consumption

Finally, we have proceeded to stress the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini for a few hours while monitoring its temperatures and consumption. For this, we have used as FurMark for stress and HWiNFO to capture results, along with a wattmeter that measures the power of all the complete equipment, except the monitor. The ambient temperature in the room is 21 ° C.

Regarding the temperature, we see that it is a cool card at maximum performance for the heatsink we have. 64 ^o C is very good if we consider that the automatic profile has been maintained, with the fans at around 1600 RPM.

Consumption is similar to other full-size models, with a 192 W consumption difference from idle to stress in its stock frequency. With a processor like the 9900K the consumption with the set under stress rises to 461 W.

Final words and conclusion about Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini

We come to the end of this analysis of a new card. In this case, the novelties come more in their design and size. Since it has opted for a very compact configuration of just 200 mm long and a heatsink with a thickness of 2 slots focused on Mini PCs and mainly small towers. Its aesthetic is sober and quite simple with a black casing and a small space with fixed lighting.

More interesting is its system of two fans inherited from the ROG Strix capable of keeping the card cool under stress, with only 64 ^o C maximum and the fans at 1600 RPM. If we want an extra, we can manage them independently and raise them up to 3700 RPM to achieve extraordinary temperatures considering the size and chip we have.

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Part of the blame for these good records is that the turbo frequency has hardly been increased, which in this case is 1650 MHz with only 30 MHz higher than the reference version. Its 8 GB GDDR6 are maintained to give us very good FPS rates obviously without reaching the level of the larger RTX 2070 Super but if well above the 2070 Max-Q of laptops, and on par with the RTX 2060 Super

As always, we have tested its overclocking, admitting quite an increase but translating into results similar to those of stock. Surely it is due to a somewhat fair power supply with a single connector and the limitations placed by Asus in its BIOS, since the temperatures have been quite good.

We finish with the price of the Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini, which in this case is about 476 euros, below the full-size versions of the main manufacturers, something that is to be expected for having similar hardware and slightly less performance.. It's a consistent price for what it offers, and there aren't too many high-end options with mini design, either, so good work from Asus.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ COMPACT DESIGN	- FEW VIDEO CONNECTIONS
+ VERY EFFECTIVE HEATSINK
+ OWN PERFORMANCE OF A NORMAL RTX 2070
+ POWERFUL FANS
+ SUPPORTS OVERCLOCKING

The Professional Review team awarded him the platinum medal:

Asus Dual RTX 2070 8G Mini

COMPONENT QUALITY - 89%

DISSIPATION - 90%

GAMING EXPERIENCE - 91%

SOUND - 91%

PRICE - 88%

90%