ASUS GTX 970 STRIX DirectCU II Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS GTX 970 STRIX DirectCU II Video Card Review - Today we examine ASUS' take on the GeForce GTX 970 video card. We have the ASUS GTX 970 STRIX DirectCU II OC video card today, and will break down its next-gen performance against an AMD Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X. This video card features 0dB fans, and many factors that improve its chance of extreme overclocking.
 
Why do all the good 970's have to be so tall?!? They don't fit in a Corsair Air 240.
 
Nice review. I enjoyed the overclocking results included in there. Seems like a good value card. In the Mantle equipped games the Radeon cards get a huge boost. I suppose that once DX12 comes out it's closer to the Metal approach will tun the tables back in dx 12 enabled games but who knows for sure.

I would be curious to see how a Max overclocked R9 290X would have performed in the same tests but time is always a limiting factor for these reviews.

Thanks again it was fun to read.
 
tikicult said:
Why do all the good 970's have to be so tall?!? They don't fit in a Corsair Air 240.
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Ins't the card, its the cooler. and that card fit in the Air 240.. the card measure 283mm and the Air 240 can fit a 290mm GPU.. you may want to look for the gigabyte or MSI mini versions of the GTX 970..
 
So is this "the one" to get? Going to grab a 970 and was looking at EVGA, Gigabyte, this Asus STRIX and maybe (not likely) the MSI. EVGA is getting beaten up pretty badly about the ACX coolers on their 970's... and the Gigabyte one uses the Windforce cooler which doesn't exhaust hot air, just pushes it around the case.

Looking on Amazon right this second, if I was buying one today it looks like the Gigabit GV-N970WF3OC-4GD is the only one they have in stock right now.
 
These cards run really well at 1600p which is where I am at. I am still trying to figure out if these would give me a better experience than my 2 680s in SLI. For sure it would be quieter and use a lot less power.
 
Sorry if off topic but can the overclocking utility be used with other maker's cards? MSI tool will not go to 120% power and I would like to use that with my Gigabyte GTX 970.
 
Thanks for another great review [H]. I recommended the Strix 970 to a friend that was still running a GTX 570. After about 2 weeks of waiting, it came in last Thursday. He got it installed, re-purposed his 570 for dedicated PhysX, and has been one happy camper.
 
Wish the Asus software wouldn't crash so often. I leave it open on a side monitor when I'm gaming to watch the fan/temps.
 
DejaWiz said:
Thanks for another great review [H]. I recommended the Strix 970 to a friend that was still running a GTX 570. After about 2 weeks of waiting, it came in last Thursday. He got it installed, re-purposed his 570 for dedicated PhysX, and has been one happy camper.
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people still using dedicated PhysX cards?...I'm going to upgrade to a 970 and was thinking about giving my GTX 580 to a friend but I may try it out as a PhysX card
 
Not sure on that one. I tried the Asus software and it maxed out at 110 on it also. The same as the MSI Afterburner did. Maybe something to do with the Asus gpu bios perhaps.

jcollett said:
Sorry if off topic but can the overclocking utility be used with other maker's cards? MSI tool will not go to 120% power and I would like to use that with my Gigabyte GTX 970.
Click to expand...
 
Great review and killer card by ASUS.

I have looked at many 970 reviews of custom cards, but none provide a finite measurement of the additional portion of card, heat pipe(s) and shroud that sticks up rear I/O angle bracket.

Some of us are running smaller cases where height, not length is the determining factor.
 
polonyc2 said:
people still using dedicated PhysX cards?...I'm going to upgrade to a 970 and was thinking about giving my GTX 580 to a friend but I may try it out as a PhysX card
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Won't hurt to give it a whirl and find out how you like it. You can always give the 580 away if the 970 is enough by itself.
 
Yeah mine is a whopping 1 1/8 inch off the pcb board to the top of the heat pipe. I really wished mine would have had the blower shroud on it to remove the air out the case. But it is what it is though.

setscrew said:
Great review and killer card by ASUS.

I have looked at many 970 reviews of custom cards, but none provide a finite measurement of the additional portion of card, heat pipe(s) and shroud that sticks up rear I/O angle bracket.

Some of us are running smaller cases where height, not length is the determining factor.
Click to expand...
 
DejaWiz said:
Won't hurt to give it a whirl and find out how you like it. You can always give the 580 away if the 970 is enough by itself.
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LOL give away a 580? Those are still worth a hundred bucks or so.
 
Burticus said:
So is this "the one" to get? Going to grab a 970 and was looking at EVGA, Gigabyte, this Asus STRIX and maybe (not likely) the MSI. EVGA is getting beaten up pretty badly about the ACX coolers on their 970's... and the Gigabyte one uses the Windforce cooler which doesn't exhaust hot air, just pushes it around the case.

Looking on Amazon right this second, if I was buying one today it looks like the Gigabit GV-N970WF3OC-4GD is the only one they have in stock right now.
Click to expand...

This thread should help
 
My Strix goes for 1522 and 4000mhz, all of that at 109% TDP, while the auto fan profile keeps it at 38% fan speed and lower than 67C (speaking not of the silence in 2D). One of my best video card purchases.

Also out of the box my card was going on 1303 mhz boost. Either Asus OCed cards in Europe bit harder, or some batches go with different clocks than others.
 
polonyc2 said:
people still using dedicated PhysX cards?...I'm going to upgrade to a 970 and was thinking about giving my GTX 580 to a friend but I may try it out as a PhysX card
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yes...? physx in borderlands is great but it really kills performance. i imagine a 580 dedicated to physx would make the ultra preset in tps actually playable.
 
jcollett said:
Sorry if off topic but can the overclocking utility be used with other maker's cards? MSI tool will not go to 120% power and I would like to use that with my Gigabyte GTX 970.
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The actual percentage doesn't matter and isn't meaningful across different models. Basically there is a power table programmed into the bios with a specific limit that you can go to. 110% simply refers to this limit on the MSI Gaming while 120% refers to this limit on the Asus Strix. The actual power limit in terms of watts is actually higher on the MSI Gaming.

Actual power limits -
MSI Gaming 970: 100% - 200w, 110% - 220w
Asus Strix 970: 100% - 164w, 120% - 196w

This combined with the voltage being higher on the MSI Gaming is why it tends to be faster out of the box and overclocks higher (taken to the limit) but also why it uses more power (and therefore less efficient, especially due to voltage scaling) than the Asus Strix.

You also see why they went with a 6+8pin for power on the MSI since the 110% limit would be rather dangerously close to the 225w limit for a 6+6pin setup.
 
Kyle, isn't that a Full Size Display Port on the rear I/O panel on the card, not a Mini-Display Port?


Yes you are correct. Thanks for the extra eyes. - Kyle
 
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Love mine. Runs all games buttery smooth, the card looks fantastic and compliments any built especially with the sexy backplate and runs cool. Hard OCP Gold Award no brainer. Worth every penny.
 
[H] needs to do a 970 ASUS Strix vs Gigabyte G1 Gaming vs MSI Gaming 4G shootout
 
polonyc2 said:
[H] needs to do a 970 ASUS Strix vs Gigabyte G1 Gaming vs MSI Gaming 4G shootout
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not really. they're all pretty much the same other than power limit, which will be irrelevant soon enough. the only real difference is that the gigabyte doesn't have the 0 db shit that the strix and msi have.
 
Very nice. You're going to hit that power limit sooner if you try to up the voltages along with a higher overclock since the card only has the one 8-pin power connector.

Also, I still can't believe how everyone's raving over this Asus card when some of the same folks were recommending never to buy Asus again due to poor customer service and that card that caught on fire last year.
 
Great review. I almost went the 970 route.... but had a chance to grab a used Asus DCII OC 290X for $250 and pounced. IMO, the XFX 290X is usually around $300 after MIR. If buying new, I'd go for the 970 unless you already planned to purchase the AMD bundled games. Then I'd say it gets sticky....
 
jcollett said:
Sorry if off topic but can the overclocking utility be used with other maker's cards? MSI tool will not go to 120% power and I would like to use that with my Gigabyte GTX 970.
Click to expand...

KILLER_K said:
Not sure on that one. I tried the Asus software and it maxed out at 110 on it also. The same as the MSI Afterburner did. Maybe something to do with the Asus gpu bios perhaps.
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It's the BIOS limiting power target. I use MSi Afterburner with mine and can still set the power target to 120%.

MorgothPl said:
My Strix goes for 1522 and 4000mhz, all of that at 109% TDP, while the auto fan profile keeps it at 38% fan speed and lower than 67C (speaking not of the silence in 2D). One of my best video card purchases.

Also out of the box my card was going on 1303 mhz boost. Either Asus OCed cards in Europe bit harder, or some batches go with different clocks than others.
Click to expand...
Mine hit 1312 MHz Boost out-of-the-box and sustained it through the duration of my gameplay sessions. In SLI with the voltage discrepancy they were hitting 1293. With a +161 offset on the core (1414 MHz) I'm hitting 1473 MHz Boost in games with no overvolting and power target at 120%. But memory won't go higher than 3800 MHz.

I'm interested if Brent or Grady could tell us what the ASIC quality was on their test unit, as reported by GPU-Z.
 
Just got my Strix, running Great, fans never come on unless running Heaven 4.0 benchmarks, most gaming (for me) never gets over 46C, idle right now 35C, if you can find one get it!
 
Winner, winner chicken dinner.

I think people in here like to drive on both sides of the road. When it needs to be rma'd then they will go back to the other side of the road and get out the torches and pitch forks then.

Starrbuck said:
Also, I still can't believe how everyone's raving over this Asus card when some of the same folks were recommending never to buy Asus again due to poor customer service and that card that caught on fire last year.
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I'm not running a Asus Strix. That is the reason I said it was the Asus bios to begin with.

Armenius said:
It's the BIOS limiting power target. I use MSi Afterburner with mine and can still set the power target to 120%.
Click to expand...
 
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KILLER_K said:
Winner, winner chicken dinner.

I think people in here like to drive on both sides of the road. When it needs to be rma'd then they will go back to the other side of the road and get out the torches and pitch forks then.
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Thanks! You got that right! You can't have it both ways. I'm definitely saving all the threads so I can point out the hypocrisy later. ;)
 
This thread tells you all you need to know about the default power limits in the Asus, MSI and Gigabyte BIOS. I personally chose the Gigabyte because of the thermals and the highest default power limit.
 
My power supply only has 6 pin connectors. Will using my current 6 to 8 pin adapter adequately supply enough power to the Strix?
Hopefully my older mobo won't have a problem with the Strix. I'll find out Friday.
 
Not sure why everyone is so happy to spend over $350 on their gtx 970 cards when i just bought a brand new MSI 290 from newegg for $210 and will perform around the same.
 
RaDeonXtreme said:
Not sure why everyone is so happy to spend over $350 on their gtx 970 cards when i just bought a brand new MSI 290 from newegg for $210 and will perform around the same.
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When I first read that I ran to find a Joker "not sure if serious meme" because I knew that couldn't be right. Then I went back and re-read the review (only paid attention to the 290x benches the first time) and I'll be damned if you're not right. When looking at the Apples to Apples comparisons, the 290 either tied the 970 or came close enough as makes no difference, for $150 less. Yeah power and heat and all that but $150 saved for close to the same performance is hard to argue against.
 
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