ASUS STRIX GTX 980 OC 4 GB

[sith'ari]

Looks like a fantastic GPU!!
I'm (almost ) starting to regret that few months ago i bought ASUS 780 Poseidon for my brother's PC, instead of waiting a little longer and buy STRIX 980!!

 

[GhostRyder]

The STRIX series has really brought back what I loved about Asus and their innovating on the GPU coolers. The last sets of DC II coolers just did not impress me at all (Matrix is fine but that's a different story) and it seemed like they were just not as good as the others out there. While there are some coolers and cards that seemed to impress me more, Asus brought the STRIX cards out and especially on this 980 it really is just a fantastic cooler and card.

30dba at load is really nice and the 0 fan speed at idle helps out if your into having a machine with as low noise as possible. Bet this card would be awesome in a MITX build of some sort (Or just a SFF build).

Great review @W1zzard

 

[HumanSmoke]

Also no test for the msi 970?

soon

If it's request time, I'm voting for Gigabyte's new compact GTX 970 ( GV-N970IXOC-4GD ) when it arrives

 

[silapakorn]

I remembered TPU gave Asus GTX670 DC2 Top a perfect 10 too. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/33.html

I went out and bought it, and it died in just 3 days. I exchanged it with Galaxy GTX670 GC, which still works fine till today.
Both cards have the same performance, thermal, and fan noise level, but Galaxy is 50 buck cheaper (at that time).

Moral of the story: Perfect 10 score doesn't guarantee quality. And since the two products that receive perfect 10 score are from the same manufacturer, I start to doubt there might be some kind of sponsorship involved here.

 

[damric]

Hey W1zzard, did you play with the voltages at all on this sample? You always point out which cards have voltage control, but you never mention if you juiced it. If this is one of the only Maxwell cards with voltage tuning, it definitely will be popular with oveclockers.

 

[natr0n]

On that Asus payroll...

 

[W1zzard]

I went out and bought it, and it died in just 3 days. I exchanged it with Galaxy GTX670 GC, which still works fine till today.

Either can happen with any card from any mfgr you buy. Of course if you get RMA troubles then I would never buy from them again.

On that Asus payroll...

I wish, maybe I could finally retire

 

[klon]

Hey W1zz,

If you still have the MSI card could you run both at stock 980 frequencies to see power draw. The higher load power on the MSI might be due to their higher over clock.

Regards
Klon

 

[W1zzard]

The higher load power on the MSI might be due to their higher over clock.

asus is overclocked too, but has lower power consumption than ref, so it's not the clock frequency.

 

[Ivša]

I remembered TPU gave Asus GTX670 DC2 Top a perfect 10 too. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/33.html

I went out and bought it, and it died in just 3 days. I exchanged it with Galaxy GTX670 GC, which still works fine till today.
Both cards have the same performance, thermal, and fan noise level, but Galaxy is 50 buck cheaper (at that time).

Moral of the story: Perfect 10 score doesn't guarantee quality. And since the two products that receive perfect 10 score are from the same manufacturer, I start to doubt there might be some kind of sponsorship involved here.

Really, are you really doubting W1zzard's review's, the guy goes trough so much extra loop's to bring the best review experience on the net and you really thinh he would flunk it for an ASUS advertisement, its so funny!?

PS: I wish that he would start to do game review's. because now i need to go trough 3-4 review's to get the correct opinion on the game as every reviewer is so much influanced by other stuff!?

 

[LiveOrDie]

W1zzard could you please add in some 780Ti cards to the reviews, That are pre-overclocked i would like to see what a OC 980 is vs a OC 780Ti.

 

[D1RTYD1Z619]

why no Diablo 4k bench? And do you plan on "upgrading" to redux for last light?

 

[the54thvoid]

W1zzard could you please add in some 780Ti cards to the reviews, That are pre-overclocked i would like to see what a OC 980 is vs a OC 780Ti.

How about this dude? 780ti Classified at 1155 boost clock.

 

[z1tu]

How about this dude? 780ti Classified at 1155 boost clock.

There's a bit of a flaw in this method as you can see there's a difference in fps for the 780 TI reference card on both reviews.

 

[W1zzard]

why no Diablo 4k bench? And do you plan on "upgrading" to redux for last light?

not sure if diablo works at 4k. i'm probably gonna kick it out anyway for next round of rebenches. no plans to ugrade to redux for metro, the visual differences arent that big i hear.

 

[the54thvoid]

There's a bit of a flaw in this method as you can see there's a difference in fps for the 780 TI reference card on both reviews.

Yes, due to drivers. However if you think the fps difference of 1.8% is relevant, you're a muppet. And I mean that politely.

It gives a great idea of comparisons.

 

[erixx]

Great review, great debate also! Of course I checked the "gains" compared to my stock 980 and at 2500x1440 they are 1-2 frames, so I can say that this review makes me feel good

 

[z1tu]

Yes, due to drivers. However if you think the fps difference of 1.8% is relevant, you're a muppet. And I mean that politely.

It gives a great idea of comparisons.

Thanks for calling me a muppet and what I think is relevant is my own opinion, not for you to comment on. The reason I think it's relevant is because there's a fps drop even though the drives have "improved". You would expect the card to perform at least at the same level. Sure 1-2 fps might not be worth mentioning but I like to have even ground when comparing video cards because if I look at the reviews and see only 1-2 fps difference, in reality it might be 3-4 fps. Again, this might not have any relevance to you, but to others it might.

 

[the54thvoid]

Thanks for calling me a muppet and what I think is relevant is my own opinion, not for you to comment on. The reason I think it's relevant is because there's a fps drop even though the drives have "improved". You would expect the card to perform at least at the same level. Sure 1-2 fps might not be worth mentioning but I like to have even ground when comparing video cards because if I look at the reviews and see only 1-2 fps difference, in reality it might be 3-4 fps. Again, this might not have any relevance to you, but to others it might.

I call my wife a muppet lovingly. It refers to silly things. And yes, you can absolutely compare the two, the performance drop is absolutely not significant. In statistical terminology that 1.8% margin is within normal margins of error. You cannot say it's relevant. In the inverse of statistical probability, a result happening <5 in 100 times is insignificant. In this example, a 1.8% fps difference is not relevant.

I appreciate it's your opinion but in numerical terms, it is not significant at all. And to be fair - you commented that my post was flawed due to that 1.8% difference, therefore you made it a comment worthy matter by suggesting I was in error, when I was not, statistically.

 

[z1tu]

I call my wife a muppet lovingly. It refers to silly things. And yes, you can absolutely compare the two, the performance drop is absolutely not significant. In statistical terminology that 1.8% margin is within normal margins of error. You cannot say it's relevant. In the inverse of statistical probability, a result happening <5 in 100 times is insignificant. In this example, a 1.8% fps difference is not relevant.

I appreciate it's your opinion but in numerical terms, it is not significant at all. And to be fair - you commented that my post was flawed due to that 1.8% difference, therefore you made it a comment worthy matter by suggesting I was in error, when I was not, statistically.

Fair enough but I wasn't referring to the comment per se, just the technique, as I have done that same thing before noticing the fps difference.

 

[willj1220]

W1zz thanks for the reviews. Ive been a longtime reader but just made an account.

That being said my question for you is when you remove the heatsink from the board for the picture of the die, what paste do you use to put it back on? Do you do this before or after the tests? Wouldn't this significantly change the temp bench and possibly other benches if your using a different paste than the retail version? Thanks

 

[Rottenapple]

I use Asus r9 280x, and I get artifacts on screen frequently because factory overclocked memory does not have proper cooling. Other than that I'm very satisfied with my card(no coil noise, thanks Asus). Do you guys think this card will have similar problem?

 

[W1zzard]

W1zz thanks for the reviews. Ive been a longtime reader but just made an account.

That being said my question for you is when you remove the heatsink from the board for the picture of the die, what paste do you use to put it back on? Do you do this before or after the tests? Wouldn't this significantly change the temp bench and possibly other benches if your using a different paste than the retail version? Thanks

i take photos last, after all performance testing, so the thermal paste change doesn't matter, it also lets me finish the review, even if i break the card during disassembly/reassembly.

 

[megaemil]

Got mine in the mail today, sadly im still at school, so i have to pick it up when im cut loose

 

[erixx]

^They don't deliver in classrooms? Buaaah