Asus Strix GeForce GTX 970 Review
Today we are taking a closer look at the High-end Graphics card of ASUS the Strix GeForce GTX 970 it’s the non-reference card of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. out of the box the card the card is already factory overclocked which is great technically if you don’t want to tinker too much tweaking about the overclocking potential of the card. but still you can tweak and boost the clock speed using the ASUS GPU Tweak software which has ready presets that are straightforward to use.
The card features a base clock of 1114 MHz with a boost clock of 1253 Mhz. It also features a 0db fan technology and DirectCU II which means if you’re just playing light games, browsing or watching videos the fan is totally not spinning which makes it very silent and even playing hardcore games it’s 30% cooler and has a better performance.
Strix is a derived named from a greek and roman word for owl.
A quick specification of the Asus Strix GeForce GTX 970:
Card ModelASUS Strix GeForce GTX 970Bus StandardPCI Express 3.0OpenGLOpenGL®4.4Video MemoryGDDR5 4GBGPU Boost Clock1253 MHzGPU Base Clock1114 MHzCUDA Core1664Memory Clock7010 MHz ( GDDR5 )Memory Interface256-bitDigital Max Resolution4096x2160DVI Outputx 1 (DVI-I), x1 (DVI-D)HDMI Outputx 1 (HDMI 2.0)Display Portx 1 (Regular DP)Power Consumptionup to 225W1 additional 8 pin PCIe power requiredDimensions11 “ x 5.5 “ x 1.57 “ Inch
[section label=”Features” anchor=”features”]
Features
- 1253 MHz Boost clock for better performance and outstanding gaming experience.
- DirectCU II with 0dB fan technologylets you enjoy light games in complete silence, and hardcore gaming 30% cooler with 3X-quieter performance!
- DIGI+ VRM with 6-phase Super Alloy Powerdelivers precise digital power for superior efficiency, reliability, and performance.
- GPU Tweakhelps you modify clock speeds, voltages, fan performance and more, all via an intuitive interface.
- GPU Tweak Streamingshare on-screen action in real-time — so others can watch live as games are played.
[section label=”Build and Design” anchor=”design”]
Build and Design
Asus Strix GeForce GTX 970 has a full black metal build shroud with a huge heat pipes plus a metal back plate. ASUS is just one of the few brands who implements a back plate in terms of graphics cards and it adds as a heat-dissipation at the back. Having 2 large fans with 0db fan technology is a big plus, but for some they might not want that eye looking sticker in the center of the fan.
The look and feel it similar with the Strix branding sexy,sleek-looking Graphics card. Although you might prepare you Mid Tower case for this since the card is long and heavy with an approximate size of 11 “ x 5.5 “ x 1.57 “ Inch.
Let’s first appreciate how gorgeous this card is, Looking in front it has the Tribal look design, but it doesn’t come with a sticker so sticking with the black metal color design.
and the ASUS logo in the Lower left corner and at the bottom part at the PCI-e lock.
While at the top is the OWL logo and Strix name at the left hand side and seeing the large 10mm heat pipe that surrounds the heat sink.
Also at the top is the SLI bridge connector which has enough room space in case stacking up multiple Strix GTX 970.
while on the right hand side you will see the 8-pin connector which make it more power efficient and less power-hungry.
Now moving into the I/O ports it consist of x1 (DVI-I), x1 (DVI-D), x1 (HDMI 2.0) and a full-sized Display Port. There is also a large ventilation hole to dissipate heat.
ASUS implemented the Back plate with the Strix GeForce GTX 970 and it’s darn good! I’m really annoyed seeing capacitor and other stuffs showing at the back if a graphics card doesn’t have a back plate. so Kudos to ASUS for having a Backplate!
Time to put it to the actual test and as you can see on an average use the card is totally silent like a stealth killer! it only spins once it hit the 50% mark of the fan but it can also be manually tweak via the ASUS GPU Tweak software. (ignore the overlapping power connector too old school PSU 🙂 )
[section label=”Performance Test” anchor=”performance”]
Performance Test
Before we get started here is the rundown of the Test system specification
CPUIntel Core i5 4590 ProcessorMOTHERBOARDASUS Z97-PRO WiFi ACCPU COOLERStock Intel CPU FanMEMORY8GB 1333MhzGRAPHICS CARDASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 970INT. STORAGEWD TBPSUAcbel 560DISPLAY22″ AOC E2250Swdn + Coocaa LED TVOSMicrosoft Windows 8 Enterprise 64bit
All drivers and software are updated to the latest build to ensure accurate results.
[section label=”Benchmarks” anchor=”benchmarks”]
Benchmarks
LuxMark is a OpenCL cross-platform benchmark tool and has become, over past years, one of the most used (if not the most used) OpenCL benchmark. It is intended as a promotional tool for LuxRender and it is now based on LuxCore, the LuxRender v2.x C++ or Python API available under Apache Licence 2.0 and freely usable in open source and commercial applications.
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3D Mark is benchmarking tool by FutureMark. Benchmark everything from gaming PCs and laptops to smartphones and tablets with the Fire Strike, Sky Diver, Cloud Gate and Ice Storm tests.
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CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
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CompuBench is the first professional OpenCL and RenderScript benchmark to test and compare the parallel compute performance of CPUs, GPUs and accelerators of desktop and mobile devices.
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FurMark is a very intensive OpenGL benchmark that uses fur rendering algorithms to measure the performance of the graphics card. Fur rendering is especially adapted to overheat the GPU and that’s why FurMark is also a perfect stability and stress test tool (also called GPU burner) for the graphics card.
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[section label=”Gaming Performance” anchor=”gaming”]
Gaming Performance
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a first-person shooter video game developed by Danger Close Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is a direct sequel to 2010’s series reboot Medal of Honor and the fourteenth installment in the Medal of Honor series.
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Resident Evil Revelations 2 / Biohazard Revelations 2 is an action adventure zombie shooting game developed by capcom and the a sequel of the highly popular Resident evil installments.
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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II — Retribution is the stand-alone second expansion to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, part of the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series of real-time strategy computer games. Set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe, the single player campaign is playable with multiple races.
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[section label=”Productivity Performance Test” anchor=”productivity”]
Productivity Performance Test
Tested it also out on how long it will render different length of videos with multiple layers of video, adjustment layers and simultaneously using Adobe Creative Suite tools. Like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Premiere Pro.
As expected it gave a huge improvement in terms of rendering time and exporting files even using multiple softwares switching back from time to time didn’t gave any huge problem implementing the Mercury Playback for the Premiere Pro need some GPU hack in order for it to activate it and it have great results.
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[section label=”Verdict” anchor=”verdict”]
Verdict
The ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 970 is totally a powerhouse GPU card with its well build body and very power efficient card been running for me 24/7 and when it’s idle totally you will not hear any noise with it.
ASUS is giving a 3 year warranty for the card which is really a big plus since the card is a huge investment for the price of Php 23,630 but you won’t regret having this card. Since I still don’t have a 2k or 4k display monitor I didn’t have the chance to push to its limits since it only have a 3.5Gb usable memory but then if you’re a 1080p user you won’t really need to worry about that since it still sufficient.
Totally finish tons of work upon using this card it speed up my workflow even still having just a 8gb of memory modules. Ultra settings for games is totally badass! and of course maximizing the NVIDIA GPU Experience is totally a great help to automate the highest settings possible with just a click of button.
I’m really interested seeing the performance of this card in an SLI setup.
There you go that is the review of the ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 970 for the design and build I’m giving it a 9.6 / 10 plus the Performance and Recommend badge! which totally deserving for this card.
