Introduction
In May of this year ASUS decided to introduce a new product series into its graphics card line up, the STRIX line. STRIX first showed up on two ASUS graphics cards sporting the AMD R9 280 and the Nvidia GTX 780 GPUs. The headline feature was a 0dB fan operation mode below 65 degrees celsius operation. Shortly after those releases ASUS expanded the STRIX moniker to a range of gaming peripherals to try and create a comprehensive brand for gaming needs. In the graphics card space the STRIX series has phased out the primacy of the ASUS DirectCU series of graphics cards. Although, the term phased out should be used loosely since ASUS effectively market the STRIX GTX 900 series graphics cards as STRIX and DirectCU products at the same time. While confusing, the duality of the naming pattern allows clear recognition of what these STRIX GTX 900 series cards offer. They offer DirectCU II cooling solutions but also the STRIX 0dB fan mode.
Today we are reviewing the ASUS STRIX GTX 970 graphics card which is inspired by the DirectCU philosophy as we find a direct copper contact cooling solution with a pair of fans. ASUS have improved the power delivery to a DIGI+ 6 phase super alloy power design and to give end users some further benefits ASUS have pushed the clock speed up by about 65MHz too. The much paraded 0 dB fan mode is also equipped and I would also like to point out that other manufacturers have jumped on the passive fan bandwagon. MSI and EVGA are the most recent vendors to offer some mimicked variant of this.
Packaging and Accessories
The ASUS STRIX GTX 970 comes in a dual branded box as we’ve already mentioned: both DirectCU II and STRIX branding sits side-by-side. The accessory package is basic: a driver DVD and generic speed setup guide. No power or display adapters here.
It may be an effective and quiet cooler but it is one butt ugly appendage.
I love how this is not in stock anywhere
None of the 970 are, I’m looking to buy one at the moment but can only find vendors with out of stock or way too expensive ones.
Same problem here
super quiet and cool at 40% fan speed, noisy since 50% xd , kinda huge card, my previous palit 770 with 3 fans is the same length, very efficient card, goes up to 1316mhz on core boost. one webshop told me it’s hard to get these ones, they ordered 20 asuses 3 months ago, but they have got only 8, 6 of them already sold
i wonder how the evga 780 sc would fair up in that benchmark. The evga has a good 10/12 fps boost over vanilla 780’s. couldn’t be far behind they 970’s. My 780 stays very very cool.
i wonder how the evga 780 sc would fair up in that benchmark. The evga
has a good 10/12 fps boost over vanilla 780’s. couldn’t be far behind
they 970’s. My 780 stays very very cool as.
why isn’t anybody telling us about the backplate problem? why everywhere you look search about gtx 970 thay say it’s the coolest? i bought the other day the gtx 970 strix. why? well my 7870 saphire can’t handle games on ultra, it’s an old card that is going hard at it even now, but most of the AA titles require more powerfull gpus so i decided to upgrade. i had to choose between gygabite g1 gaming, msi and asus strix all 970s. i started searching the web for reviews and benchmarks. everywhere they said, that the strix has the less performance but it runs the coolest. so i sayd to myself, ok i will buy the strix because i don’t give a fuck about oc and 10 more fps. i want a card that runs cool. i bought it (300 pounds including delivery) i got the card the other day, swapped my 7870 with the 970 installed everything, entered gta v cranked up all the settings to ultra played for about 10 15 minutes, everything nice and dandy, i opened my cased to touch the gpu, to see how hot it is. guess what, that piece of shit backplate was 100 degrees celsius hot! it acts like a fucking insulator . in gpu tweek it says my gpu runs at 68 degrees but i can tell you that is bullshit, because i can’t touch my backplate for 1 minute because it burns. my 7870 when i play games it gets to 66 degrees and i can keep my hand on it without feeling like i’m getting burned. i am not a fanboy! i just told you my story ! do whatever the fuck you wanna do ! but keep in mind: buy from a retailer who has a good customer service so if what i said happens to you, you can return the card and get a refund. when you buy it be careful to open the box and not to damage it. buy it->test it-> touch it-> if it feels ok to you keep it if not->return it! again i am not a fanboy, i am trying to help others! i searched the web and everybody speaks about the good things nobody says anything about the shitty things! search on google: asus strix 970 backplate hot and you will see.my advice don’t buy it! get another card g1 gaming 970 or i don;t know