The idea behind the ASUS STRIX range is that it can operate silently up until 65 degrees and then after that the fans will spin up. For that reason ASUS has only equipped it to power efficient GPUs, unsurprisingly that meant the GTX 780 saw a STRIX variant and the best AMD card that saw one was the R9 280 – anything above that is too hot-running for the STRIX cooler to be effective. With the R9 285 being released ASUS now has another STRIX variant up its sleeves thanks to the improved power efficiency of Tonga.
The star of the show is the ASUS STRIX cooling solution which features a hybrid fan mode, like you’ll see on many power supplies. The basic logic is that sub-65 degrees celsius the fans do not spin, after that they kick in with a pretty standard fan profile. The core of the cooling design is a DirectCU II implementation: a dense aluminium heatsink array supplemented by direct contact copper heat pipes and a pair of what appear to be 80mm fans. 
As the box denotes ASUS have factory overclocked the card, although by how much is anyone’s guess. This ASUS STRIX R9 285 graphics card will offer 2GB of GDDR5 although we may see a 4GB variant later down the line. Expect pricing to command a 10% or more premium over the R9 285 MSRP of $249.99. Availability will be from September 2nd – that’s 1 week tomorrow.
Source: VideoCardz
Images courtesy of VideoCardz
