ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1080 Graphics Card Review

Overclocking and Overclocked Performance

ASUS’ GPU Tweak II software is really useful to cycle between different performance profiles, monitor the boost clock and check the average power utilisation. The basic mode is presented in a wonderful user-interface and a great option for those who feel intimidated by the overclocking process.

The professional mode is more akin to what enthusiasts are used to and contains all the options you need to overclock the GPU. The settings below are the stock values when the OC profile has been enabled.

When performing stock testing, the GPU reached a maximum boost of 2012MHz and the top memory reading was 1251.5MHz while running at a peak 68C.

Initially, I managed to increase the boost clock by 78MHz and this remained stable throughout the Valley benchmark. Unfortunately, it crashed when attempting to start 3DMark and I had to re-assess the manual overclock. Eventually, I settled with a final boost of 1997MHz and memory speed of 10722MHz.  The overclocking headroom on any GTX 1080 is fairly limited even when setting a 120% power target and upping the mV. Rest assured, I tried everything including fairly hefty voltages to push the core further but it just wasn’t possible.

While running the overclocked tests, the boost clock hit a maximum speed of 2100.5MHz and the memory limit was 1338.8MHz. This is a pretty significant enhancement compared to the default setup and only had a minor thermal impact.

3DMark

Once overclocked, the ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1080 easily surpassed the Inno3D version running in its stock configuration.

During 1440p testing, the overclocked GPU scored very highly and it’s incredible the sort of performance you can get from a single card solution.

There’s a great boost from overclocking the graphics card when tackling the Fire Strike Ultra benchmark.