ASUS GTX980Ti Strix SLI Review

tinytomlogan

The Guvnor
Staff member
09144052896l.JPG


The latest Strix branded card comes complete with a new Direct CU III cooler. We test it alone and as a pair in SLI.


ASUS GTX980Ti Strix SLI Review
 
Last edited:
nice review Guv, i'm still not a fan (pun intended) of the new cooler, i much preferred the stealth look of the old Strix cards
 
Gigantic PCB, Black and red, rekt GTA V, i'll take 3.

...oh wait, I don't haz moneyz and i'm a massive Keplar whore :mellow:. Well at least we learnt 4k is legit now.

JR
 
Good review.

Personally I'd sand the red off the side strip so the light just comes through as white, Remove and paint the other 2 strips black and remove the top red cross and paint it black, To me that would look like sex ! ^_^
 
Good review Tom. I have a pair of MSI 980 Ti Gaming.Through their gaming app, i can control the led. Shame Asus doesn't do that with GPU Tweak.Also i have a Nvidia SLI bridge. With that i can control the bridge/Cards LED's through Nvidia Geforce Experience LED Visualizer.
 
Last edited:
I've been seeing large temperature discrepancies with the 980ti AIB cards. The reviewers claim the MSI 6G tops out at around 73°C, but those with the card are claiming 80°C or more. And on a more related note, Guru3D's review of Strix 980ti showed 82°C, only a few degrees lower than reference while TTL's showed much, much better temps. Obviously it was a great deal quieter, but still. Also, I recognise that case airflow makes a big difference, but it makes me doubt the testing methods of a lot of reviewers. I prefer TTL's layout of actually using a case. Most are on test benches.
 
I've been seeing large temperature discrepancies with the 980ti AIB cards. The reviewers claim the MSI 6G tops out at around 73°C, but those with the card are claiming 80°C or more. And on a more related note, Guru3D's review of Strix 980ti showed 82°C, only a few degrees lower than reference while TTL's showed much, much better temps. Obviously it was a great deal quieter, but still. Also, I recognise that case airflow makes a big difference, but it makes me doubt the testing methods of a lot of reviewers. I prefer TTL's layout of actually using a case. Most are on test benches.

You also need to consider some may be testing in summer heat, my tests are always done at 20c
 
With modern GPUs I think testing methods need to be looked at again.

There are far too many results on various tech web sites where the cards are CPU bottlenecked @1080p.

I think more testing @2160p with max settings is needed as this will identify the faster cards rather than letting the CPU get in the way.

A good example of this is Valley where it is pointless benching a couple of TXs @1080p as there is no CPU even on LN2 that can keep up. If the resolution is raised to 2160p then you can bench 4 OCed TXs without problems.
 
Yeah, ambient temperatures will definitely play a role, but I haven't noticed it ever making this big of a difference before.

TTL's numbers are actually quite spot on, Not taking sides here but look at Kitgurus, Shows the same, 29idle, 67 load, 73 with furmarks torture test even Xtremesystems tests show a load temp of 71.

If they had 80'C+ then they must have been testing in a room that was stupidly hot with zero ventilation.
 
Last edited:
TTL's numbers are spot on, Not taking sides here but look at Kitgurus, Shows the same, 29idle, 67 load, 73 with furmarks torture test even Xtremesystems shows a load temp of 71.

If they had 80'C+ then they must have been testing in a room that was stupid hot.

Room temp does make quite a difference even if the cards are watercooled. Where I use more than a single card my bedroom is always 24C or higher even in the middle of the night. This in turn results in higher running temps.
 
Room temp does make quite a difference even if the cards are watercooled. Where I use more than a single card my bedroom is always 24C or higher even in the middle of the night. This in turn results in higher running temps.

Indeedy, My place the other day was hovering around 30'c, Made internal temps shoot up ^_^
 
TTL's numbers are actually quite spot on, Not taking sides here but look at Kitgurus, Shows the same, 29idle, 67 load, 73 with furmarks torture test even Xtremesystems tests show a load temp of 71.

If they had 80'C+ then they must have been testing in a room that was stupidly hot with zero ventilation.
Yeah, I think you're right.

But the problem is, too many folks are experiencing high temperatures with their MSI 6G. I'm not saying that's going to be the case with the Strix, but 75-80°C @ 100% fan speed is pretty bad. You may as well just use a reference card at that point as you won't be overclocking very high.

As has been the case for a while now, the G1 Gaming is the coolest air cooler around. It's said to be quite noisy on the 980ti though. I'm hoping to find a balance. Based on the reviews, the MSI was that. But too many consumer reviews have been negative. I'll wait for the Strix to get into people's hands. I'm interested to see how eVGA's ACX cooler keeps up on the Classified.
 
Yeah, I think you're right.

But the problem is, too many folks are experiencing high temperatures with their MSI 6G. I'm not saying that's going to be the case with the Strix, but 75-80°C @ 100% fan speed is pretty bad. You may as well just use a reference card at that point as you won't be overclocking very high.

As has been the case for a while now, the G1 Gaming is the coolest air cooler around. It's said to be quite noisy on the 980ti though. I'm hoping to find a balance. Based on the reviews, the MSI was that. But too many consumer reviews have been negative. I'll wait for the Strix to get into people's hands. I'm interested to see how eVGA's ACX cooler keeps up on the Classified.

It's all about the Lightning. (http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=71229)

JR
 

Please don't think I'm on a witch hunt but unless MSI start true binning again like they did with the 480 Lightning and the blue fanned 580 Lightning there's really no point.

Nearly all of their AMD Lightning cards have been fail, and the 780 wasn't anything special either.

It just works out like £100 extra for a nice looking cooler.
 
Please don't think I'm on a witch hunt but unless MSI start true binning again like they did with the 480 Lightning and the blue fanned 580 Lightning there's really no point.

Nearly all of their AMD Lightning cards have been fail, and the 780 wasn't anything special either.

It just works out like £100 extra for a nice looking cooler.
I agree. I really can't see how we're going to get any better than cards like the G1 Gaming without binning chips.

Obviously I'm still eager to see how cards like the Kingpin, Classy, Lightning, HOF, etc perform, but I think it's going to be down to getting a good chip at this point and water cooling the card. I've never really liked the idea of a G10, but if I buy a Strix or something like that and the temperatures are pants, I might have to go that route.
 
Please don't think I'm on a witch hunt but unless MSI start true binning again like they did with the 480 Lightning and the blue fanned 580 Lightning there's really no point.

Nearly all of their AMD Lightning cards have been fail, and the 780 wasn't anything special either.

It just works out like £100 extra for a nice looking cooler.

The 290X Lightning is one of the best 290X cards money can buy, Every review I've seen has mirrored this.
 
Back
Top