You’ve seen one STRIX and you’ve seen them all, the new product range from ASUS carries a very distinct design that is instantly recognizable.
As always, ASUS’ STRIX line-up has an owl on the product box.
The card is short, it’s somewhere in between a card designed for ITX casing and one that’s full sized.
Here’s the view from the other side, the I/O ports and the heatpipes being visible from the bottom.
Despite being a short card, ASUS placed a backplate on the Strix GeForce GTX 960 which I think is a great move. The card looks awesome with it.
Here’s the GPU-Z for the ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 960
Test Setup
| Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K |
| RAM | Kingston HyperX 2x 4GB DDR3 2400Mhz Kit |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 3 |
| Cooler | NZXT Kraken X31 |
| Monitor | Dell U2414H |
| Power Supply | FSP AURUM S 600W |
| Casing | NZXT S340 |
| Operating System | Windows 8 Pro 64bit |
Benchmark
Here we go!
Unigine Heaven 4.0
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 960 | 47.8 |
| Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream | 48.8 |
| GALAX GTX 960 EXOC | 46.7 |
| GALAX GTX 960 OC | 46.3 |
| HIS Radeon R9 285 | 50.4 |
| Sapphire Radeon R9 280X | 58.4 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 970 | 77.2 |
Metro Last Light
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 960 | 57.50 |
| Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream | 58.0 |
| GALAX GTX 960 EXOC | 56.0 |
| GALAX GTX 960 OC | 56.5 |
| HIS Radeon R9 285 | 53.0 |
| Sapphire Radeon R9 280X | 55.0 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 970 | 78.5 |
Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – 1920×1080
| ASUS STRIX GTX 960 | 75.77 |
| Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream | 76.42 |
| GALAX GTX 960 EXOC | 74.09 |
| GALAX GTX 960 OC | 73.29 |
| HIS Radeon R9 285 | 85.82 |
| Sapphire Radeon R9 280X | 82.03 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 970 | 114.07 |
Temperature
Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.
Below is the full load details.
| Card | Idle(°C) | Load (°C) |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 960 (auto) | 42 | 64 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 960 (manual – full) | 32 | 59 |
Based on my experience, this is hands down the best cooler for a GTX 960. The design isn’t great, in fact in some ways it actually looks quite ugly but what it does very well is cooling. When in AUTO mode the fan stops spinning completely, this makes the computer very silent and with no airflow means there’s no dust movement too. The fan only spins once the temperature reaches a certain level.
Power Consumption
Here’s what the power draw of the card is like. Power consumption reading was taken from the watt-meter, actual power draw by the entire system from the wall point. Seeing that it’s a 90% power efficient PSU that I’m using on the rig, the actual power draw will be estimated on the right most column.
| Card | GTX 960 Wattage |
GTX 960 Estimated Draw |
| Furmark Burn-in | 228 | 205 |
| Estimated load without GPU | 100 | 90 |
| Estimated Card Power Draw | 111 | |
The Verdict
The ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 960 Graphic Card retails at RM 949, you still get good performance out of the box. It’s slightly (very) behind the PALIT Super JetStream GTX 960 but it retails at the same price and offers a much better performing cooling solution, and it comes with backplate too!
If you have budget to stretch but not having enough to acquire a GTX 970 then the ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 960 Graphic Card is the card that you should consider.
