ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

It’s an ASUS, it’s a STRIX, and it’s a GTX 980 Ti – and yet it’s not even the top of what ASUS has to offer, however it’s pretty close to the MATRIX variant.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

As always with ASUS Strix models, they carry the signature look across the board.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

Being a GTX 980 Ti, it is expected to have 2x 8-pin PCI-E power connection, that means it’s capable of drawing over 300W of power.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

The heatpipe does show up on the DirectCU III cooler, just a tiny bit on the top side (pic above) while appearing from fore to aft at the bottom.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

The STRIX GTX 980 Ti comes with a beautiful looking backplate with the signature owl emblem.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

The unit comes with a DVI, a HDMI and 3x DisplayPort output.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

Below is the GPU-Z for the card.

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

You might be asking – what’s so great about the card? I suppose that other than saying “It’s the ASUS build quality”, the image below would be more helpful. *Psst, click to enlarge!*

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card Review

More details at the official product page.

Test Setup

Processor Intel Core i7-5960X
RAM HyperX Savage 2x 8GB DDR4 3000Mhz
Motherboard ASRock X99 OC Formula
Power Supply Cooler Master V850
Operating System Windows 10 64bit

Overclocking

My overclocking attempts weren’t successful with this card, anything beyond 50Mhz on core results in a crash. At 50Mhz increase in core, the performance gain isn’t great so I skipped the benchmark test on the overclocked speed.

Benchmarks

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Heaven 4.0
*NOTE : Details are set to maximum.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti 95 25
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Class 95 25
ASUS GTX 980 Anniversary 71 18

Metro Last Light

Heaven 4.0

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti 132 50
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Class 100 49
ASUS GTX 980 Anniversary 91 37

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – FullHD / 4K

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti 172 63
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Class 158 62
ASUS GTX 980 Anniversary 129 46

Shadow of Mordor

Heaven 4.0
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync off.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti 138 56
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Class 135 55
ASUS GTX 980 Anniversary 101 41

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V
Settings : Every option to the MAX setting available.

Card 1080p (avg) 4K UHD (avg)
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti 65 47
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Class 63 45
ASUS GTX 980 Anniversary 47 33

Temperature

Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.

Card Idle(°C) Load (°C)
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti 33 82
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti (Full RPM) 28 53

The fan hovers at around 52% on AUTO settings where the noise level is silent.

Power Consumption

The stress was done with Furmark Burn-in Test. Power consumption reading was taken from the watt-meter, actual power draw by the entire system from the wall point. I’m using an Cooler Master V850 with around 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 80w.

Card ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti
Furmark Burn-in 413
Estimated Actual System Draw 372
Estimated Card Power Draw 292

The Verdict

The ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti Graphics Card retails at around RM 3,700 – it’s a powerful card out of the box and it comes with the rock solid ASUS DirectCU III cooling system which is one of the best looking coolers around. The card comes pre-overclocked and leaves very little headroom to push further.

goldfries recommended