The strongest non-official version of the graphics card? How powerful is the GTX 980Ti with ASUS STRIX?

Which is the most powerful graphics card now?

Many people probably think of NVIDIA's TITAN nuclear bomb and AMD's FURY X, the goddess of revenge that uses black technology video memory. However, as Huang's "work of faith", NVIDIA TITAN X's attitude of only allowing public version design is destined to make it difficult for the super native core to make rapid progress in frequency, and AMD R9 FURY X's direct "hanging" water cooling is a bit too high-profile.

By this calculation, NV's "second-in-command" GTX 980Ti has become a tough guy. This time we will use ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti, a super public version graphics card that is more extreme in all aspects, to see how powerful GTX 980Ti is?

The "Bird of Prey" is full of murderous intent

In addition to being more radical in manufacturing technology and performance tuning, the most notable feature of non-public version graphics cards is their highly recognizable appearance, which is also vividly demonstrated on the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti.

STRIX does not belong to the ROC Republic of Gamers series that is at the "faith level" for players, but its feverish style will also make players unforgettable about this "bird of prey".

Similar to the STRIX R9 390X reviewed previously, ASUS has adopted an almost identical appearance for this NVIDIA flagship. The visually striking three-fan design makes the entire graphics card more than 30 centimeters long, which is almost the same as two 5.5-inch Apple iPhones.

ASUS's exclusive DirectCU III heat pipe direct contact three-fan technology and patented blade shape make the external structure of STRIX GTX980Ti complex, which can theoretically provide the maximum airflow to achieve a 30% increase in cooling performance and three times the quietness.

In terms of interfaces, ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti uses an 8pin+8pin power interface and provides HDMI interface/DVI interface/3 DisplayPort interfaces, preparing for multi-screen display of professional players.

On the back of the graphics card, in addition to the various LOGO logos that highlight its identity, the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti's unique GPU base can reduce the pressure around the GPU and prevent bending and damage.

Of course, the most important thing is the luminous breathing light for showing off.

Performance speaks for itself with data

In order not to "unfair" our first GTX 980Ti graphics card, the test platform uses the Z97 motherboard from ASUS with 16GB 2133 memory. Although the CPU is the previous generation of Haswell architecture, the top model i7-4790K will definitely not become a performance bottleneck. The 64-bit Windows 7 operating system also meets the current gaming environment of most players.

In the benchmark test, ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti running 3D MARK11 and the actual result of X8610 are far ahead of the rest. It is more powerful than most GTX 980Ti graphics cards with scores just over X8000, and has a clear advantage over the previously tested AMD flagship R9 390X with scores between X5000 and X6000.

Whether a graphics card is good or not is still measured by the frame rate. To see the frame rate, you have to play the game.

First of all, it is worth mentioning that ASUS's new generation GPU Tweak II intelligent graphics card software is quite easy to use. In addition to the traditional functions of GPU-Z, the integration of overclocking and operating status monitoring also provides great convenience for our subsequent testing of games at different graphics card frequencies.

On ASUS's official website, the recently popular "The Witcher 3" and "GTA V" have become the objects of "extreme performance" experience. Under high image quality, the frame rate is improved by about 20% compared with the public version of GTX 980Ti graphics card. Is this really the case?

In fact, the graphics card's default core frequency of 1317Mhz and memory frequency of 7200Mhz are already higher than the public version of GTX980Ti. Under the 1080P resolution and full high special effects settings of "The Witcher 3" and "GTA V", both games can break the average frame rate of 60fps, which is absolutely smooth and stress-free.

After overclocking the core frequency and memory frequency to 1350Mhz and 8000Mhz using Tweak software, "GTA V" can already break through the 80fps average line very steadily. Overclocking improves game performance by 27%, and "The Witcher 3" also has an improvement of about 10%. Although it may be limited by the test environment, the final result is still a certain distance away from the official data given by ASUS, but the performance increase brought by overclocking is already considerable.

It has to be said that 4K resolution has gradually become the ultimate pursuit of some high-end players, especially games like "GTA V" with extremely rich visual elements. In the test of "Can it hold 4K games?", the performance of ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti is still remarkable.

At the default frequency, the minimum frame rate of "GTA V" is 47fps, and the average frame rate is close to the 60fps threshold. The performance is stable during the game. After overclocking, it basically remains above 70fps. Therefore, after changing to the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti graphics card, it is time to prepare a 4K monitor or TV for yourself.

Calm down! Calm down!

With its cool appearance and top performance, there must be many PC players eager to try ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti. Well, let's calm down first.

First of all, the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti graphics card is quite cool.

Unlike our traditional impression of flagship high-end graphics cards that are "violent" and "passionate", the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti is quite "gentle". We know that some multi-fan graphics cards can only turn on one fan under special settings, but the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti can completely turn off all cooling fans when the graphics card core is below 65℃, which means that when you are watching high-definition videos or playing small games, all three fans of the graphics card are stopped. The GTX980Ti is so "quiet" that it does not need fans. Can you imagine?

In addition to being "quiet", ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti is also very "cold". Under normal operating conditions, the surface of the graphics card casing is close to human body temperature. After baking for ten minutes, the fan surface is only around 50℃. Although it is inevitable that the GPU core position will exceed 90℃, the overall temperature control performance is still quite good. The rolling heat waves around the graphics card that were previously felt are no longer obvious.

Next, when it comes to the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti graphics card, you also need to stay calm, because this graphics card is priced similarly to the latest Apple iPhone, so it is best to check your wallet before buying it.

In addition to the price of the graphics card itself, not counting the monitor and some external devices, taking the test product this time as an example, it is common for the total operating power of "large graphics card + i7 processor" to reach more than 400 watts. So, will you feel bad about the electricity bill?

There is no doubt that NVIDIA GTX980Ti is the top member of the graphics card echelon, and in the GTX980Ti family, considering all aspects, ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti is also the best choice for players to achieve the ultimate experience.

This cool GTX980Ti does give PC enthusiasts a reason to be not so "cool".

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.