ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 970 Review

👤by Richard Weatherstone Comments 📅09-11-14
Conclusion

We guess the question you want answering first is whether you should choose this over the AMD 290. Yes is the simple answer, however there is a caveat to that. The 290X is still ever so slightly faster in the majority of scenarios and perhaps just as important is the 290X is also a little cheaper if you shop around. Now that isn't to say you should buy the 290X over this card as the office was divided on which graphics card they would like in their gaming system. On the one hand you have the ASUS Strix GTX 970. It has to be the most powerful card available when you consider the performance to noise ratio. You simply will not get a quieter card that pumps out the same frames per second and that includes watercooled varieties. ASUS have done a fantastic job with the Direct CU II cooling design so much so we would say it is overkill for this card which is not a hot card by any stretch of the imagination, even with the moderate overclock applied. On the other hand, money and performance talk and to this end the AMD 290X is ever so slightly the better performing card for a little less money.

We expected slightly better performance from the GTX 970 in truth as there is quite a gap between this card and the GTX 980 it supports and had the GTX 970 offered a little more for the money it would be no brainer to buy this card over the competition however that competition remains and as such we really couldn't say which graphics card should be purchased over the other. We suspect your allegiance will lay with what your preference is, silence, performance or cost. Whichever card you choose there is so little to choose between them we don't think you will be disappointed.



The ASUS STRIX GTX 970 is a great card that's for sure and for this reason we have no quibbles in awarding it our silver award. The cost of the card is our main criticism as if it were just £20 or £30 cheaper, thereby undercutting the 290X then it would be so much more attractive. Strix after all means reacting to the slightest movement. Shame then that the card has failed to react to the movement in the GPU market that sees a faster card undercut it on price. As it stands it carries the combined cost premium of owning an ASUS and NVIDIA card which when all things are considered is not such a bad thing to have is it?

To summarise:
A very cool, quiet and high performing graphics card that offers great looks in a decision that has few equals.

Pros
+ Class leading Cooling
+ Power efficient
+ Excellent Looks
+ Great overclocking potential

Cons
- Slightly more expensive than a R9-290X
- Slightly slower than a R9-290X




Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.


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