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ROGBot
DirectCU II with 0dB Fan Technology. 30% cooler. Silent gaming.
The Strix GTX 980 is sporting ASUS’s robust DirectCU II cooling system. Packed with five 10mm thick copper heatpipes, heat is transferred away from the GPU more effectively. The twin fans come with the new 0dB Fan Technology. This translates to a much quieter operation than the reference cards because the fans will remain off until the temperature reaches a certain level. In my testing, the fans started to gradually spin up when the graphics card hits 66C. That means that you must have optimum airflow in your case if you want to enjoy the 0dB Fan Technology.
Less graphic-intensive tasks like working in Microsoft Office applications or watching videos in 1080P won’t tax the Strix GTX 980 at all. As you demand more from the GPU like benchmarking or playing AAA titles, the temperature tops out at 69C. The fan profiles in the vBIOS seems to balance the speed of the fans to keep the temperature at 69C to maintain a low level of noise.
Let’s take a look at the fan speeds next.
As noted before, the Strix GTX 980 is pretty much dead silent when it doesn’t hit 66C. So I decided to run some graphics-intensive benchmarks like 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme and a few games like Tomb Raider and Metro Last Light to put the fans into action. Unfortunately, I don’t have a sound level meter to measure the noise level for you. But if you look at the RPM, the fans don’t even come close to 50% of their maximum speed (4400RPM). That should more or less give you an idea on noise level.
DIGI+ VRM with Super Alloy Power. 30% less power noise and 2.5X greater durability.
The Strix GTX 980 features a DIGI+ VRM digital power design. The capacitors, MOSFETs and chokes are fabricated using ASUS’s own Super Alloy Power technology. As a result, they perform better and cooler while also having a longer lifespan. So getting that extra performance through overclocking is pretty easy and safe knowing that the graphics card’s build quality will not let you down.
The Strix GTX 980 comes with a factory overclock of 1279MHz on the GPU clock and 7010MHz. I was able to get mines to 1520MHz and 8002MHz respectively. More on how I achieved that later on. Here are some benchmarks.
In general, there was a 14% to 15.5% gain in performance. Generic benchmarks are good and all. But let’s take a look at how this translates to real world performance with modern games.
In certain games like Tomb Raider, Metro Last Light, and Batman: Arkham Origins, we see an extra 14% to 16% boost in the average FPS. The remaining games on the list only showed a gain of 5% to 7% though.
GPU Tweak with Streaming. Real-time intuitive graphics tuning.
GPU Tweak is ASUS’s own proprietary graphics card overclocking tool. It comes bundled with GPU-Z to show you information about your graphics card and monitor to keep an eye on your temperature and voltages in real time. It can also stream your gameplay over the internet as well.
Overclocking the Strix GTX 980 with GPU Tweak is extremely easily. All I had to do was move the sliders to the right until I was no longer stable. Then drop down back a notch and I was good to go.
The end result was an extra 241MHz on the GPU clock and 992MHz on the memory clock. I did not even bother to modify the fan profile since the Strix 980 already comes with a balanced profile for the GPU. As you can see from the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme run, the maximum temperature got as high as 73C and the maximum RPM for the fans reached 1496RPM. Both values are acceptable in my book.
I was curious how this new overclock would affect PC’s overall power consumption. So I grabbed my handy Kill-A-Watt power monitor and went to work. With the Strix 980 overclocked at 1520MHz/8010MHz, the increase in energy consumption during load was a mere 34W which is equivalent to 11.11% or so. As if Maxwell wasn’t power efficient enough, the DIGI+ VRM takes it to another level. So no need to worry about your power bill.
The Strix GTX 980 is sporting ASUS’s robust DirectCU II cooling system. Packed with five 10mm thick copper heatpipes, heat is transferred away from the GPU more effectively. The twin fans come with the new 0dB Fan Technology. This translates to a much quieter operation than the reference cards because the fans will remain off until the temperature reaches a certain level. In my testing, the fans started to gradually spin up when the graphics card hits 66C. That means that you must have optimum airflow in your case if you want to enjoy the 0dB Fan Technology.
Less graphic-intensive tasks like working in Microsoft Office applications or watching videos in 1080P won’t tax the Strix GTX 980 at all. As you demand more from the GPU like benchmarking or playing AAA titles, the temperature tops out at 69C. The fan profiles in the vBIOS seems to balance the speed of the fans to keep the temperature at 69C to maintain a low level of noise.
Let’s take a look at the fan speeds next.
As noted before, the Strix GTX 980 is pretty much dead silent when it doesn’t hit 66C. So I decided to run some graphics-intensive benchmarks like 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme and a few games like Tomb Raider and Metro Last Light to put the fans into action. Unfortunately, I don’t have a sound level meter to measure the noise level for you. But if you look at the RPM, the fans don’t even come close to 50% of their maximum speed (4400RPM). That should more or less give you an idea on noise level.
DIGI+ VRM with Super Alloy Power. 30% less power noise and 2.5X greater durability.
The Strix GTX 980 features a DIGI+ VRM digital power design. The capacitors, MOSFETs and chokes are fabricated using ASUS’s own Super Alloy Power technology. As a result, they perform better and cooler while also having a longer lifespan. So getting that extra performance through overclocking is pretty easy and safe knowing that the graphics card’s build quality will not let you down.
The Strix GTX 980 comes with a factory overclock of 1279MHz on the GPU clock and 7010MHz. I was able to get mines to 1520MHz and 8002MHz respectively. More on how I achieved that later on. Here are some benchmarks.
In general, there was a 14% to 15.5% gain in performance. Generic benchmarks are good and all. But let’s take a look at how this translates to real world performance with modern games.
In certain games like Tomb Raider, Metro Last Light, and Batman: Arkham Origins, we see an extra 14% to 16% boost in the average FPS. The remaining games on the list only showed a gain of 5% to 7% though.
GPU Tweak with Streaming. Real-time intuitive graphics tuning.
GPU Tweak is ASUS’s own proprietary graphics card overclocking tool. It comes bundled with GPU-Z to show you information about your graphics card and monitor to keep an eye on your temperature and voltages in real time. It can also stream your gameplay over the internet as well.
Overclocking the Strix GTX 980 with GPU Tweak is extremely easily. All I had to do was move the sliders to the right until I was no longer stable. Then drop down back a notch and I was good to go.
The end result was an extra 241MHz on the GPU clock and 992MHz on the memory clock. I did not even bother to modify the fan profile since the Strix 980 already comes with a balanced profile for the GPU. As you can see from the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme run, the maximum temperature got as high as 73C and the maximum RPM for the fans reached 1496RPM. Both values are acceptable in my book.
I was curious how this new overclock would affect PC’s overall power consumption. So I grabbed my handy Kill-A-Watt power monitor and went to work. With the Strix 980 overclocked at 1520MHz/8010MHz, the increase in energy consumption during load was a mere 34W which is equivalent to 11.11% or so. As if Maxwell wasn’t power efficient enough, the DIGI+ VRM takes it to another level. So no need to worry about your power bill.
