Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 SLi Review

Last week we reviewed two new cost effective Ultra HD 4K monitors from ASUS and AOC. No longer do you need to pay £2,000+ to land a 60hz 4K monitor for gaming - these new models have hit retail for less than £600. Buying the monitor is only part of the cost however, because it is likely a graphics card upgrade will be needed as well. Nvidia's GTX780Ti is ideal for gaming at 4K - however today we look at saving some money and running two of the new Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 solutions in an SLi configuration. The Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 is a new solution featuring 4GB of memory, 1GB more than the flagship GTX780Ti. It features Direct CU II cooling, Cooltech fans, a DIGI+ voltage regulator module and Super Alloy power components. Specifications: Core Clock: 1085MHz (GK104) Core Boost Clock: 1150MHz Memory: 4096MB GDDR5 Memory Clock: 6008MHz (Effective) Memory Interface: 256-Bit Processing Cores: 1152 Bus Type: PCI-Express GEN 3.0 (Backwards compatible) Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I, 1x HDMI 1.4a & 1x Displayport SLI Ready (Upto 3-Way SLI Supported) HDCP Capable DirectX 11 Support OpenGL 4.0 Support PhysX Enabled CUDA Enabled 3D Vision Enabled NVIDIA Surround Enabled Warranty: 3 Years The Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 graphics cards arrive in a traditionally styled Republic Of Gamers box, with the product name and some details highlighted. The boxes open up, detailing some specifications of the hardware inside. Asus focus on the build quality of the Striker Platinum graphics cards and the high grade components used. I will expand on this when the cooler is removed. The Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 is a striking graphics card - the angular edges give it a rather menacing appearance. I know this will be very much personal taste - but I absolutely love the looks. Reassuringly, the build quality is exceptionally high. It is worth pointing out that these are heavy dual slot cards, measuring 11.3 x 6 x 1.6 inches. A matt coloured metal backplate is fitted to the PCB, offering protection and enhancing cooling performance. CoolTech Fan Technology is a hybrid design and offers dust proofing. The hybrid blades and bearing design, with inner radial blower and outer flower type blades provides multi directional airflow. Each card takes power from a single 6 pin and 8 pin PCIe connector. The Striker Platinum GTX760 is fully SLi capable, fitted with two connectors. There are two DVI connectors fitted, alongside a full sized HDMI and DisplayPort connector. Asus are using SKHynix GDDR5 memory and they have adopted Japanese made Nichicon GT series black metallic capacitors to aid with longevity (10,000 hours, up from standard 2,000 hour ratings) and stability. The PCB is using an 8 Phase power implementation with digital voltage regulation. Other goodies include concrete core chokes and hardened MOSFET's. Asus claim this card will not suffer from annoying 'whines' and 'buzzes'. The 'Republic Of Gamers' logo on the card is colour coded. It will change colour depending on the load. The light blue/greenish colour is Light Loading, Yellow is Medium Loading and Red is Heavy Loading. An overview of the hardware in the latest version of GPU. The Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 is clocked at 1,085mhz, with a boost speed of 1,150mhz. The 4GB of SKHynix GDDR5 memory is clocked at 1,502mhz (6Gbps effective). The GK104 core is built on the 28nm process and has 32 ROP's, 96 Texture units and 1,152 Cuda Cores. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. Today we test with the latest AMD Catalyst 14.6 Beta driver and the Nvidia Forceware 337.88 driver. We are using a test rig supplied by PCSPECIALIST and built to our specifications. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page.We are featuring results today with an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD Display at 2560×1600 resolution and an Asus PQ321QE Ultra HD 4K screen running at 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution. Room ambient was held at 23c throughout testing. Comparison Graphics cards: Palit GTX780 JetStream 6GB (902 mhz core / 1502mhz memory) AMD R9 295X2 (1018mhz core / 1250mhz memory) Nvidia GTX Titan Black x2 (890 mhz core / 1,750 mhz memory) Gigabyte GTX780 Ti Windforce OC (1020mhz core / 1750 mhz memory) Palit GTX 780 Ti Jetstream OC (980 mhz core / 1,750 mhz memory) Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X OC (1080mhz core / 1410mhz memory) Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X (1010mhz core / 1250 mhz memory) Club3D R9 290X RoyalAce Superoverclock (1050mhz / 1350mhz memory) Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC (1030mhz core / 1400 mhz memory) Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X OC (1100 mhz core / 1500 mhz memory) Software: Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit Unigine Heaven Benchmark Unigine Valley Benchmark 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 3DMark Fraps Professional Steam Client FurMark Games: Thief 2014 Total War: Rome 2 Tomb Raider Metro: Last Light GRID 2 Battlefield 4 All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page. Some game descriptions edited with courtesy from Wikipedia. Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. Off to a good start, scoring 54,348 points in this older Direct X 10 benchmark - just ahead of the overclocked Gigabyte GTX780 Ti WindForce. 3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. Slightly higher performance than the Gigabyte GTX780 Ti Windforce OC solution, scoring 17,909 points. 3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance. Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good. To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.” Excellent results in the latest, and most demanding benchmark from Futuremark. The final score of 12,376 points places the Sli setup, just behind the highly overclocked Gigabyte GTX780 Ti Windforce OC.Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the settings shown above at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600. Performance slots in just ahead of the reference clocked GTX Titan Black at 1080p, but it falls a little behind at 1600p. Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user. We test with the settings above both at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600. Nvidia hardware scores well in this benchmark. The Asus ROG Strike Platinum GTX760 Sli average high frame rates at both resolutions. In Thief 2014 Players control Garrett, a master thief, as he intends to steal from the rich. Similar to previous games in the series, players must use stealth in order to overcome challenges, while violence is left as a minimally effective last resort. We test at Ultra HD 4k with the HIGH preset, both with Direct X rendering (Nvidia and AMD) and Mantle rendering (AMD only). The Asus ROG Strike Platinum GTX760 cards produce playable frame rates, above 25 at all times. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We use the ULTIMATE profile, as shown above. We want the best image quality possible. 1080p proves no problem for the two GTX760's - holding an average of 97 frames per second. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We use the ULTIMATE profile at 2560×1600, as shown above. No problems handling this engine at 1600p, averaging 60 frames per second and maintaining a steady 40+ frame rate at all times. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We switched over to the ASUS Ultra HD 4K monitor and set to the ULTIMATE profile for maximum image quality. A tough test for any graphics configuration. The Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 cards manage to maintain an average of 33 frames per second while holding above the playable marker of 25 at all times. Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools. We tested this particular game with the extremely demanding built in benchmark. Settings detailed above. Direct X 11 mode, Quality is set at Very High, 16 AF, normal Motion blur, Tessellation Normal, Advanced PhysX disabled and SSAA disabled. The Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 in SLi slot in above the Nvidia GTX Titan Black. Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools. We tested this particular game with the extremely demanding built in benchmark. Settings detailed above. Direct X 11 mode, Quality is set at Very High, 16 AF, normal Motion blur, Tessellation Normal, Advanced PhysX disabled and SSAA disabled. Excellent results, just ahead of the Sapphire R9 290X Vapor X OC at an average of 52 frames per second. Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools. We tested this particular game with the extremely demanding built in benchmark. Settings detailed above. Direct X 11 mode, Quality is set at High, 16 AF, normal Motion blur, Tessellation Normal, Advanced PhysX disabled and SSAA disabled. Excellent performance at 4k, matching the Nvidia GTX Titan Black. Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility. We test at the maximum image quality settings, which are different for both AMD and Nvidia cards. The Nvidia hardware is tested at 16xQCSAA and the AMD hardware is tested at 8f16x EQAA. The results below therefore are NOT directly comparable. We wanted to show performance from both AMD and NVIDIA solutions in GRID 2 when maximising the image quality settings. Solid performance results, averaging 50 frames per second. Battlefield 4 (also known as BF4) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. The game is a sequel to 2011′s Battlefield 3. Battlefield 4 is built on the new Frostbite 3 engine. The new Frostbite engine enables more realistic environments with higher resolution textures and particle effects. A new “networked water” system is also being introduced, allowing all players in the game to see the same wave at the same time.Tessellation has also been overhauled. We test at 2560×1600 with the image quality settings on the ‘ULTRA’ preset. We test the AMD hardware with both Direct X and AMD’s Mantle rendering. Nvidia hardware is tested with Direct X rendering. Excellent results at 1600p, averaging 55 frames per second. Battlefield 4 (also known as BF4) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. The game is a sequel to 2011′s Battlefield 3. Battlefield 4 is built on the new Frostbite 3 engine. The new Frostbite engine enables more realistic environments with higher resolution textures and particle effects. A new “networked water” system is also being introduced, allowing all players in the game to see the same wave at the same time.Tessellation has also been overhauled. We test at Ultra HD 4K with the HIGH Image preset. We drop the image quality settings a little at Ultra HD 4K, because the only card that can handle that level of IQ is the R9 295 X2. Frame rates from the Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 in Sli are very impressive.The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic. The Asus cooler scores well, holding at 72c when in a single card formation. In SLi, the temperatures rise by around 9c, as both cards emit a fair amount of heat in the surrounding area under load. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa. It isn’t a real world situation to be measuring with a case panel off only a few centimeters away from a video card. Our noise figures may therefore be lower than other publications who record at closer distances, or without a fully closed case muting the noise. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA – Threshold of Pain 140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum Each card is audible under load, but never too intrusive. Obviously in SLi - these noise ratings would increase ... we actually measured around 38.5dBa when they were running in Sli - but this will be specific to the PCIe slot placement and chassis sound proofing capabilities. To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results. The power drain of both cards peaks at around 300 watts when gaming in SLi. Asus supply their own software for overclocking, but we achieved identical results with Afterburner. One of our cards would overclock a little better, however to get a stable result in SLi, we had to use the lowest speed - which was 1,169mhz (7.8%). The additional manual overclock helped to boost the GPU score from 17,909 points to 19,022 points. First impressions of the Asus ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 are positive. The gatefold box presentation ensures the key selling points are highlighted immediately, including a focus on the sophisticated cooling system and high grade Japanese Nichicon GT capacitors. As is befitting of a Republic Of Gamers product, the build quality is first rate. The card is hefty and we love the angular, menacing two tone cooler design featuring a high grade PCB backplate. Additionally, Asus have adopted CoolTech Fan Technology - a hybrid design which offers dust proofing. The hybrid blades and bearing design, with inner radial blower and outer flower type blades provides multi directional airflow. In real world terms, the ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 isn't the quietest performance solution we have tested, but the dual fan system does generate high levels of airflow, ensuring complete stability under the most demanding of situations. We achieved an additional 8% software overclock in our SLi tests, although one of the cards did exhibit more headroom potential (10.5%), indicating the 'luck of the draw' lottery when buying a new graphics card - they all overclock to slightly different levels. The ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 features a useful onboard LED lighting system which immediately indicates the state of the GPU core - green for idle, yellow for medium load, and red for heavy load. If you have a windowed case, this is an eye catching feature and certainly a talking point with friends. Running in Sli, these ROG Striker Platinum GTX760 graphics cards are capable of generating solid frame rates at 4K resolution, able to outperform a reference clocked GTX780Ti, and often able to match some of the fastest GTX780ti's you can buy today. The ASUS Striker Platinum GTX760 each cost £239.99 inc vat from Overclockers UK. As tested in SLi today, this would be a total cost of £480 inc vat. When you factor in that the current pricing for a GTX780Ti is still between £550 and £610 inc vat, the GTX760's have a lot to offer. It is also worth pointing out that each of these GTX760 cards has 4GB of GDDR5 memory which is actually more than the 3GB limitation currently imposed by Nvidia on the GTX780Ti. If 3GB isn't enough then you need to buy one of the new 6GB GTX780's, or a 6GB GTX Titan Black. Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE. Pros: 4GB of GDDR5 per card. built with the highest grade components. fantastic looking solution. clocks well. cost effective solution for Ultra HD 4k gaming. Cons: One of the most expensive GTX760's. Kitguru says: Well engineered, high performance GTX760 and capable in SLi of trading blows with the fastest GTX780 Ti's that money can buy.