If you are in the market for a new graphics card there are no shortage of options available in 2015. For enthusiast gamers with deeper pockets there has never been a better time to invest in a new GPU for 4K gaming.
If you have £800 burning a hole in your pocket then the Nvidia Titan X will prove tempting, due to the stellar shader power, great overclocking potential – coupled up with 12GB of GDDR5 memory. We aren't sure there is any real need for a 12GB framebuffer right now, but it surely offers serious futureproofing for upcoming AAA titles. It is just so very expensive and out of reach for many.
AMD launched their Fury X a short while ago and while not quite the GTX980 Ti killer that many had hoped it does exhibit excellent potential when partnered up with a 4K monitor. We are aware than a Rev 2 cooler (with a silver/chromatic logo) is already in the wild, but our sample lifted from the retail channel was Rev 1 and suffered quite badly from coil whine and pump noise. We honestly aren't sure if this was an isolated incident but we do hope if you buy one now it will be the latest Revision.
When we consider the alternatives, we keep coming back to the GTX980 Ti as the number one choice. KitGuru has reviewed many partner cards at this point and the Gigabyte GTX980 Ti G1 Gaming has been the board to beat. The ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 980 Ti DirectCU 3 is clearly a product that ASUS have spent some time developing and they have not taken any shortcuts for a quick release.
Performance out of the box is class leading and The STRIX card is able to beat the G1 Gaming in every test. At the standard fan settings it does run around 5c hotter, although ASUS have opted for a very non aggressive default fan profile – to deliver the lowest possible noise characteristics. It is the quietest GTX980 Ti we have tested to date. When gaming, the triple fans never spin faster than 1,400 rpm.
While every card will overclock to different levels, we managed to squeeze another 10% from the overclocked core, before artifacting and instability would occur. This is a testament to high grade capacitors and beefy 12+2 power phase implementation. Asus move to a fully automated, flux free manufacturing process should help maintain tighter, more consistent levels of performance across the full production line as well.
You can buy the ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 980 Ti DirectCU 3 from Overclockers UK for £659.99 inc vat.
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Pros:
- runs cool under load.
- built to the very highest standards.
- default fan profile is very non aggressive.
- 10% extra core clock available on our sample.
- very strong 4K performance.
- HDMI 2.0 support.
- fastest single GPU card we have tested.
- no coil whine.
Cons:
- its a serious investment.
Kitguru says: The ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 980 Ti DirectCU 3 is a showcase of engineering prowess and why ASUS have earned such a reputation in the high end market. It is also the fastest single GPU graphics card we have tested.