I got a 970 Strix : )

[orcinhell]

Hi guys.

 

I posted quiet a few times flip flopping with my decision and after being with team red for close to 3 years with my 7970 I am back on team green (had a 570 before the 7970). I decided not to wait for the 300 series, and to be honest I am/was a bit disappointed with how AMD handled the Witcher 3, shifting blame, not looking to start a conversation about that whole thing just my opinion. I was looking at a 900 series anyway, but that got me to pull the trigger... on to the card.

 

Really happy with it! quiet, sexy and although the G1 is faster I chose the strix for its look & quieter cooling. Been playing GTA 5, the game that made me want to upgrade from my 7970. It's a massive leap in performance and I am yet to overclock it. On paper I was a bit worried at the performance gain vs cost but just playing around with some of the latest games made that wash away... This thing is a beast. Bit of a nothing post really, just posting to say I GOT IT! and thanks for suggestions as I have bothered you guys a few times over the last few weeks. Now I am waiting on skylake for a new CPU/MB and I have a whole new computer thanks to Linus... ever since getting into this forum and his channel I have been spending like mad... but I love it!

 

Edit: On a side note if anyone is in the same position as me who has a GPU that performs around the 7970 range, the upgrade was well worth it and fully recommend it!

[Swndlr]

#AsusGPUMasterrace

[Decon]

status update or review content M8

[Enderman]

Nice! No coil whine? thats great news

[1Scotty1]

Welcome to the #970Familly, m8

[Sam Z Man]

It's a massive leap in performance and I am yet to overclock it.

 

Yea that's not happening. 

[SteveGrabowski0]

Hi guys.

 

I posted quiet a few times flip flopping with my decision and after being with team red for close to 3 years with my 7970 I am back on team green (had a 570 before the 7970). I decided not to wait for the 300 series, and to be honest I am/was a bit disappointed with how AMD handled the Witcher 3, shifting blame, not looking to start a conversation about that whole thing just my opinion. I was looking at a 900 series anyway, but that got me to pull the trigger... on to the card.

 

Really happy with it! quiet, sexy and although the G1 is faster I chose the strix for its look & quieter cooling. Been playing GTA 5, the game that made me want to upgrade from my 7970. It's a massive leap in performance and I am yet to overclock it. On paper I was a bit worried at the performance gain vs cost but just playing around with some of the latest games made that wash away... This thing is a beast. Bit of a nothing post really, just posting to say I GOT IT! and thanks for suggestions as I have bothered you guys a few times over the last few weeks. Now I am waiting on skylake for a new CPU/MB and I have a whole new computer thanks to Linus... ever since getting into this forum and his channel I have been spending like mad... but I love it!

 

Nice. GTA V is incredible on a 970. Try Dying Light too, its supposed to have an enormous jump in performance from AMD cards to GTX 970/980.

[Comessy]

Yea that's not happening. 

 

Omg I'm crying laughing

[Clyne]

Yea that's not happening. 

That thermal throttling that will happen soon.......

[Unlikelyjoker]

When will the coil whine come?

@Bubblewhale typing on an I pad suck

[PetiteBob]

When will the coil whine come?

@Bubblewhale typing on an I pad suck

What happened to your PC

[orcinhell]

Nice! No coil whine? thats great news

 

Yea No coil whine, I am trying to make a quiet PC build and discussed it with the store that sold me the card, I shop there a lot and they were happy for me to return it if it did have a whine or does devolop it in the first few weeks.

That thermal throttling that will happen soon.......

 

No sure what your talking about... if you are referring to the coolers lower performance compared to the G1 then yea I knew that as I did the research, but the lower noise levels and overall aesthetics beat the 5 to 10 fps, especially considering I am gaming at 1080P. If I was serious about cranking OC/eeking out every last frame I would defiantly go a G1 and even consider water cooling. At the moment however my build is centered around low noise and power efficient gaming. My CPU is even running at 4.0 with an undervolt (if that is the term), because that is more then enough for 60 fps in any game currently and it runs cooler thus allowing me to run fans at lower rpm.

[Fluffinator]

Oh no

[orcinhell]

First off let me say I am no overclocker, truth be told this is my First GPU overclock, and my first CPU overclock was my currently 3770k. I am a newbie but I know what each settings means and how it relates… well enough that I shouldn’t cause massive damage by playing with the wrong settings. I pushed to the point things were still stable but I started feeling nervous and decided to stop. On to the results, by no means a perfect test bench but hey.

 

Current ambient temp is 18 were I am, I have 4 Noctua Industrial fans running in my R5 2 for front intake 1 rear exhaust and 1 on the CPU all running at 900 rpm. PSU fan is downward facing to take in fresh air.

 

Default 1253 Mhz boost, 7010 mhz. All stock settings. I hit 69 degrees.

First result. 

 

 

 

Skipping all the results in the middle my final full run was 1451 Mhz boost, with 7800 mhz for memory, GPU Tweak reported a max Clock of 1557. I set the fan to kick in at 40 degrees running at 40 % as I could detect no audible difference compared to the low noise already coming from the system at 45%+ I could start to hear the GPU fans... No increase to voltage, Power Target was at 120% with Temp target set to 80. Temp held steady at 60, slowly increasing from the start, starting at 51 at around 70% it stabilized never going higher then 62

 

Last result.

 

(screenshot was well after the fact hence why graph is so low)

 

Afterwards I ran the benchmark tool in window mode and kept on increasing things slowly I got to 1481 clock and 7900 mhz on the memory with no visible problems but lost my nerve and stopped. I am really happy with this card, it has performed well. Its no G1 gaming but is exactly what I wanted in a card and still have plenty of room for overclocking… not sure how lucky I got however. That said I plan to run the card lower around the 1400 MHZ mark and only 7600 mhz on memory as I hate to stress things and I run GTA 5 at 60 frames with great settings smoothly. I know all this has been documented many times already but figured I would add my experience to the post for people that are interested.

 

EDIT: went again pushing higher and got a stable 1500 mhz clock and 8000 mhz on memory.

[Midnitewarrior4]

First off let me say I am no overclocker, truth be told this is my First GPU overclock, and my first CPU overclock was my currently 3770k. I am a newbie but I know what each settings means and how it relates… well enough that I shouldn’t cause massive damage by playing with the wrong settings. I pushed to the point things were still stable but I started feeling nervous and decided to stop. On to the results, by no means a perfect test bench but hey.

Current ambient temp is 18 were I am, I have 4 Noctua Industrial fans running in my R5 2 for front intake 1 rear exhaust and 1 on the CPU all running at 900 rpm. PSU fan is downward facing to take in fresh air.

Default 1253 Mhz boost, 7010 mhz. All stock settings. I hit 69 degrees.

First result.

Bench1.png

Skipping all the results in the middle my final full run was 1451 Mhz boost, with 7800 mhz for memory, GPU Tweak reported a max Clock of 1557. I set the fan to kick in at 40 degrees running at 40 % as I could detect no audible difference compared to the low noise already coming from the system at 45%+ I could start to hear the GPU fans... No increase to voltage, Power Target was at 120% with Temp target set to 80. Temp held steady at 60, slowly increasing from the start, starting at 51 at around 70% it stabilized never going higher then 62

Last result.

Bench2.png

proof.png

(screenshot was well after the fact hence why graph is so low)

Afterwards I ran the benchmark tool in window mode and kept on increasing things slowly I got to 1481 clock and 7900 mhz on the memory with no visible problems but lost my nerve and stopped. I am really happy with this card, it has performed well. Its no G1 gaming but is exactly what I wanted in a card and still have plenty of room for overclocking… not sure how lucky I got however. That said I plan to run the card lower around the 1400 MHZ mark and only 7600 mhz on memory as I hate to stress things and I run GTA 5 at 60 frames with great settings smoothly. I know all this has been documented many times already but figured I would add my experience to the post for people that are interested.

Watch out when running your oc in gta. Gta Hayes oc's, your bound to crash the game some time unless they fixed it. I own the same card, got it to 1470 core and it boosts to 1546 and 7800 on mem and I was in the middle of a heist and bam game crash due to graphics error. Happened to me three times and I couldn't figure it out, turn off the oc and it was fine. I even tried with a super small oc and the same thing happened. Even people on the forum have said this. Just be careful if your doing a heist I'd say play it safe and turn off your oc.

[Midnitewarrior4]

Nice! No coil whine? thats great news

lol after 4 months my strix is starting to have it not noticeable when wearing headphones but since the pc is right next to me on my desk if I don't wear headphones I can just hear it. But usually the fan noise drowns it out could I RMA for a bit of coil whine ?

[Midnitewarrior4]

That thermal throttling that will happen soon.......

could you explain ?. I overclocked my strix to 1546 core and 7800 mem and I'm still sitting at 70 degrees under full load and usually around 50-55% fan speed in a h440 and with a usual ambiance of probably around 24 degrees and maybe hotter cause my pc pumps out the heat

[orcinhell]

lol after 4 months my strix is starting to have it not noticeable when wearing headphones but since the pc is right next to me on my desk if I don't wear headphones I can just hear it. But usually the fan noise drowns it out could I RMA for a bit of coil whine ?

It seems too be a inherit problem with the 970 series rather then just the Strix, all manufactures are experience issues it seems. When looking up the issue, all reports from tech sites are for all manufactures.

 

That said as far as I am aware (and could be wrong) Asus is the only one to claim to eliminate the problem. this is taken right from their site.

 

"Acclaimed DIGI+ VRM with exclusively-formulated alloy components boost performance by reducing power loss, enhancing durability, and achieving cooler operation. Choke concrete cores eliminate buzzing sound under full load while capacitors assure a 50,000-hour lifespan: equivalent to 2.5 times longer than traditional capacitors."

 

I will defiantly RMA if an audible whine starts.However my case is a R5 and over a meter away from me, plus I game with headphones. I'm not so anal Ill check for the problem with my ear next to the card but if I do happen to hear it yea.

[orcinhell]

could you explain ?. I overclocked my strix to 1546 core and 7800 mem and I'm still sitting at 70 degrees under full load and usually around 50-55% fan speed in a h440 and with a usual ambiance of probably around 24 degrees and maybe hotter cause my pc pumps out the heat

 

Without trying to sound condescending to the person who made the original comment. I think a lot of people look at benchmarks as the be all and end all, but in reality while they are great they are also extremes. So when people read the reviews and see that the Strix was limited by temperature in some cases, and comments like "we hit XXX before the temperatures etc" or "not as efficient as other..." they come to the conclusion it must be a flawed design or something along those lines. In reality while the strix does come with cost of a few frames and slightly higher temps, it has some real benefits such as its quieter design, and can still push massive OC considering it only uses a single 8 pin.

 

If I was after pure performance I would have chosen the G1, if I wanted a blend and didn't mind not having a back plate the MSI is a great choice, But I wanted a sexy quiet card with good performance and the Asus ticked all the boxes. I am under no illusions. The Strix is not the best 970, but it was the best 970 for me.

[Midnitewarrior4]

Without trying to sound condescending to the person who made the original comment. I think a lot of people look at benchmarks as the be all and end all, but in reality while they are great they are also extremes. So when people read the reviews and see that the Strix was limited by temperature in some cases, and comments like "we hit XXX before the temperatures etc" or "not as efficient as other..." they come to the conclusion it must be a flawed design or something along those lines. In reality while the strix does come with cost of a few frames and slightly higher temps, it has some real benefits such as its quieter design, and can still push massive OC considering it only uses a single 8 pin.

If I was after pure performance I would have chosen the G1, if I wanted a blend and didn't mind not having a back plate the MSI is a great choice, But I wanted a sexy quiet card with good performance and the Asus ticked all the boxes. I am under no illusions. The Strix is not the best 970, but it was the best 970 for me.

Ya when i bought my pc I was actually going for the 280x but I said what the hell and went for a 970 and at the time the strix was the cheapest 970 besides the mini itx version and the windforce 3x and I chose the strix cause it had a backplate and the 0db fan mode. Mostly the backplate though. I would of hated staring at a pcb through the window in my case

[Clyne]

Yea No coil whine, I am trying to make a quiet PC build and discussed it with the store that sold me the card, I shop there a lot and they were happy for me to return it if it did have a whine or does devolop it in the first few weeks.

 

No sure what your talking about... if you are referring to the coolers lower performance compared to the G1 then yea I knew that as I did the research, but the lower noise levels and overall aesthetics beat the 5 to 10 fps, especially considering I am gaming at 1080P. If I was serious about cranking OC/eeking out every last frame I would defiantly go a G1 and even consider water cooling. At the moment however my build is centered around low noise and power efficient gaming. My CPU is even running at 4.0 with an undervolt (if that is the term), because that is more then enough for 60 fps in any game currently and it runs cooler thus allowing me to run fans at lower rpm.

There's a know issue with it's thermal levels......

http://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/54326-overclocking-gtx-970-strix-issues

If the temp goes past it's "set temp", it'll throttle. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355591-asus-gtx-970-strix-oc/

Ask @Gofspar

I wouldn't say that it's the worst 970, just not the card to buy if you want to OC.

[Gofspar]

There's a know issue with it's thermal levels......

http://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/54326-overclocking-gtx-970-strix-issues

If the temp goes past it's "set temp", it'll throttle. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355591-asus-gtx-970-strix-oc/

Ask @Gofspar

I wouldn't say that it's the worst 970, just not the card to buy if you want to OC.

Strix is not a really ideal card, It's single 8 pin chokes it really bad, if you want a 970 get a G1 Gaming or a MSI 4G Gaming.

[johnnysasaki]

-snip-

Funny thing, I've done pretty much the same. I am waiting for my gtx 970 Windforce 3x OC to arrive. I've really got fed up with my R9 285 and the amount of time, it takes AMD to release new drivers. Apparently Tonga gpu chips have some weird combat crash bug in Witcher 3, that basically makes game unplayable. And that's not the first time R9 285 has issues. Also Game of Thrones (Tell Tale's) got exclusive to that gpu graphical errors and nope, even tho it's been months, still not fixed. Ehhh... I really hope AMD will get back in the game. In the meanwhile tho, I couldn't ignore that 970 Batman/Witcher bundle. 

[Gofspar]

Yea No coil whine, I am trying to make a quiet PC build and discussed it with the store that sold me the card, I shop there a lot and they were happy for me to return it if it did have a whine or does devolop it in the first few weeks.

 

No sure what your talking about... if you are referring to the coolers lower performance compared to the G1 then yea I knew that as I did the research, but the lower noise levels and overall aesthetics beat the 5 to 10 fps, especially considering I am gaming at 1080P. If I was serious about cranking OC/eeking out every last frame I would defiantly go a G1 and even consider water cooling. At the moment however my build is centered around low noise and power efficient gaming. My CPU is even running at 4.0 with an undervolt (if that is the term), because that is more then enough for 60 fps in any game currently and it runs cooler thus allowing me to run fans at lower rpm.

G1 Gaming can be just as quiet as the asus one and cool better.

[slay english]

Hi guys.

 

I posted quiet a few times flip flopping with my decision and after being with team red for close to 3 years with my 7970 I am back on team green (had a 570 before the 7970). I decided not to wait for the 300 series, and to be honest I am/was a bit disappointed with how AMD handled the Witcher 3, shifting blame, not looking to start a conversation about that whole thing just my opinion. I was looking at a 900 series anyway, but that got me to pull the trigger... on to the card.

 

Really happy with it! quiet, sexy and although the G1 is faster I chose the strix for its look & quieter cooling. Been playing GTA 5, the game that made me want to upgrade from my 7970. It's a massive leap in performance and I am yet to overclock it. On paper I was a bit worried at the performance gain vs cost but just playing around with some of the latest games made that wash away... This thing is a beast. Bit of a nothing post really, just posting to say I GOT IT! and thanks for suggestions as I have bothered you guys a few times over the last few weeks. Now I am waiting on skylake for a new CPU/MB and I have a whole new computer thanks to Linus... ever since getting into this forum and his channel I have been spending like mad... but I love it!

 

Edit: On a side note if anyone is in the same position as me who has a GPU that performs around the 7970 range, the upgrade was well worth it and fully recommend it!

I upgraded from a 7870 to a 970 strix a few days ago and so far I'm really pleased. I will be playing witcher 3 tonight since I got it downloaded