1. Introduction:
Hi everyone, hope you all are doing fine! This is a review of the Asus GTX970X DC2OC 4GD5 graphics card.
The GTX 970 from NVIDIA is based on the second generation Maxwell architecture(you can read about this elsewhere).
Here is a link to the ASUS India official website referring the card I am reviewing:
Graphic Cards | STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5 | ASUS India
*farm1.staticflickr.com/348/19723815960_b1766f1afd_o.jpg
Built on the new second generation Maxwell architecture, the GTX 970 boasts a CUDA core count of 1664, 104 texture memory units(TMUs), 56 render output units(ROPs) and a memory bus width of 256 bit GDDR5 making 4 GB of graphics memory. The GPU is made of 5200 million transistors based on a 28 nm manufacturing process.
The standard reference clocks for the GTX 970 GPU are 1050 MHz for the core(boost 1178) and 1752.5 MHz(effective 7010 MHz) for the memory. The Asus variant comes overclocked out of the box with the GPU at 1114 MHz(boost 1253 MHz) which is a significant increase over the reference model. The memory clock is kept same at 7100 MHz effective.
2. Unboxing and packaging:
Packaging was excellent as is expected from ASUS. The box has good aesthetic appeal.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/459/19290949983_671251879c_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/547/19904352772_4d79c30b22_o.jpg
Finally after another small box housing the supplied accessories, we get this giant card! It is well protected with anti static bag and foam to prevent damages from static electricity and from impact during shipping.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/543/19904350632_096355b36d_o.jpg
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/19916946611_515dfd4e34_o.jpg
3. Gallery and close ups, choice of components:
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/19916946611_515dfd4e34_o.jpg
ASUS STRIX series cards are designed different from their previous models.
Here comes the back of the card:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/543/19904350632_096355b36d_o.jpg
The back portion is well protected with a metal casing which prevents the card from bending due to the weight, prevents dust in-between sensitive components, acts as a heat spreader and also acts as an electric screening device since it is grounded.
There is an ASUS logo on the shroud as well.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/467/19723844858_c77ef3bee4_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/437/19723842118_d825c76d76_o.jpg
And a STRIX logo is given on the side just below the SLI connector to further enhance the aesthetics.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/403/19723852918_f66d15a4fd_o.jpg
The output section consists of one display port, one HDMI port and two DVI ports(DVI-I on the top and DVI-D on the bottom).
Two PWM controlled fans along with the Copper-Aluminium heatsink takes care of the cooling. This graphics card is designed such that the fans do not spin at all when the temperature is below a certain value preset in the factory on the BIOS. So for normal tasks, this graphics card is absolutely silent(passive operation).
Fan connector:
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3834/19911863755_8e40f9cd58_o.jpg
The heatsink has a total of 45 aluminium fins along with nickel plated copper pipes passing through it. Between the heatsink and the top black coloured heatspreader, a sponge is sandwiched.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/287/19289225414_1f2552d60a_o.jpg
The graphics card uses one PCI-E 8 pin power connector for its operation. The advertised peak power draw is up to 225W.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/271/19290891933_e9e6ee5fc4_o.jpg
There are two LEDs as well to indicate connection status. For successful power connection, a white LED glows, otherwise a red LED glows.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/299/19723852380_47ed92fe8a_o.jpg
The voltage regulator is ASUS DIGI+ branded. Please note that the power filtration(DC-DC) to the GPU and memory is digital.
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3753/19904346222_661f6ba358_o.jpg
Two SLI connectors are given for multi-GPU configuration.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/443/19723836798_7d76493020_o.jpg
The memory ICs are from SAMSUNG and carry the model number: K4G41325FC-HC28. They have a specified frequency of 1750 MHz, 7000 MHz effective GDDR5. This is a very good approach as SAMSUNG memory are known to overclock well.
Side photos:
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3811/19723844880_3e3a7060ac_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/542/19885629056_3dc0b425bf_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/517/19725180369_124c3fa9b7_o.jpg
A heatsink is provided on top of the GPU VRM.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/321/19911844415_f2dcf454cf_o.jpg
4. Test setup:
CPU: Intel Core i7 5930K (Courtesy: ASUS India)
Motherboard: Asus X99 Sabertooth(Courtesy: ASUS India)
RAMs: Kingston HyperX Fury 32 GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz CL15 quad channel(Courtesy: Kingston Technology India)
Graphics card: Asus STRIX GTX 970-DC2OC-4GD5(Courtesy: ASUS India)
Hard disk/SSD: Kingston HyperX Fury 240 GB SSD(Courtesy: Kingston Technology India)
Power supply: Antec VP500PC(Courtesy: Antec India)
Monitor: Dell S2240M IPS @ 1920*1080, 60 Hz.
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit service pack 1
5. Synthetic benchmarks(3D Mark Vantage, 11, Unigine Heaven etc):
3D Mark Vantage:
3D Mark Vantage is a very popular software for benchmarking and comparing scores. It is based on DirectX 10. Testing done on performance preset for better comparison. Lets start with this:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/393/19885632936_113a6a7542_o.jpg
It scores 42947 points! A very good score for a single GPU system.
3D Mark 11:
3D Mark 11 is based on DirectX 11 and also is one of the best GPU benchmark tools available. Tested using the performance preset for easy comparison with other sites as well.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/542/19916925701_b663569c51_o.jpg
Again, the graphics card scores a mighty 14879 points.
3D Mark 2013 edition:
Here comes the new 3D Mark released in 2013. With astonishing visuals and mind blowing tessellation, this benchmark has an awesome eye candy and is becoming a very popular benchmarking tool. The software was updated to the latest version before the tests were run. Here are the scores:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/261/19723840490_c120e6bc2a_o.jpg
Those are very good numbers for a single GPU system.
Unigine Heaven:
Unigine Heaven is an excellent benchmark tool for graphics cards and stresses the GPU to the limit thanks to the amount of tessellated textures it renders. A beauty to watch, here is the score we get!
Version 3.0:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/420/19725235459_0267b28f41_o.png
Version 4.0:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/382/19916972211_b712d5a38e_o.png
I ran with both the 3.0 and 4.0 editions of Unigine Heaven so that scores can be compared with other review sites also.
Unigine Valley:
A new benchmark tool compared to the others, this is an extremely visually appealing benchmark and stresses the GPU. All settings were maxed according to the provided preset(Extreme HD).
*farm1.staticflickr.com/435/19290958063_55dc5033cc_o.png
6. Gaming benchmarks:
Here is the performance of the graphics card in games.
Notes:
i) Average FPS is not the sum of the min+max fps divided by 2. It is the equivalent approximation of the frame rates delivered for the maximum amount of time the game was played.
ii) All games were tested in full HD 1080p(1920*1080 @ 60Hz). V sync was turned off to avoid capping the frame rate equal to the refresh rate of the monitor.
iii) The benchmark test tool was used in games which provided the option. Other games were tested in normal circumstances - user playing a particular mission of a game at some particular settings which are stated.
iv) I will split the games into two parts. Games which have an inbuilt benchmarking tool(e.g. Grid 2) and games which does not have an inbuilt benchmarking tool but requires user to play and judge(e.g. Batman Arkham Origins.
Games not having benchmark tool:
Batman Arkham Origins:
Batman Arkham Origins released in 2013 by WB Games was one of the best sellers of the year. Delivering amazing game play experience, the game also gives stunning visuals and sharp textures thanks to the Unreal Engine 3.
Game settings were maxed out except for PhysX and TXAA(NVIDIA only) so that scores can be compared with AMD GPUs as well.
Performance(Open world):
FPS: Min: 95, Max: 160, Average: around 125
The game runs without any hiccups and smooth. PhysX was deliberately turned off as it is supported by NVIDIA only and for the fair comparison.
Far Cry 4:
Far Cry 4 was released on Q4, 2014 and delivers an awesome action adventure gameplay experience. It is one of the most graphics intensive games as of now.
Settings were maxed out but limited to universal settings(all NVIDIA exclusive settings were avoided).
Performance(Open world):
FPS: Min: 54, Max 85, Average: Around 70.
Moving on to the next section now i.e.
Games having an inbuilt benchmark tool.
Grid 2:
Released by Codemasters, this game gives an amazing racing experience. One having a controller or gamepad will enjoy it even more and it has got spilt screen as well so that you can play with your friends.
All internal settings were set to maximum(limited to universal settings) and soft ambient occlusion was turned on too.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/278/19942502706_e100051739_o.jpg
The in-game benchmark was run.
Tomb Raider 2013:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/309/19961068972_37a348a905_o.jpg
So here, I will end the gaming benchmark section. All games run very good on the highest settings at 1080p. The card and the system was not overclocked. But we will check the overclocking as well.
7. Overclocking:
Overclocking was very impressive. The GPU core clock went all the way upto 1295 MHz and the memory clock went to as high as 2005 MHz. The SAMSUNG chips and the build quality of the card are too good. With these settings, we ran a quick benchmark of Unigine Heaven 4.0 and GRID 2 and here are the results.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/496/19725235269_f7723644f3_o.png
*farm1.staticflickr.com/369/19346418484_59c47d4f8b_o.jpg
8. Temperatures:
The card operated passively(fans turned off) almost all the time during idling. While gaming and benchmarking, the fans started spinning up but did not make much noise at all. The temperatures remained pretty normal for a GPU of this segment, the core touching at around 75 degree C.
9. Final words and conclusion:
The ASUS GTX 970 STRIX-DC2OC-4GD5 graphics card retails here around 29900 Rupees in Kolkata, India where I live.
Pros:
i) Comes factory overclocked(core clock only)
ii) Complete silent operation at idle.
iii) Excellent cooling system
iv) Good choice of components, SAMSUNG memory,
v) Connection monitoring with LEDs
vi) Great overclock potential for the GPU core
vii) Good pricing
Cons:
i) Memory is not overclocked out of the box.
So if you are looking for a good future proof single GPU solution for gaming at 1080p or even 1440p, you can definitely take one of these. The overclocking potential is very impressive also and is definitely one of the factors for which I will be recommending it.
Overall I will rate it 9 out of 10!
*farm1.staticflickr.com/463/19781256738_245cf6850a_o.png
Last but not the least, I would like to thank ASUS India for providing me the samples, and to Antec India and Kingston Technology India for providing me the power supply, RAMs and SSD without which, the review would have been late.
About me:
A computer science engineer with a passion to research on computer hardware and tweaking to get the maximum performance achievable at a price.
Hi everyone, hope you all are doing fine! This is a review of the Asus GTX970X DC2OC 4GD5 graphics card.
The GTX 970 from NVIDIA is based on the second generation Maxwell architecture(you can read about this elsewhere).
Here is a link to the ASUS India official website referring the card I am reviewing:
Graphic Cards | STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5 | ASUS India
*farm1.staticflickr.com/348/19723815960_b1766f1afd_o.jpg
Built on the new second generation Maxwell architecture, the GTX 970 boasts a CUDA core count of 1664, 104 texture memory units(TMUs), 56 render output units(ROPs) and a memory bus width of 256 bit GDDR5 making 4 GB of graphics memory. The GPU is made of 5200 million transistors based on a 28 nm manufacturing process.
The standard reference clocks for the GTX 970 GPU are 1050 MHz for the core(boost 1178) and 1752.5 MHz(effective 7010 MHz) for the memory. The Asus variant comes overclocked out of the box with the GPU at 1114 MHz(boost 1253 MHz) which is a significant increase over the reference model. The memory clock is kept same at 7100 MHz effective.
2. Unboxing and packaging:
Packaging was excellent as is expected from ASUS. The box has good aesthetic appeal.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/459/19290949983_671251879c_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/547/19904352772_4d79c30b22_o.jpg
Finally after another small box housing the supplied accessories, we get this giant card! It is well protected with anti static bag and foam to prevent damages from static electricity and from impact during shipping.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/543/19904350632_096355b36d_o.jpg
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/19916946611_515dfd4e34_o.jpg
3. Gallery and close ups, choice of components:
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/19916946611_515dfd4e34_o.jpg
ASUS STRIX series cards are designed different from their previous models.
Here comes the back of the card:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/543/19904350632_096355b36d_o.jpg
The back portion is well protected with a metal casing which prevents the card from bending due to the weight, prevents dust in-between sensitive components, acts as a heat spreader and also acts as an electric screening device since it is grounded.
There is an ASUS logo on the shroud as well.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/467/19723844858_c77ef3bee4_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/437/19723842118_d825c76d76_o.jpg
And a STRIX logo is given on the side just below the SLI connector to further enhance the aesthetics.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/403/19723852918_f66d15a4fd_o.jpg
The output section consists of one display port, one HDMI port and two DVI ports(DVI-I on the top and DVI-D on the bottom).
Two PWM controlled fans along with the Copper-Aluminium heatsink takes care of the cooling. This graphics card is designed such that the fans do not spin at all when the temperature is below a certain value preset in the factory on the BIOS. So for normal tasks, this graphics card is absolutely silent(passive operation).
Fan connector:
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3834/19911863755_8e40f9cd58_o.jpg
The heatsink has a total of 45 aluminium fins along with nickel plated copper pipes passing through it. Between the heatsink and the top black coloured heatspreader, a sponge is sandwiched.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/287/19289225414_1f2552d60a_o.jpg
The graphics card uses one PCI-E 8 pin power connector for its operation. The advertised peak power draw is up to 225W.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/271/19290891933_e9e6ee5fc4_o.jpg
There are two LEDs as well to indicate connection status. For successful power connection, a white LED glows, otherwise a red LED glows.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/299/19723852380_47ed92fe8a_o.jpg
The voltage regulator is ASUS DIGI+ branded. Please note that the power filtration(DC-DC) to the GPU and memory is digital.
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3753/19904346222_661f6ba358_o.jpg
Two SLI connectors are given for multi-GPU configuration.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/443/19723836798_7d76493020_o.jpg
The memory ICs are from SAMSUNG and carry the model number: K4G41325FC-HC28. They have a specified frequency of 1750 MHz, 7000 MHz effective GDDR5. This is a very good approach as SAMSUNG memory are known to overclock well.
Side photos:
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3811/19723844880_3e3a7060ac_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/542/19885629056_3dc0b425bf_o.jpg
*farm1.staticflickr.com/517/19725180369_124c3fa9b7_o.jpg
A heatsink is provided on top of the GPU VRM.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/321/19911844415_f2dcf454cf_o.jpg
4. Test setup:
CPU: Intel Core i7 5930K (Courtesy: ASUS India)
Motherboard: Asus X99 Sabertooth(Courtesy: ASUS India)
RAMs: Kingston HyperX Fury 32 GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz CL15 quad channel(Courtesy: Kingston Technology India)
Graphics card: Asus STRIX GTX 970-DC2OC-4GD5(Courtesy: ASUS India)
Hard disk/SSD: Kingston HyperX Fury 240 GB SSD(Courtesy: Kingston Technology India)
Power supply: Antec VP500PC(Courtesy: Antec India)
Monitor: Dell S2240M IPS @ 1920*1080, 60 Hz.
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit service pack 1
5. Synthetic benchmarks(3D Mark Vantage, 11, Unigine Heaven etc):
3D Mark Vantage:
3D Mark Vantage is a very popular software for benchmarking and comparing scores. It is based on DirectX 10. Testing done on performance preset for better comparison. Lets start with this:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/393/19885632936_113a6a7542_o.jpg
It scores 42947 points! A very good score for a single GPU system.
3D Mark 11:
3D Mark 11 is based on DirectX 11 and also is one of the best GPU benchmark tools available. Tested using the performance preset for easy comparison with other sites as well.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/542/19916925701_b663569c51_o.jpg
Again, the graphics card scores a mighty 14879 points.
3D Mark 2013 edition:
Here comes the new 3D Mark released in 2013. With astonishing visuals and mind blowing tessellation, this benchmark has an awesome eye candy and is becoming a very popular benchmarking tool. The software was updated to the latest version before the tests were run. Here are the scores:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/261/19723840490_c120e6bc2a_o.jpg
Those are very good numbers for a single GPU system.
Unigine Heaven:
Unigine Heaven is an excellent benchmark tool for graphics cards and stresses the GPU to the limit thanks to the amount of tessellated textures it renders. A beauty to watch, here is the score we get!
Version 3.0:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/420/19725235459_0267b28f41_o.png
Version 4.0:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/382/19916972211_b712d5a38e_o.png
I ran with both the 3.0 and 4.0 editions of Unigine Heaven so that scores can be compared with other review sites also.
Unigine Valley:
A new benchmark tool compared to the others, this is an extremely visually appealing benchmark and stresses the GPU. All settings were maxed according to the provided preset(Extreme HD).
*farm1.staticflickr.com/435/19290958063_55dc5033cc_o.png
6. Gaming benchmarks:
Here is the performance of the graphics card in games.
Notes:
i) Average FPS is not the sum of the min+max fps divided by 2. It is the equivalent approximation of the frame rates delivered for the maximum amount of time the game was played.
ii) All games were tested in full HD 1080p(1920*1080 @ 60Hz). V sync was turned off to avoid capping the frame rate equal to the refresh rate of the monitor.
iii) The benchmark test tool was used in games which provided the option. Other games were tested in normal circumstances - user playing a particular mission of a game at some particular settings which are stated.
iv) I will split the games into two parts. Games which have an inbuilt benchmarking tool(e.g. Grid 2) and games which does not have an inbuilt benchmarking tool but requires user to play and judge(e.g. Batman Arkham Origins.
Games not having benchmark tool:
Batman Arkham Origins:
Batman Arkham Origins released in 2013 by WB Games was one of the best sellers of the year. Delivering amazing game play experience, the game also gives stunning visuals and sharp textures thanks to the Unreal Engine 3.
Game settings were maxed out except for PhysX and TXAA(NVIDIA only) so that scores can be compared with AMD GPUs as well.
Performance(Open world):
FPS: Min: 95, Max: 160, Average: around 125
The game runs without any hiccups and smooth. PhysX was deliberately turned off as it is supported by NVIDIA only and for the fair comparison.
Far Cry 4:
Far Cry 4 was released on Q4, 2014 and delivers an awesome action adventure gameplay experience. It is one of the most graphics intensive games as of now.
Settings were maxed out but limited to universal settings(all NVIDIA exclusive settings were avoided).
Performance(Open world):
FPS: Min: 54, Max 85, Average: Around 70.
Moving on to the next section now i.e.
Games having an inbuilt benchmark tool.
Grid 2:
Released by Codemasters, this game gives an amazing racing experience. One having a controller or gamepad will enjoy it even more and it has got spilt screen as well so that you can play with your friends.
All internal settings were set to maximum(limited to universal settings) and soft ambient occlusion was turned on too.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/278/19942502706_e100051739_o.jpg
The in-game benchmark was run.
Tomb Raider 2013:
*farm1.staticflickr.com/309/19961068972_37a348a905_o.jpg
So here, I will end the gaming benchmark section. All games run very good on the highest settings at 1080p. The card and the system was not overclocked. But we will check the overclocking as well.
7. Overclocking:
Overclocking was very impressive. The GPU core clock went all the way upto 1295 MHz and the memory clock went to as high as 2005 MHz. The SAMSUNG chips and the build quality of the card are too good. With these settings, we ran a quick benchmark of Unigine Heaven 4.0 and GRID 2 and here are the results.
*farm1.staticflickr.com/496/19725235269_f7723644f3_o.png
*farm1.staticflickr.com/369/19346418484_59c47d4f8b_o.jpg
8. Temperatures:
The card operated passively(fans turned off) almost all the time during idling. While gaming and benchmarking, the fans started spinning up but did not make much noise at all. The temperatures remained pretty normal for a GPU of this segment, the core touching at around 75 degree C.
9. Final words and conclusion:
The ASUS GTX 970 STRIX-DC2OC-4GD5 graphics card retails here around 29900 Rupees in Kolkata, India where I live.
Pros:
i) Comes factory overclocked(core clock only)
ii) Complete silent operation at idle.
iii) Excellent cooling system
iv) Good choice of components, SAMSUNG memory,
v) Connection monitoring with LEDs
vi) Great overclock potential for the GPU core
vii) Good pricing
Cons:
i) Memory is not overclocked out of the box.
So if you are looking for a good future proof single GPU solution for gaming at 1080p or even 1440p, you can definitely take one of these. The overclocking potential is very impressive also and is definitely one of the factors for which I will be recommending it.
Overall I will rate it 9 out of 10!
*farm1.staticflickr.com/463/19781256738_245cf6850a_o.png
Last but not the least, I would like to thank ASUS India for providing me the samples, and to Antec India and Kingston Technology India for providing me the power supply, RAMs and SSD without which, the review would have been late.
About me:
A computer science engineer with a passion to research on computer hardware and tweaking to get the maximum performance achievable at a price.
