ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX review (Page 31)

ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX review

Graphics cards 1049 Page 31 of 31 Published 2018-11-13 09:48 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

Final words and Verdict

ASUS has a terrific offering with the new STRIX OC edition. You get that revision A GPU that has a little more leash on the boost frequency and of course the two BIOS modes that give you control over acoustics. Both BIOS modes (despite that tweak) offer good temperatures. But what amazes me is how silent the product is, at the silent BIOS mode as it measures 32~33 DBa you just cannot hear it. The generic performance level of the RTX 2070 is not bad, not bad at all. The Raytracing and AI feature like DLSS remain interesting, but still are a proof of concept as not one actually game supports it. It, however, will not be a card suitable in the Ultra HD range combined with Raytracing and demanding modern games. Up-to something 2560x1440 resolution wise is the best bet and goal for this product.

Gaming performance

We mentioned it a couple of times already spread over several RTX 2070 articles, but the GeForce RTX 2070 series positions itself to sit in that FullHD and (W)QHD resolution in range. Performance wise you are looking at above GTX 1080 levels based purely on raw shader perf, added benefits are of course the RT and Tensor cores. If you stick to the aforementioned resolutions your games will run at proper framerates with the very best image quality. The 8 GB graphics memory is nice, making the product a bit more future proof. In terms of multi-GPU setups, NVIDIA did not allow SLI for this series. Again, the RTX 2070 do not have an NVLINK connector for you to run two cards in multi-GPU mode.

Aesthetics

It's a good looking card (albeit I do feel STRIX is overdue for a design change), the factory tweak is really nice. It sits in the upper segment, was made a little darker to look at, and that works for me. The RGB lighting effects are funky to see. That LED inclusion that has been done subtly and can be configured in any manner you prefer with AURA SYNC software, the choice is yours. While I always will remain skeptical about backplates (they potentially can trap heat and thus warm up the PCB) ASUS does have vents there. The flip-side is that they can look better and can protect your PCB and components from damage and, well, they can look nice as they can have a certain aesthetic appeal. I have to admit, this is looking very nice but looks are always personal, of course. So in the end, on looks, you certainly get that premium feel of detailed aesthetics and quality.

Cooling & Noise Levels

Cooling is a choice with the STRIX, silent mode sits at roughly 66 Degrees C while gaming and that is great. you can get it to 56 Degrees C in performance mode, at the cost of increased fan RPM. The card remains silent enough under control as well as at its worst we measured only 33 DBa you'll not be hearing this card under normal circumstances card. We've heard no noticeable coil whine. But I do want to note that any graphics card at a high-enough FPS will make some coil-whine.

Concluding

I've stated this before and from the entire RTX range with the three product lines released in my opinion, the GeForce RTX 2070 overall makes the most sense. Combined with Raytracing we, however, doubt it'll be a fast enough card in the Ultra HD range. Then again, if you drop regular AA, choose DLSS you'll benefit from an extra kick in performance, that you can trade in for RT. The future will, however, tell how that is going to pan out. For this conclusion, I am going to focus on what ASUS brought to the table. ASUS does well with the STRIX series, the cooler has that all familiar design and looks. ASUS delivers a really good product here with that excellent cooler and dark style as well. It's really silent, cools great and offers performance and tweaking levels on the GPU that are really good. Typically the more value products (if you allow me to use that phrase for in this context), could be doubled up in performance with the help of SLI, however, NVIDIA ripped that out of 2070, it has no NVLINK and you will not see any AIB cards supporting SLI. The RTX 2070 will perform roughly at and just above that GTX 1080 level, that in respect is not a bad proposition. Pricing is high for this model and will sit in the 599 USD range, however, due to shortages, that is looking like a 699 USD price tag right now, which obviously is just too much. From a hardware point of view though, the card ticks a lot of the boxes you need it to tick. It is a lovely product, a top pick even, however, am separating that award from the current street sales price tag.