ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 review

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Conclusion

Conclusion

ASUS obviously has a very nice product at hand with the STRIX. Now first let me deal with the elephant in the room, all AIB card perform roughly the same, aside from a few FPS here and there. So realistically you probably are better off to focus more at features and aesthetics rather than performance and tweaking as again, the latter two are roughly the same for all AIB partners as Nvidia has a complete grip on the tweaking threshold these days. When we flip it around and focus on aesthetics and features then ASUS certainly does tick the proper boxes. In the introduction I called it a Royale with cheese for a reason, it's the prime luxury graphics card with that slice of extra cheese. In yeah, in terms of design, looks, Aura RGB and factory tweak, it's all good. The one thing I cannot wrap my head around is the weird amount of monitor connectors offers. Two HDMI and two DP ?! That just doesn't make any sense imho. ASUS did that so you can use one HDMI for VR and the other for a television? However, either chances are much higher you are going to connect one monitor, or three for some surround view right ? If it's three wouldn't you prefer to have three similar monitor connectors e.g. three DP connectors ? Logic seems to fail here for me. That note aside, obviously the card performs really good, it has a fair bit of a factory overclock already done for you. There however isn't much left for tweaking, even added voltage anything after an extra 50 MHz on the base frequency would crash. But considering the base/boost clock combo already is nearing the 2 GHz marker, I'd say with the three year warranty you are good to go right there at that frequency spot. Being a 1080 the STRIX comes with that lovely amount of 8GB GDDR5X graphics memory, and that memory volume kind of makes the product more future proof. Whilst the highest used we ever measured is in the 5 to 6 GB VRAM domain, that 8 GB 256-bit GDDR5X memory is an excellent and well-balanced amount of graphics memory. But hey, who knows with titles like The Division / GTA5 and technologies like Ultra HD and / or DSR versus performance and VRAM what you find valid, or not. High up there in the enthusiast space there certainly is a market for cards like these. That makes these 8 GB models relevant for gaming. 



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Aesthetics

I already mentioned it throughout the review and in the above chapter, but the card look terrific and offers a bit of customization with the AURA LED system. If you build a two tone black/Guru3D Blue (which you should!) you can simply have the LED system adapt to that. The one downside, you do need to have that Aura software active/installed at all times. But yes, combined with its black design and LED coloring it certainly looks totally terrific. One note though, I understand a ROG logo and the need for ASUS to do product branding, but at the backside that ROG logo all lit up like a Christmas tree .. it's getting a little much. Especially in a windowed chassis you'll be looking at it all the time. Again i can understand that ASUS loves it, but I also understand that many of the end-users will dislike it and probably choose another graphics card just for that over-branding logo fetish. As far as Aura goes (RGB LED lighting control) you can switch it on/off or to any color and animation you prefer, the choice is yours. Cool dibs is that back-plate, however it lacks openings at the GPU hotspot area for venting. The VRM area has proper vents/gaps though. As you can see, I remain skeptical about back-plates, they potentially can trap heat and thus warm up the PCB. The STRIX reached 67 Degrees C with three fans, that is pretty good though. Back-plates do look much better, make the PCB more sturdy (bends less or not at all) and can protect your PCB and components from damage. Consumer demand is always decisive, and you guys clearly like graphics cards with back plates. 

Cooling & Noise Levels

The reference design (founder editions) of the GTX 1080  are set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C. Once the GPU gets warmer the card will clock down / lower its voltage etc to try and keep the card cooler, that's throttling and it part of the design. ASUS however throws in a cooler that manages roughly 500 to 600W of cooling performance. It is a good one, so good that up-to a degree or 60 on the GPU, this card remains passive and thus inaudible. Once the fans kick in, you can expect to hover at the 67~70 Degrees C marker, with seriously demanding games. Please do note that you will need proper ventilation inside your chassis to achieve that number as most heat is vented inside your chassis. But they shaved off a good 10 Degrees C over reference (founders). Once overclocked with added voltage we always do recommend a little more fan RPM, this does increase noise a tiny bit, but it's nothing dramatic by any standard. We heard a bit of coil-noise though, nothing dramatic or high squeaks just a bit of rattling in the background. In fact housed inside a closed chassis we doubt you would ever notice it. 

Power Consumption

Any GP104 Pascal GPU and thus GP104 based graphics card is rated as having a 180 Watt TDP under full stress, our measurements back that up albeit a notch higher due to the faster clocks and thus voltage usage - we measured just under 200 Watts with regular gaming. Anyhow, at this performance level you are looking at a card that consumes roughly 400~450 Watts for a stressed PC in total, that is okay. We think a 500~600 Watt PSU would be sufficient and if you go with 2-way SLI say an 750 Watt power supply is recommended. It's definitely more than needed but remember - when purchasing a PSU, aim to double up in Wattage as your PSU is most efficient when it is under 50% load. Here again keep in mind we measure peak power consumption, the average power consumption is a good notch lower depending on GPU utilization. Also, if you plan to overclock the CPU/memory and/or GPU with added voltage, please do purchase a power supply with enough reserve. People often underestimate it, but if you tweak all three aforementioned variables, you can easily add 200 Watts to your peak power consumption budget as increasing voltages and clocks increases your power consumption.
  

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Overall gaming performance

Do you really need a card as beefy as the GeForce GTX 1080 really is though? Well, that depends on a rather abstract external factor, your monitor(s) and in specific the resolution you play your games at. If you game at a resolution of 1920x1080 (Full HD) then no, not really. However, more is better and with technologies like DSR (super-sampling) and Ultra HD the raw horsepower this card offers certainly isn't distasteful. Also, with with surround gaming (three monitors) the GeForce GTX 1080 will just make a lot of sense, especially with the new simultaneous multi-projection feature build into the rendering pipeline, that probably is one of the most innovative features Nvidia has added that I have seen in a long time. From 1080p to Ultra HD the GeForce GTX 1080 hauls the proverbial toosh compared to whatever other single GPU based graphics card you can name in existence. Obviously it is the fastest kid on the block. This much performance and graphics memory helps you in Ultra HD, hefty complex anti-aliasing modes, DSR and of course the latest gaming titles. I consider this to be among the first viable single GPU solutions that allows you to game properly in Ultra HD with some very nice eye candy enabled. However, I was kinda hoping to be closer to 60 FPS on average with the GTX 1080 in Ultra HD. But that will probably take the future Big Pascal (Ti / Titan). As always, drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. And with a single GPU there's no micro-stuttering and no multi-GPU driver issues to fight off. Performance wise, really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings. Gaming you must do with a nice 30" monitor of course, at 2560x1440/1600 or Ultra HD. Now, we can discuss the advantages of an 8 GB framebuffer, but hey, you can draw your own conclusions there. At least you won't run out of graphics memory for the years to come right? So in that respect the card is rather future proof. SLI then, we have to mention this. Starting with Pascal the primary focus for Nvidia in terms of multi-GPU setups is that they will support 2-way SLI, but really that's it and all. For those of you that want to run 3 and 4-way configuration, unless you want to breach 3Dmark records, it's not going to do anything for you int erms of value. Do not expect Nvidia to enhance drivers for it. Once last remark on performance. You will have noticed that in some games this higher clocked product is a good 10% faster where in other just a few percent. That's Nvidia's limiters at work for you. All card under very hefty load will be limited in a way more narrow bracket. Whereas games that leave enough breathing room can advance on that GPU and score better opposed to some other games.

Overclocking

Due to the many limiters and hardware protections Nvidia has built in all and any cards will hover roughly at or just over the 2 GHz on the Boost marker. That frequency will differ per game/application. On 3DMark Firestrike for example it may hover at ~2000 MHz, while in Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) you will be closer towards 2.1 GHz. The reality is that Nvidia monitors and adapts to hardware specific loads, e.g. an application that is nearly viral like on the GPU will have the effect of the GPU protecting itself by lowering clocks and voltages. The opposite applies here as well, if a game does not try & fry that GPU, it'll clock a bit faster within the tweaked thresholds at your disposal. Tweaking is fun, but definitely more complicated anno 2016. The memory can reach 11 Gbps effectively, I have seen some card even reach 1.2 GHz/Gbps. Pascal GPUs do like their memory bandwidth though, so if you can find a high enough stable tweak, definitely go or it if you are seeking that last bit of extra performance. For the ASUS we reached a stable max of roughly 2050~2088 MHz on the boost frequency and a terrific effective data-rate) of 1.1 GHz on the memory. The product is tweaked really well already with an extra 150 MHz straight out of the box, we recommend you to leave it at that as you'll be covered by a three year warranty that way. 

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Concluding

The ROG Strix GTX 1080 is the Royale with cheese - and I do like my Pulp Fiction quotes! The Strix ticks all the right boxes from factory tweak to looks, to the nice RGB LED system up-to the cooling levels. Noise wise, you will be able to slightly hear the fans under full load temperatures but it's still in what I call a silent product. That said when we notice it we mention it, we did hear a tiny bit of coil whine. At roughly 100+ FPS it became audible enough to notice in the background noise. Now do not take this out of proportion, it isn't heaps or annoying at all, but yes we could hear some. Next to the weird monitor connector configuration these two items would be my only remarks, as the rest is golden. ASUS offers an very lovely looking and performing product with that all new ROG STRIX. With that 8 GB of GDDR5X memory you will purchase a product that is future proof for a while (although in the world of technology that I am afraid is a relative statement). Any GTX 1080 will bring a truckload of gaming performance towards your PC. The Strix adds a little extra into the mix with its lovely feature set and high factory tweak.  The new Pascal architecture proves its agility and the die shrink to 16 nm FiNFET shows low power consumption due to lower voltages and obviously the high clock-speeds and that GDDR5X memory offer the complete package that the GTX 1080 is. If you stick to the WQHD 2560x1440 domain this is the card that will last you years to come combined with that lovely 8 GB of graphics memory. For long-term Ultra HD usage (high FPS / GPU demanding titles) however the answer still needs to be found in two cards. But hey, if WQHD is your domain then the GeForce GTX 1080 is a rather future proof product with that proper and fast 8GB GDDR5X graphics memory. The ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 is one of the top-tier GTX 1080 card available on the market. It will not be cheap at just roughly 775 EURO, that I am afraid is the price you'll need to pay in the high-end game. It does however come with terrific aesthetics, a three year warranty and a that lovely RGB LED lighting system Overall and aside from my two remarks this is to be considered a top of the line product that should be high on your short-list if you are in the market for a GeForce GTX 1080.

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