Price and Availability
The Asus STRIX GTX 970 DirectCU II OC 4GB is very much available now. When it was first released, its manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $349.99. But at the time I published this review, retail prices are lower at around $329.99 USD / £295.99 / ~Php 20,000. You also get a limited 3-year warranty from Asus.
Note: If you purchase a GeForce GTX 900 graphics card by May 31, 2015, you also get free The Witcher III and Batman Arkham Knights game.
Asus STRIX GTX 970 DC2OC Review: Conclusion
Based on my testing, the Asus STRIX GTX 970 is a great performing graphics card. It’s better than the previous GTX 780 and is almost on par with the GTX 780 Ti (sometimes a tad better). Most games are running at around 60 frames per second on a 1080p screen resolution with maximum game settings.
Also, at 1080p (and probably at 1440p as well), the STRIX 970 wasn’t able to go over 3.5GB of memory use. Most of the time, it was just hovering around 1GB to 3GB of memory. I didn’t experience any stuttering or lags at all. However, that may not be the same on a 4K resolution using two GTX 970 on SLI. The 3.5GB faster memory may be inadequate and you may experience stuttering once it tries to use all 4GB of its memory.
In my opinion a single GTX 970 is not meant for 4K gaming since you will be needing more horsepower (and memory) to drive the game at ultra-high definition with maximum game settings. But it’s definitely good for 1080p gaming, and 1440p gaming as well. Personally, I would choose a GTX 970 over the GTX 960, since it offers a better gaming experience than the latter despite being cheaper.
If you game at 1080p or 1440p, a GTX 970 is still a recommendable graphics card despite the issue that it has only 3.5GB of faster memory, instead of the whole 4GB. The GTX 780 Ti has only 3GB of memory and it was a fantastic card. Had it been introduced properly and there were no “miscommunications” between NVIDIA’s engineering and PR departments, there won’t be an issue in the first place. However, if you are planning to game on ultra-high definition 4K (even higher resolutions), the GTX 970 may not be the graphics card for you. You might as well get something faster with more memory installed.
Finally, the Asus STRIX GTX 970 DirectCU II OC graphics card is an amazing product. It may not be the fastest GTX 970 out of the box but it’s definitely a rock solid graphics card and very silent as well. It’s definitely a highly recommended product.
to all those who want to buy a gtx 970 strix. DON’T! just don;t, it looks awesome, it runs games very nice, but the heat is absolute incredible….. i have a 7870 saphire, i play gta v with settings on normal and some on high, it’s decent gameplay, decent meaning i don’t have ultra settings, my fps is around 70 78 on this settings with 7870 saphire, the thing is my 7870 get;s to 68 degrees celsius which is ok, last day my gtx 970 strix arrived, i installed it in my case opened gta v crank up the settings to ultra started playing the game, everything wonderful, after 10 minutes i exit the game open my case touch the backplate, guess what, i was burning hot, i am going to apologies for my english. so the thing is: when i run asus gpu tweek it says my gpu is 65 degrees celsius, but i can tell you that is bullshit because on my 7870 when i touch the gpu and it says it is at 65 degrees well it doesn’;t feel like the gtx does. the gtx feels like 100 degrees. i serched the web for information about the 970 s, and everywhere they said that it runs cool and shit, fuck them! i had to choose between gygabite g1 gaming msi and asus strix, everybody sayd: the strix has the less performance of the 3, but it runs the coolest. so i sayd, ok i will buy the strix i don’t give a fuck about oc and 5 9 fps more, i rather have a cool gpu than 10 more fps and a hot as fuck gpu, so i bought this piece of shit! i am really sorry for the way i’ve tryied expressing i hope everybody reads this, i am NOT A FANBOY! i just was surprised of the gtx of how hot its the backplate. the vrm are not cooled properly on this card….. don’t believe people on youtube when they say, well the gtx it’s the coolesyt than and this, it’s all marketing shit! how the fuck my 7870 4 year old gpu can do 65 degrees in games and this new gpu is doing 65 and the backplate 100. if you wanna buy it, try to buy it from a retailer that offers a good customer service. buy it, try it, return it. i am not hating on nvidia or amd. i just told you my story….. so others know this problem with the backplate.
Not sure how hot was your backplate but yes, it does get hot and it’s not limited to the strix alone. You also need a good air flow inside your chassis since the GPU’s cooler doesn’t blow or exhaust the heat at the back. It will just circulate within your chassis, thus the need for a good air in and exhaust in your chassis. my only prob with this is (and you are right) the VRMs are not cooled. Better get the Zotac GTX 970! Amp Extreme Core https://thepcenthusiast.com/zotac-geforce-gtx-970-amp-extreme-core-edition-review/ much cooler than the Strix and runs faster as well.
For those who are planning to buy a GTX 970 better wait for the next gen cards which is just a few months a way. But if you are looking for a cheaper card, I guess the GTX 970’s prices will go down once the new cards are released.