14 DAY TRIAL // Now that NVIDIA has formally launched its newest graphics cards, the high-end GeForce GTX 980 and 970 based on Maxwell architecture, its OEMs are releasing their own versions of the boards.
What I have for you here is the Strix pair from ASUS, the Strix GTX 980 and Strix GTX 970. As you can see, they both have a different cooler, which only starts if the temperature goes above 65 degrees Celsius / 149 degrees Fahrenheit. And even then, it only spins at 500 RPM, gradually rising the higher the load becomes.
But that's not all you get here. Indeed, the video cards are factory-overclocked. Instead of 1,126 MHz base / 1,216 MHz GPU Boost, the Strix GTX 980 works at 1,178 / 1,279 MHz.
Also, the GTX 970 functions at 1,114 / 1,253 MHz instead of 1,050 MHz / 1,178 MHz. This makes the 0dB cooling technology twice as impressive.
The rest of the specs are pretty much the same though, including the 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM with 7 GHz clock.
The ASUS Strix GTX 980 and Strix GTX 970 should sell for just a bit more than the reference MSRPs NVIDIA issued earlier: $549 / €549 for GTX 980 and $329 / €329 for the GTX 970.
