ASUS GTX760 Striker SLI Review

Conclusion

Applying the ROG ideology to a midrange GPU initially feels like watering down the brand. After all, the Republic of Gamers logo stands for the highest performance and, usually, a steep price tag for that luxury.

The GTX760 Striker follows the Maximus VII Ranger methodology though, in that it takes a sensible price point and gives you more than you could reasonably expect. 

The biggest selling point is unquestionably the looks of the card. As you saw on our second page, you can put the Striker up against the Matrix and barely be able to tell the difference between two cards that sit a long way apart in pricing terms. So often when you’re buying a graphics card at a price that the average person can afford you’re having to give up on aesthetics to fit in the budget. It’s almost as if manufacturers assume that anyone with only a couple of hundred of the Queens finest in their wallet will be content with a plasticky mess. With the Striker ASUS have imbued it with all their ROG goodness. You get an awesome looking cooler that apes anything at the top end of the price spectrum, a pair of fans that do a mighty good job in keeping everything cool, and even a backplate. The surest sign of quality.

As a single card the performance is about where you would expect to find any GTX760. After all, although the cooler is fantastic there are some limitations on how much you can tweak the architecture. It is worth noting that the 4GB of GDDR5 really helps out though, with many of our more demanding tests benefiting from the increased VRAM. Putting them in an SLI configuration is game changing though. Rather than struggle wheezily towards a stock GTX780, the GTX760 Striker SLI finds itself regularly outperforming even the most impressive GTX780Ti’s on the market. With the 4GB of GDDR5 showing its hand in Watch Dogs, you can also be sure that this will last well into the next generation of games. Something that isn’t always true of a graphics card in this market segment.

The looks are what really sell the Striker though. Casual observers will be left impressed, and even those of us with plenty of knowledge have to do a double take, such is the harmonious blend of the Striker into the ROG range. Its primary competitor is the ASUS 760 MARS, which performs around the same level for the same money. We loved that, and we love this card too. It’s down to you if you prefer the looks of a single card in your system or a pair. As a single card the GTX760 Striker is a great option for gamers and thus wins our Gamers Choice, but the capabilities in SLI, as well as those gorgeous looks, and performance above its pay grade are enough to push it into our OC3D Gold Award. Brilliant.

Single Card

    

In SLI

    

Thanks to ASUS for supplying the GTX760 Striker for review. Discuss your thoughts in the OC3D Forums.