ASUS GTX970 Strix Review

Up Close

The Owl part of the Strix brand – Strix being Latin for owl – is in full effect here with the packaging advertising both the owl, to differentiate it from regular ASUS products, and the design of the heatsink. Both offer the eyes as the primary feature as we saw from the Pro Headset as well as the Strix logo.

      

By utilising the DirectCU II cooler as the base ASUS have given the Strix GTX970 the guarantee of excellent cooling performance whilst retaining the flexibility to ensure the looks are suitably owlish. With any heavy branding there is a possibility to under-utilise it once the actual product comes to be designed, and whilst nobody could accuse the Strix 970 of being covered in feathers, it at least shows some tendency towards the theme of the card.

      

With only a single 8pin input the Strix is gentle on the power consumption. The DirectCU II cooler, especially with the backplate, looks the business. We never tire of seeing a big fat heatpipe promising low temperatures.

      

“Mom, my card is looking deep into the depths of my soul!”.

Round the business end there is the usual selection of nVidia outputs, namely two DVIs, a DisplayPort and an HDMI.