ASUS Announces STRIX GTX 980 and STRIX GTX 970 Graphics Cards

actually now i'm thinking about evga. the new acx cooler is supposed to be better but i can't find anything about the pcb. one of the great things about asus non reference cards is the upgraded components. no weird squealing noises! come to think of it i don't even know if the strix has custom pcb. hang on double checking lol.

EDIT: ok i feel better

"ASUS has launched Strix GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards, bringing the benefits of a DirectCU II cooler with fatter, 10mm heatpipes, fan shut-off at low temps (0dB fan tech) and the usual DIGI+ VRM and Super Alloy Power upgrades inside"

I don't care too much if another brand gets another 20mhz max oc or whatever. asus dcu2 cards have served me well and don't squeal when i play games. what's the point of getting a card with a fancy cooler if it still sounds annoying? plus apparently evga doesn't have lifetime warranties anymore. i must have missed the meeting. bummer. anyways i was almost considering getting a 780 strix just for the silence and then this came out so great!

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actually now i'm thinking about evga. the new acx cooler is supposed to be better but i can't find anything about the pcb. one of the great things about asus non reference cards is the upgraded components. no weird squealing noises! come to think of it i don't even know if the strix has custom pcb. hang on double checking lol.

EVGA are all reference or near reference cards with option to get SC/FTW with higher clock and ACX cooler. Except slightly higher clocks and different cooler all their cards are so far the same. I bet that the same as with 700 series only Classified will be fully non-reference but it will take some time till they release them ( or we will see it in 980Ti only ).

I'm not sure what about ASUS GTX980 but GTX970 is kinda weak. I mean only 1x8 pin power connector what gives max 225W and in most reviews OC results are lower than the competition. For comparison MSI has 6+8 power connectors ( 300W max ) and fully non-reference design. Gigabyte the same but probably 1 phase for memory more.
I wanted ASUS but after what I saw in various tests and reviews I'm not convinced at all. I won't pick MSI because of warranty stickers and I won't pick EVGA as their cards are just like reference with standard power section etc. I will think about Gigabyte and maybe Zotac Extreme if they will be available soon. Galax is not available in local stores and other brands are not even worth to mention.

Lifetime warranty means ( if it's not clearly said otherwise ) that they will replace/fix it till about 1-2 years after end of manufacture what means about 3-4 year warranty. Simply 3 or 5 year warranty is almost always better than lifetime but all depends from manufacturer. Gamers are changing gfx cards more often anyway so I would care more to not see my card in RMA at all during the warranty period.

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it's probably the single plug on the 970 that does it. whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be demoted to janitor. i can't speak for everyone but i couldn't care less about only needing one plug. if a power supply has an 8pin vga plug at all it's almost certain to have another one i would think. i bet the 980 oc's just fine but i'll wait to see of course. as far as warranty i guess it's not just the length for me but the quality of customer service. i just have a feeling that if something goes wrong with evga they would take care of it painlessly but everyone swears asus warranties make you want to kill yourself. i haven't had to use one yet fortunately. if i have to choose between quality and warranty i'll take quality.

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GTX980 is like GTX680. One more time the same story. It's not the top series but it cost like one and in maybe 2-3 months will be big drop in prices while GTX970 won't be much cheaper.
When you have GTX780 then I see no point to change card for gaming unless you are using 2-3 monitors above 1080p. FPS gain looks better in % but if you compare it in games then it's like 70 vs 80 or something. It doesn't change much as in both cases all will run good.
I will grab GTX970 when they will be available in local stores just because I see they have high OC potential and I can replace GTX780 1:1 ( already sold it ). I'm not playing much and my daily PC for gaming has GTX580 what is enough for everything I need.

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