ASUS Strix Edition GeForce GTX 970 Graphics Card Review

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by Rob Williams on September 24, 2014 in Graphics & Displays

With the help of Maxwell, NVIDIA has hit a definite home run with its GeForce GTX 900 GPUs. In our look at the GTX 980 last week, we were left thoroughly impressed, but little did we realize at the time, the GTX 970 – and ASUS’ Strix edition in particular – was about to impress us even more. Simply put, you need to check this card out.

Page 7 – Best Playable: Single Display

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, an ideal performance target has been 60 frames-per-second. Owing thanks to this is the standard 60Hz monitor, which delivers its best result when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, to avoid visible tearing, VSync should be enabled.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by livingroom gaming or console replacements. The goal here is simple: With each game, the graphics settings are tweaked to deliver the best possible detail while keeping us as close to 60 FPS on average as possible.

Because our Metro Last Light and Total War: SHOGUN 2 tests are timedemos, and because this kind of testing is time-consuming, I am sticking to six out of the eight games I test with for inclusion here.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Minimum Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 51 60
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Environment: Very High Shadow: Soft Shadow High
Texture: High Reflection: High
Anti-aliasing: FXAA God Rays: High
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+ High Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur On
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 52 61
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Environment: Very High Shadow: Very High
Texture: High Reflection: High
Anti-aliasing: FXAA God Rays: High
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur On
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix 56 62
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Environment: Very High Shadow: Very High
Texture: High Reflection: High
Anti-aliasing: FXAA God Rays: High
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+ High Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur On
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix

ASUS’ Strix came ahead of the 780 Ti in most of the game tests seen on the previous four pages, and the card kicks this page off with even more impressive performance. While the 780 Ti was best playable with the same settings used in our regular apples-to-apples benchmarking, I found that I was able to boost the ambient occlusion to HBAO+ High and not only peak at 62 FPS, but gain 4 FPS on the minimum as well.

Battlefield 4
Minimum Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 47 63
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Texture Quality: Ultra Texture Filtering: Ultra
Lighting: Ultra Effects: Ultra
Post Processing: Ultra Mesh: Ultra
Terrain: Ultra Terrain Decoration: Ultra
Anti-aliasing Deferred: 4x MSAA Anti-aliasing Post: High
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 43 62
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Texture Quality: Ultra Texture Filtering: Ultra
Lighting: Ultra Effects: Ultra
Post Processing: Ultra Mesh: Ultra
Terrain: Ultra Terrain Decoration: Ultra
Anti-aliasing Deferred: 2x MSAA Anti-aliasing Post: Medium
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix 46 60
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Texture Quality: Ultra Texture Filtering: Ultra
Lighting: Ultra Effects: Ultra
Post Processing: Ultra Mesh: Ultra
Terrain: Ultra Terrain Decoration: Ultra
Anti-aliasing Deferred: 4x MSAA Anti-aliasing Post: Medium
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix

To hit 60 FPS in Battlefield 4, decreasing the anti-aliasing to 2xMSAA with the 780 Ti was necessary. By contrast, the GTX 970 could stick with 4xMSAA. Unlike the GTX 980 though, the 970 had to drop from HBAO to SSAO – not exactly a hard pill to swallow.

Crysis 3
Minimum Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 44 65
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Anti-aliasing: FXAA Texture: Very High
Effects: High Object: Very High
Particles: High Post Processing: High
Shading: High Shadows: High
Water: High Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 42 66
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Anti-aliasing: FXAA Texture: High
Effects: High Object: High
Particles: High Post Processing: High
Shading: High Shadows: High
Water: High Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix 44 61
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Anti-aliasing: FXAA Texture: High
Effects: High Object: High
Particles: High Post Processing: High
Shading: High Shadows: High
Water: High Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix

As we saw with our Crysis 3 results earlier, the GTX 970 in this particular game scores a bit lower than the 780 Ti. However, at 1440p, we’re still hitting 60 FPS with “High” detail. Not even the GTX 980 could boost many of the settings to Very High – this game might be a year-and-a-half old, but it’s still a graphical beast.

GRID 2
Minimum Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 69 88
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: Ultra Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Ultra
Soft Ambient Occlusion: On Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: Ultra
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: High
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: On Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 73 83
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: Ultra Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Ultra
Soft Ambient Occlusion: On Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: Ultra
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: High
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: On Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix 78 86
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: Ultra Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Ultra
Soft Ambient Occlusion: On Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: Ultra
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: High
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: On Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix

Perhaps not surprisingly, the ASUS Strix handles this game without issue at max detail at 1440p resolution.

Sleeping Dogs
Minimum Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 65 78
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Anti-aliasing: High High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 54 71
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Anti-aliasing: High High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix 57 72
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Anti-aliasing: High High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix

While the differences in AA modes in this particular title are difficult to see the difference between, it’s safe to stick to the High setting when using the GTX 970 – even the minimum is nearly 60 FPS.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Minimum Average
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 50 60
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Texture Detail: Ultra Shadow: Ultra
Parallax: On Tessellation: On
Texture Filtering: 16x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO & HBAO+
Anti-aliasing: TXAA 2x
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 58 71
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Texture Detail: Ultra Shadow: Ultra
Parallax: On Tessellation: On
Texture Filtering: 16x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO & HBAO+
Anti-aliasing: FXAA
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix 59 68
Graphics Settings
& Ingame Screenshot
Resolution: 2560×1440
Texture Detail: Ultra Shadow: Ultra
Parallax: On Tessellation: On
Texture Filtering: 16x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO & HBAO+
Anti-aliasing: FXAA
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix

Like the GTX 780 Ti, the GTX 970 handles the game just fine using the same settings as our apples-to-apples test. The only detail level that can go higher is AA, and any change there will cause the FPS to plummet.

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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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