[section_title title=Conclusion]
Conclusion
I think when you are in the market to purchase a graphics card, you already know which focus your purchase is geared towards, whether it’s down to budget, performance or even purely about the aesthetics. Those looking to purchase a top tier card like the GTX 980 Ti, however, means you want performance and with ASUS throwing their hat into the monolithic Ti market with their new DirectCU III cooler, it’s a heated battle….but maybe not? The DCU3 cooler is nothing short of fantastic and with software like the ASUS GPU Tweak II software backing the hardware up like a boss, it’s hard to argue with any claims ASUS want to make about their card.
Out of the box, the performance of this card is absolutely superb and coupled with the new revision of the DirectCU cooler (in its 3rd now), it blazes across the battleground like a hellfire missile locked onto the target, with the target being awesome frame rates! Tied in with epic cooling performance, it would be hard not to consider this card and if you’re worried about budget, why even consider a GTX 980 Ti in the first place? This card even mops over a Titan X which given the £250-300 cheaper price with the STRIX model, it shows value if your perception looks at things like we do.
Touching more firmly on the price, you can get yourself one of these STRIX GTX 980 Tis for between £590-620 depending on your e-tailer of choice. Considering the brand new DirectCU III cooler, the 1-year license to Xsplit Gamecaster which allows you to stream your gameplay to the world, the 3-year warranty, it doesn’t seem too much like a bad deal really! Of course, this card isn’t going to be for bargain hunters, but it is what it is, a super-fast GTX 980 Ti with a fantastic cooler, fantastic performance, fantastic design and deserves nothing short of our Platinum award.
If you want the best and fastest out of the box NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti in terms of clock speed on the market, then the ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti DCU3 OC is the card you want! You will not be disappointed unless of course you’re on tight budget. Would we buy this over the GTX Titan X for gaming? Without a shadow of a doubt!
Huge thanks to ASUS for sending in today’s sample.
- Platinum Award –Was a tough one, but given the full package of the inclusive Xsplit Gamecaster license, the super fast out of the box clocks which boosts up to 1317MHz and a 3 year warranty, it makes logical sense!
- Performance Award – Pretty self explanatory here, fastest out of the box GTX 980 Ti we have seen and with the new DirectCU III cooler, it does the job and then some!
