ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 1080 8GB Review
Category : NVIDIA
Published by Marc Büchel on 10.11.16
The STRIX Gaming GTX 1080 8GB is ASUS' latest and greates single GPU graphics card, which comes with a factory OC, that pushes really hard on the new Pascal GP-104 chip. In combination with the vendor's DirectCU III cooler this might be silent yet very powerful solution for gamers wanting to push UHD at high levels of detail. We're certainly curious to find out what this beast can do.
Presentation
ASUS was amongst the first Nvidia add-in-card (AIC) partners that have decided to introduce a custom GTX 1080 graphics card which is using NVIDIAs latest and greatest GP104-400-A1 Pascal chip. For this graphics card, ASUS makes use of a custom PCB along side another updated version of their DirectCU cooler. On the backside of the card, there is a good looking backplate. A quick glance at the specs also reveals that this card ships factory overclocked.
Browsing the specifications of this card we find 2560 CUDA cores, 160 TMUs and 64 ROPs. For comparison reasons, the GTX 980 featured 2048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs and 64 ROPs. This means that, compared to the same model from the previous generation, there are significantly more CUDA cores, TMUs and ROPs. Looking at clock speeds we find a base clock set to 1'784 MHz and the boost clock is at 1'936 MHz, whereas the NVIDIA reference cards runs at 1607MHz/1733MHz, therefore there is a very solid 11.7% factory overclock on the GPU.
As we already mentioned, ASUS decided to use a significant factory-overclock on their new GTX 1080 STRIX. While the reference GTX 1080 is set to work at 1607 MHz for the base clock and 1733 MHz for the GPU boost clock, the GTX 1080 STRIX runs at 1'784 MHz base clock and 1'936 MHz boost clock.
When it comes to memory clock speeds we see the memory running at default clock speeds which is 1251 MHz and effective 10008 MHz. Combine this with a 256 Bit memory interface and you end up with a total of 320 Gigabyte of memory bandwidth.
Whereas the typical boost clock is set at 1'936 MHz, the maximum boost of 2'050 MHz was achieved quite easily and the GTX 1080 STRIX held that clock most of the load time due to the capable DirectCU III cooler as well as good TDP target (nVidia's Boost technology being power-based and not temperature-based on this card). At this point we also ran Furmark to see how high the card overclocks, when the GPU is under maximum load. This way we can determine a worst case scenario regarding maximum boost clock. With this card we see clocks speeds of 1'860 MHz at 0.862v.
Specifications
| ASUS GTX 1080 STRIX Gaming | ASUS GTX 1080 STRIX Gaming | GeForce GTX 980Ti | |
| Chip | GP104-400-A1 Pascal | GP104-400-A1 Pascal | GM200-310-A1 Maxwell |
| Process | 16 nm | 16 nm | 28 nm |
| Transistors | 7.20 billion | 7.20 billion | 8.00 billion |
| GPU clock | 1'784 MHz | 1'607 MHz | 1'000 MHz |
| GPU Boost clock | 1'936 MHz | 1'733 MHz | 1'076 MHz |
| Memory | 8'192 MB | 8'192 MB | 6'144 MB |
| Memory clock | 1'251 (10'008) MHz | 1'251 (10'008) MHz | 1'750 (7'000) MHz |
| Memory interface | 256 Bit | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 320 GB/s | 320 GB/s | 336'600 MB/s |
| Shader Cores | 2'560 | 2'560 | 2'816 |
| TMUs | 128 | 128 | 160 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 96 |
| TDP | 180 Watt | 180 Watt | 250 Watt |
| PCB Type | Custom | Reference Design | Reference Design |
| Slots | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Cooler | DirectCU III | NVIDIA Reference | NVIDIA Reference |
| Launch Price | $829 | $699 | $649 |
The card
ASUS decided to equip the GeForce GTX 1080 STRIX with a new version of their famous DirectCU cooler. This is actually the third version of it and they decided to come up with a triple fan cooler. In the case of this card you get no less than five heatpipes, one measures six millimeter, two measure eight millimeter and two offer massive ten millimeter diameter. As with the DirectCU II cooler there is no base plate. ASUS actually communicates, that this should help decreasing temperatures even further, since there are less heat transfers. If you have a very close look at the heatpipes, you notice that there are rather large gaps inbetween the pipes. These gaps need to be filled with enough thermal compound. Apart from that this has has uneven cooling as a result, since the layer of thermal compound in the gaps is much thicker than between the GPU and the heatpipe. This actually leads to the point that cooling is not provided to the GPU uniformly, when there is the so called "Direct Touch" approach in place. Apparently this is nothing to worry about, but in countless cooler reviews we noticed, that models with a copper baseplate perform better than others with Direct Touch Heatpipes.
Soldered to the heatpipes you find the fin stack which is being provided with fresh air by three fans, which are being manufactured by Everflow. The fans on the new STRIX Gaming series cards are designed to spin only when the GPU temeprature reaches 55 degrees, which means that in 2D mode they are completeley off. Also, under low loads the fans don't start to spin. Under high-load the noise level is still silent, subjectively speaking.
The ASUS GTX 1080 STRIX Gaming graphics card, or to be precise our sample of
it, allowed a maximum stable overclock to 2'100 MHz
for the GPU and 1'321 MHz on the memory side. We used Furemark V1.11.0 Geeks3D
benchmark with 15 minutes duration. With these clocks we had to feed the GPU
with 1.081 Volts and the memory ran at stock voltages.
A closer look at the PCB shows that ASUS equipped this card with a 10+2+1 phase digital power design. The GPU gets its current from ten phases, two phases take good care of the 8GB of GDDR5X memory and the additional phase is in charge of PLL. Once more, ASUS is using high quality super alloy chokes. Apart from that it's the first time that ASUS has a fully automated production process in place. This means, that the human error can be completely removed from the production line and the individual parts are being mounted on the PCB in always the same, perctly uniform manner.
Checking the voltage regulation chip, we find a digital multi-phase buck controller uP9511P. Apart from that there are two uP01320P, which are most likely taking care of voltage regulation for the memory chips.
The memory chips used are made by Micron and carry the model number 6JA77-D9TXS. They are specified to run at 1'250 MHz (10'000 MHz effective).
Photo Gallery
Delivery
The graphics card ships well bolstered in a foam made mold. Bundled with it there is a user guide, a driver CD that includes the GPU Tweak overclocking tool and a power converter (2x6-Pin to 1x8-Pin-PCIe). If you are looking for game vouchers or something like that you will be disappointed, since there is absolutely nothing like this in the box.
Test Setup
| Motherboard |
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| CPU |
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| Memory |
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| Graphics Cards | Reference Cards
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| Drivers |
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| Games and OS |
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| System Drive | |
| PSU |
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3DMark - Time Spy - DirectX 12
3DMark Fire Strike - DirectX 11
3DMark - VRMark
SteamVR Performance Test
ArmA 3
1080p DirectX 11
ArmA 3 - Settings |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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Ashes of the Singularity
DirectX 11
DirectX 12
Ashes of the Singularity - Settings DX11 & DX12 |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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Doom
Doom - Settings |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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Far Cry Primal
Far Cry Primal - Settings |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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GTA V
GTA V - Settings |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege - Settings |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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Total War Warhammer
DirectX 11
DirectX 12
Total War Warhammer - Settings DX11 & DX12 |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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XCOM 2
XCOM2 - Settings |
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| 1080p | 1440p | 2160p |
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Power Consumption
Temperatures / Noise Levels
Temperature
Noise Level
Performance Index & Price
Performance Index
Price
Conclusion
| General | + | ||
| The GTX 1080 Strix Gaming with 8 Gigabyte of GDDR5X memory is a very quick card. The new DirectCU III cooler, which is capable of deactivating the fans, when the card is in idle does a great job. Apart from that there is a high quality power design, yet overclocking capabilities with this card are limited, since the factory OC is very close to the chips limit already. Looking at the performance this card is really fast, overclocking itself to a maximum boost clock of a staggering 2'050 MHz. Combine that with the 2560 CUDA cores, and you can grasp, that this card is seriously fast. Putting it through all the different games, we noticed, that it is capable of running at UHD smoothly even when the detail levels are high. Basically there is only one drawback with this card: it is quite expensive. Already the reference GTX 1080 is able to tear quite a hole into your pocket and the GTX 1080 STRIX from ASUS costs about 80 Euro more than the reference card. |
- Cooling
- Design - Noise level |
- Contact area of the DirectCU III cooler is not well manufactured | |
| Cooling / Noise Level | + | - | |
| As noted earlier, the DirectCU III cooler on this particular card is really powerful. We very much like the fact, that in idle this card is inaudible, since the fans are not spinning at all. Under load the card is still very silent and the cooler maintains a maximum temperature of 66°C, which is simply excellent. |
- Inaudible in 2D - Silent in 3D |
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| Performance | + | - | |
| Compared to the reference design, this card features a 170 MHz factory overclock regarding the boost clock. Therefore the performance is significantly higher, than what you would be getting from a reference card. On average this card performaned 6.1 percent faster than the reference GTX 1080. When it comes to power consumption we see that our system burns 63 Watts in idle and 285 Watts under full load. Overall power consumption is on the level we expected it to be and the high quality power design helps scraping off a few Watts every here and there. |
- Perforamnce - Factory OC |
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| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| At the moment we find this card listed in Europe for 780 Euro. At this price point the ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 1080 8 GB is anything but cheap, but keeping in mind that this is one of the fastest single GPU cards available today, the price is adequate. As we already mentioned the this particular custom card costs about 80 Euro more than the reference model, and keeping in mind, that you get a capable but no perfect cooler as well as a complex custom PCB, the extra is just about ok. Should you be looking for an insanley fast single GPU card and should the price not be a concern, then this is an very good choice. |
- 2160p Gaming - Silent PC |
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| The ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 1080 8GB receives excellent 4 out of 5 stars. | |||
