The GPU temperature started out under 58C but we saw it quickly ramp up into the 65C range inside of 2 minutes, which caused the fans to spin up.
#Metro last light benchmark with gtx 780 sli on 4k Pc#
The first game that I tried was Dota 2, the second most popular PC game in the world (behind only League of Legends). After completing my normal runs of benchmarks on the card I set out to see if the ASUS claims were spot on about the ability for Strix to play less complex games without spinning fans. The idea of the Strix design with a cooler than run in a “silent” mode when the temperature is below a certain threshold is cool, and I was able to get it to work, but not right out of the box as you might have expected it to. Of course, once a game pushes hard enough for a GPU to break the 65C mark, the fans would spin up and you will still get the advantages of the DirectCU II cooler (quieter and more efficient). According to ASUS, during games like StarCraft II and League of Legends where the temperature of the GPU is able to stay below 65C, the fans on the cooler will simply never come on, maintaining 0db of sound being added to your system by the GPU. The primary feature change with the Strix gaming card is the ability to run some games, in some situations in a “silent” mode, where the fans literally don’t spin. It has a heat dissipation area more than twice that of the reference NVIDIA cooler and uses larger fans that allow them to spin slower (and quieter) at the improved cooling capacity. The cooler is a slightly modified version of the very popular DirectCU II thermal design used in many of the custom built ASUS graphics cards. The ASUS Strix GTX 780 card is a pretty large beast, both in physical size and in performance. And they change the cooling solution to offer a near silent operation mode when used in “low impact” gaming titles. They double the reference memory capacity from 3GB to 6GB of GDDR5, to assuage any buyer’s thoughts that 3GB wasn’t enough for multi-screen Surround gaming or 4K gaming. They chose to go with the GeForce GTX 780 GPU from NVIDIA at a significant price drop from the GTX 780 Ti, with only a modest performance drop. The ASUS Strix GTX 780 is exactly one of those solutions – taking a GTX 780 GPU that was originally released in May of last year and twisting it into a new design that offers better cooling, better power and lower noise levels.ĪSUS intended, with the Strix GTX 780, to create a card that is perfect for high end PC gamers, without crossing into the realm of bank-breaking prices.
With the expanded time between major GPU releases, from either NVIDIA or AMD, these products have continued evolving to offer better features and experiences than any graphics card before them. In the time periods between major GPU releases, companies like ASUS have the ability to really dig down and engineer truly unique products. Testing Setup and Frame Rating ExplanationĮxperience with Silent Design ASUS has built a custom GTX 780 card that uses a DirectCU II cooler and doubles the standard amount of memory!.