980 Ti STRIX or Matrix?

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Pavel Pokidaylo

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Jun 8, 2013
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Hi. I'm getting ready to upgrade from my MSI 780 Ti SLI setup. I'm planning on getting one 980 Ti to begin with and a second one after I sell my 780s.

I've been looking at all the 980 Ti cards that are available now the one I like most (although it's sold out at the moment) is the Strix.

Asus will be releasing 3 new variants of the 980 Ti here soon, Poseidon, Matrix and 20th Anniversary. I really like the aesthetics of the Matrix I mean it's just so sexy. It's probably the only cooler I like as much if not more than the reference design, although the Strix is no slouch in this department either. I'm not big on overclocking though so all those overclocking features would probably be wasted on me. The Matrix will undoubtedly be a lot more expensive and I believe it's still using the DirectCUII cooler? Where as the Strix has the updated DirectCUIII cooler.

Thoughts?
 
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Well I would recommend the strix if your a sensible person. And the matrix if you like to spend a whole lot of money for not a lot in return. My personal favorite 980 ti is the msi gaming, msi is definitely a front runner for aftermarket maxwell cards.
 
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Not sure how sensible I really am considering I went from a 7950 to two in Crossfire to a 780 Ti to two in SLI and now want to go to 980 Ti SLI all within two years lol. Seriously though, I really like the Strix. It's just got so much going for it. As you know, I have the MSI 780 Ti Gaming SLI and when the MSI 980 Gaming cards were released I was jealous. They were faster, cheaper and even looked better, not that the Twin Frozr 4 cooler on my 780 Tis doesn't look good. After watching this video yesterday, I'd have to agree with this dude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AazNGIrxbuY

The MSI card does look good from the top there with the logo and the pipes. It doesn't look bad from the front either but he's right about that plasticy look. I mean I'd probably have to have one in front of me and in my hands to actually see and feel how true that claim is but from the video it doesn't look like he's lying. It does have a pretty nice backplate though.

The Strix on the other hand just looks beefier as he said. It just looks better to me in every way, including the backplate. check out the video you'll see what I'm talking about.
 
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I don't really care about the looks i care about what is under the hood. Asus was very conservative with the strix for maxwell cards they did not go as far as they usually go. The strix has a modest power design, near reference pcb, they didn't go through and upgrade every capacitor and choke like they usually do, making it a slightly upgraded reference card with a nice cooler on it.

Msi on the other hand has really stepped it up, the card is almost completely non reference and everything gets active cooling the vrm's and memory will be cooled by the main heatsink which is something im not sure if asus does.

The asus does have a slightly better cooler, he the msi's is still quieter at full load for some reason. Its all metal construction is nice ill give it that.

So to some it up t really doesn't matter which one you get in my opinion they are both very good. I just lean towards the msi because i believe it uses higher quality components on the inside. Also the more robust power design and cooling to the vrm's and memory should help overclocking assuming you got lucky in the silicon lottery.
 
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They do look quite nice with that sli bridge. If you like the asus go for it, its a great card. But in my opinion the msi is the better card, aesthetics aside.
 
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