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After Nvidia let all of its partners to develop their own designs for graphics cards based on its GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics processing units, the majority of manufacturers designed advanced printed-circuit boards for the latter and low-cost PCBs for the former. Asustek Computer decided to reverse the trend and introduce a GeForce GTX 970 featuring a sophisticated PCB and a high-end cooling system.
Asustek Computer has developed Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics card, which promises to be one of the best GeForce GTX 970 graphics adapters on the market. The board is based on the PCB used for the Asus Strix GTX 980 product, which is one of the most advanced GM204 graphics cards on the market. The Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight features 10-phase voltage regulation module (VRM), two auxiliary PCIe power connectors (one 8-pin and one 6-pin) as well as a modified DirectCU II cooling system with two different 10cm fans.
The Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight features base GPU clock-rate of 1253MHz (1355MHz maximum) as well as effective 7GHz GDDR5 frequency, reports Expreview. The card with its altered cooler and a backplate weighs around 1.11 kilograms.
The manufacturer positions its GTX 970 Dragon Knight below its premium Republic of Gamers (ROG) series of products, but above its default graphics solutions. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics card will be available anywhere outside mainland China and Taiwan. From time to time companies like Asustek introduce exclusive solutions for local markets.
10-phase VRM will enable great overclocking potential for the GPU, something, which could make the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight the world’s highest-performing GeForce GTX 970-based graphics adapter.
Price of the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight remains unclear, but do not expect to be affordable since the graphics card is truly exclusive.
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KitGuru Says: If the “Dragon Knight” graphics card reaches European, U.K. and U.S. markets, it could end up as one of the most interesting GeForce GTX 970 graphics solutions available thanks to advanced PCB design, quiet cooling system and potentially great overclocking potential.
Been pondering to buy 2x gtx970 now for 2 months. Maybe I’ll wait a little more.
8GB versions have been said to be coming out Q1 2015.
That will be one nice card… Hopefully will not be limited by bios like the rest of gtx 970-s
Looks great!!
At that time R9-390X HBM hit the market
Limited by BIOS? Do you even know what you’re talking about.
More like 380X with HBM which means 4GB VRAM max and much higher TDP.
They were dirt cheap at black friday… 1½ month ago. Lmao..
I think about TDP limitations implemented into new 900 series. Also max voltage offset is 37 mV. Clear now??? Do you think that original strix can’t handle max offset of voltage and max TDP offset that Nvidia allowed??? Just saying that for 10 phase VRM and considering that in the article was mentioned posibility of premium price asus should have higher limits allowing higher OC, but we have to wait for the card to hit reviewers to see what is capable of. Same case is Matrix 980 which has same settings for TDP and max voltage like Strix yet it costs a lot more. Get it now???
Are you aware of BIOS modding? Easy as pie and riskfree if you arent clueless.
Even with stock BIOS, most, if not all 970/980 are hitting ~1550 on the core.
But whay sell card to a user with 10 phase VRM and then limit the card with max allowed settings. Yeah, i’m familiar with modded bios but do you understand what i’m talking about??? There’s a ton of bioses on the net, i know that, and i know that is also almost painless to do it. But out of factory support for higher frequencys will be great. Also, i did not, nor you said that it will be limited, i’ve just said that i hope it will not
AMD limits their cards too, what’s your point?
This is not about AMD versus Nvidia. And is not bashing either Nvidia or AMD. Just wanted to say that is shame that you cannot use abilitys of 10 phase VRM with default bios. And when you mention AMD, AMDs card have 50% offset. Mostly will reach artifacting before the TDP limits
Too bad Nvidia doesn’t allow overvolting aside from negligible amounts. That’s why I sold my 680 Lightning… Spend so much money on a card specifically to OC and then Nvidia forces a voltage lock.. Love it.
the phase allow less vdroop meaning more voltage to the same voltage = increased clock
Sure, but also allows higher power delivery. If you are limited by TDP then card will not use all this voltage.