Conclusion
With the DirectCU II’s proven track record paired with Nvidia’s GTX 960 GPU, it was pretty clear that Asus’ GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC could be a fantastic contender in the upper-mid-range graphics market. The thermal performance it delivered exceeded expectations and the competition equally, all while remaining nearly silent.
Asus' GPU Tweak software is easy to use and makes overclocking a simple process that anyone can figure out. This could be taken as a good or bad thing, as there are no safeguards in place to prevent someone who doesn’t know what they are doing from going too far and frying a piece of equipment. For those who do their homework, it can be a useful tool.
Despite the excellent bundled overclocking software, this particular example of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 960 isn’t as strong of an overclocker as other boards we’ve tested. As with anything being tuned, there are no guarantees. The power and thermal results suggest that this should not be the norm, however.
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Kevin Carbotte is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware, covering Graphics. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.