At Computex 2016, ASUS, a long time GPU collaborator and a NVIDIA partner for a long time, has unveiled its ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080.
It pushes well past what NVIDIA’s board can do. The regular Strix runs at a 1.76GHz base clock speed (with a boost to 1.9GHz) versus the reference model’s 1.6GHz, and an overclocked version bumps that to 1.78GHz (boosting to 1.94GHz). Both cards have 8 GB of GDDR5X memory, a 256-bit memory interface, single DVI-D output, HDMI 2.0 outputs and DisplayPort outputs.

You get customizable lighting that includes color-shifting and patterns — you can even have the lights pulse to your music if you want your PC to serve as a tiny disco. ASUS’ mix of heatpipes and custom-shaped fans also promises a card that’s 30 percent cooler and three times quieter than NVIDIA’s stock hardware.
The high speeds of the Asus Strix cards can cause overheating issues, but the company has addressed the problem. Asus suggests that the gaming cards benefits from “direct-GPU-contact” heatpipes, which pulls away the heat from the card via surface transference.
“The Wing-Blade fans are carefully shaped to maximize static pressure over the heatsink, contributing to a 30 percent improvement in cooling performance over the Founders Edition,”says Asus.
The company claims that the Strix is also quieter when compared to the GTX 1080 Founders Edition.
And here’s the deal breaker, while NVIDIA’s own GTX 1080 costs $699, the standard Strix will sell for $620; even the higher-clocked version costs $640. You could buy a brand new game with the price difference, folks. You’ll likely have to wait until June 4th to get ASUS’ card, but it’ll probably be worth the wait.