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Pros
Pro Semi-passive cooling under idle
The ROG Strix card doesn't produce any noise at all under idle or overall less intensive situations, as the card uses semi-passive cooling under 60 degrees Celsius. This results in a completely inaudible operation at low temperatures when the extra power isn't needed.
Pro 3 year warranty is longer than what the competition offers
ASUS has equipped its ROG Strix RX 480 card with three years of warranty, which is a step-up compared to the more usual 1-year or 2-year warranties that are provided on most other RX 480 cards.
Pro Equipped with two HDMI connectors, better suited for VR
ASUS has made a slight adjustment to the available connectors of the RX 480 ROG Strix. Instead of going with the regular combination of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI and 1x DVI-D, they have opted for 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI and 1x DVI-D instead. The additional HDMI connector is particularly useful when using the card in combination with a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which require two HDMI ports. Connecting a VR Headset won't require an adapter.
Pro Features adjustable RGB lightning
The exterior of the ASUS GeForce RX 480 8 GB OC features some RGB lights and you can adjust the color of these lights via the included software package. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind. You can also use the RGB lights to reflect the temperatures of the card.
Cons
Con Slight factory overclock isn't really noticeable
ASUS has only slightly adjusted the card's Boost Clock from 1266 MHz to 1310 MHz (+ 3.5%), while the normal GPU Clock and the Memory Clock haven't been increased at all. This small factory overclock evidently also results in a rather small performance increase that isn't really noticeable. As seen in this Fallout 4 test at 1080p resolution, the ROG Strix achieves an average FPS of 94.9, while a reference RX 480 only scores a little bit less at 93 average frames per second, a 2% increase. Although the Strix version is indeed faster than a reference RX 480 cards, other RX 480 models in the same or lower price category are equipped with better factory overclocks.
Con Quite long, won't fit in smaller cases
The ROG Strix cooler ASUS has used is equipped with three fans which makes the card longer than reference RX 480. The length measures at 11.73 inches (298 mm), which is significantly longer than the usual 9.5 inches (241 mm). Smaller enclosures will have trouble fitting the card comfortably and in some cases adjustments will have to be made such as removing an HDD bay.