ASUS Radeon HD 7970 ROG MATRIX Platinum review

Connectivity wise the output connectors will vary per brand -- ASUS went a little extreme though. You'll get two DVI connectors and then four display port connectors. It is worthy to note that on none of the DVI connectors our dual-link 30" Dell screen got enough signal. So we can only assume these again are single link DVI connectors. If you need a resolution higher than 1920x1200 .. be sure to get a monitor with Display Port connectors.

The reason actually is simple. Combined you could pull of 6-way eyefinity monitor setup. To do that the dual-link DVI connector must be set at single link. There is a switch on the card that can select single link & dual link.

Here on top we see a matrix logo, it's lit up in green and blue if the performance is under control and purple to red when under extreme load.

 

Meanwhile, the triple-slot cooler has two 100mm fans, the housing is very sturdy. The cooling is excellent, the downside however is that the residual heat for the vast majority is exhausted inside your chassis. So be sure you have your chassis airflow under control. The card will need to be connected towards two 8-pin PCI Express Graphics power connectors.

Overall the card remains cooled within very good limits and isn't noisy either. But you'll learn all about that over the next few pages of content. Also note that there are voltage monitoring points available for the enthusiast LN2 crowd.

At the rear side of the card we see a series of activity LEDs and buttons.  The + - buttons are TweakIT buttons that allow voltage adjustments on the fly. There's also a safe mode button that works a bit like a clear CMOS button and will revert you towards your last stable video BIOS. Last but now least for extreme overclocking on air you can put the fan at 100% RPM. A little bit on the high and noisy side though. But for a fun 3DMark perf session, it can be very helpful.

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