ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum review - Introduction

ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum 1.5 GB

In the world of graphics cards there's a definitive shift of what you guys buy. Anno 2011 people tend to be prepared to spend a little more money in the mainstream to high-end segment in order to get a product that will last them two years, is cool, is silent and overclockable.

Along these lines we tested some more extreme stuff for the true aficionado's, the Lightning series from MSI, the SOC series from Gigabyte and every now and then ASUS pops open the trunk and opens a big can of whoop'ass. The Direct CUII version of the GTX 580 card certainly is impressive.

 You've seen cards like the Matrix, ARES and MARS in the past, well .. the Matrix  series is getting a teeny tiny bit more mainstream.

As such the ROG team took the GeForce GTX 580 GPU, and threw the rest away. They designed a new PCB, added features and then decided to boldly go go where none will ever wants to go, they put an even bigger tree slot cooler onto the product.

The end results is a graphics cards with a lot of features and hopefully overclock potential, shocking on both looks and design.

That's right, it is in the building. We received that big'ass Republic of Gamers (ROG) MATRIX GTX 580 graphics card from ASUS. The Republic of Gamers (ROG) MATRIX GTX 580 graphics card is powered by an extensive 19-phase VRM circuitry  that draws power from two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The card will come with two BIOSes, so should you mess one up you have a failsafe by pressing a button. Something interesting is on-the-fly fan RPM control, check the photo's later on for that feature.

Product Highlights

• Overclocking hardware tools like TweakIt and ProbeIt are directly embedded onto the ground-up redesigned PCB, while a Safe Mode button offers an easy reset option for worry-free overclocking.
• Tweak utility provides real-time software overclocking control. The tool not only guarantees superior control over such things as clock frequency, voltage and fan speed, but also provides several handy features like in-game video recording and live firmware and drivers update
• 19-phase Super Alloy Power components provide more headroom for overclocking with a 15% performance boost, reduced running temperatures by 35°C and prolonged product lifespan by 2.5 times.
• DirectCU II thermal technology with sound-dampened dual fans provides 600% greater airflow and 20% cooler performance than the reference design.
• A multicolored MATRIX LED load indicator on the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 gives an instant, color changing visual display of the real-time GPU load.

The clock frequencies of the card clock in at 816 MHz on the core, 1632 Mhz on the shader domain and 4008 MHz on memory.

We are flabbergasted though by the fact that this card is not be a 3GB model, it in fact packs 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory Display connectivity includes two DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. There's no word on the availability and pricing just yet but for that first hands on experience, where else do you need to be other then at Guru3D.com ? Next page please where we startup the review.