Hot on the heels of the recent ROG GTX 980 Poseidon launch ASUS is preparing another ROG-themed graphics card making use of Nvidia's GM204 Maxwell GPU. The new flagship Republic of Gamers product in question is the ASUS GTX 980 Matrix Platinum, and as with past Matrix Platinum models, ASUS focused on delivering some of the best power componentry and cooling solutions possible.
A completely custom PCB design allows ASUS to equip a 12+2 phase DIGI+ VRM with super-alloy components and black metallic capacitors. The Matrix Platinum cooler makes use of four matte-black heatpipes, two 10mm and two 8mm, which feed into a matte-black heatsink array. ASUS uses two fans, one of which one is a conventional axial-type and the other a hybrid axial-radial 'CoolTech' fan.
The GTX 980 GPU comes with a 1,342MHz boost clock, up from 1,216MHz on the Nvidia reference model, while the 4GB of GDDR5 memory retains the stock 7GHz effective frequency. That's certainly not the highest overclock on the market, though overclocking headroom should be plentiful given ASUS speedbins the GPUs for these cards.
ASUS further adds a few extras to the GTX 980 Matrix Platinum in the form of an ROG colour-coded LED load indicator, a memory defroster function for LN2 users, and a Safe Mode for recovering an unstable overclock. The display outputs include three DisplayPort, one HDMI and one dual-link DVI.
Pricing for the new flagship ROG graphics card has yet to be announced, but we think £550-575 seems likely given that the GTX 980 STRIX currently fetches £500.
