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ASUS Matrix 980 8Pack review. Air cooling and beyond!!

8 Pack

8 Pack

8 Pack

OcUK Staff
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So I reviewed the ASUS Strix several months ago and I was very impressed with the build quality, cooling and Overclocking on the card. What was just as impressive was the efficiency of the card and how quickly ASUS got the card to market so soon after the 980 launch.

Onto Matrix then!! Lets first have a look at what is an exceptionally built card which has all the extra features you would expect from any card at this price point and some extras also.

The Matrix has a very well built cooler. It looks great is almost all metal with the distinctive ROG branding fitting in well with almost all builds and especially with ROG motherboards. The cooler is not only powerful but almost silent on Auto setting and still remaining quiet at full pelt. The back plate is done well adds rigidity to the PCB to prevent warping but is also working well at absorbing heat away from the card. At all times during my bench testing the GPU never exceeded 57C with most testing done around the 55C temp mark. This shows even more that the Cooler is not all show but real substance too.

Other features of the card are VGA hotwire to enable on the fly Voltage tuning with the ROG panel and also real time voltage monitoring with a digital multi meter.

We have dual bios. One for normal operation on Air and an LN2 bios unlocking even more options in GPU tweak to get the most out of the card on sub ambient cooling. No mods needed with this card plug and play goodness!!









All this having been said lets now see how well the card performs in practice. For the testing I will start off with stock volts gaming capable Overclocking and move onto LN2 in future posts.

Test ROG sorry rig!!
ASUS 980 Matrix
ASUS RVE
Intel 5960X 5625
GSKILL DDR4
Antec 1200 PSU
Win 7 sp1 64 Bit
Nvidia driver 344.48, 64 Bit.

Results
3D Mark 11 Performance

3D Mark Firestrike

3D Mark Firestrike Xtreme

Heaven 4.0 with Forum settings!!

Heaven Valley Xtreme HD settings


In these results we see on stock volts the core of this card doing 1515mhz Core Boost and 2040-2050mhz stable on mems. This was completely stable with no artifacts and running everything I threw at it easy. With more volts I am sure it can go higher but the purpose of this initial testing is to show what your average gamer can expect. This is not an outstanding result but above average for 980 and Overclocking is by no means guaranteed on any card. The cooler for sure has headroom for added volts with 57C at full OC being the best I have seen out of any cooler. What I also feel is important to mention is the out of box experience with the Matrix for guys not wanting to overclock at all. This is a 1405mhz!! overclock without the need to alter anything. Perfect for all gamers even at demanding settings and resolutions.

In conclusion I would recommend the Matrix for Air cooled performance. The build and aesthetics are top notch. The cooler is strong as 8Pack and whisper quiet. The factory overclock high with very good performance and for tweakers and overclockers the card has great features, software and headroom.

LN2 action to follow...............
 
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Hi there


Of course we have this card available for pre-order:

Asus GeForce GTX 980 Matrix Platinum 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card @ £599.99 inc VAT

GX-357-AS_400.jpg


The world’s record GPU frequency of 2.20GHz was set on Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics cards made by Asustek and EVGA. While it is hard to believe that the GM204 GPU can be pushed further towards 2.30GHz – 2.40GHz, the new Asus ROG Matrix Platinum GeForce GTX 980 graphics card is designed to do just that when put under extreme overclocking by the professionals such as 8 Pack.

Asustek Computer on Wednesday unveiled its new graphics card that has all chances to become one of the best graphics cards for overclocking ever produced. The Matrix GTX 980 boasts not only a powerful DirectCU II cooling system (featuring two fans and five heat-pipes) and custom design of printed-circuit board, but it features extremely sophisticated 14-phase voltage regulator module (VRM) that can do magic things for overclocking as well as some other technologies for those, who want to push the graphics card to the extremes.

The digital 14-phase VRM is based on concrete-core chokes, solid-state black metallic capacitors and hardened MOSFETs. The board features two 8-pin PCIe auxiliary power connectors that can deliver up to 300W of power to the graphics board (in addition to 75W supplied through PCIe x16 slot) and one 4-pin Molex connector for memory defroster power loop. When cooled to sub-zero temperatures during extreme overclocking, the memory defroster keeps the memory chips just above freezing, preventing cold bugs from hindering overclocking.

e Asus ROG Matrix Platinum GeForce GTX 980 4GB will be the most powerful Nvidia GM204-based graphics card in Asustek’s lineup. The graphics processor of the monster graphics adapter is rated to run at up to 1342MHz out-of-the-box, a significant increase from 1216MHz recommended by Nvidia.

The ROG Matrix Platinum GTX 980 is the fourth GeForce GTX 980 graphics card in Asus’ family. The company carries a reference GeForce GTX 980, Strix GTX 980 with DirectCU II cooler and Poseidon GTX 980 featuring a hybrid cooling solution that use similar PCBs with 10-phase VRMs as well as the new ROG Matrix Platinum GTX 980 card that sports a brand-new printed-circuit board with 14-phase VRM as well as DirectCU II cooling system.

The current 2.20GHz GPU clock-rate records were set by professional overclockers using Asus Strix GTX 980 and EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Classified ACX 2.0 graphics cards that were cooled by liquid nitrogen cooling.

The Strix GTX 980 sports custom design of printed-circuit board with 10-phase digital VRM, the same one is used by Asus Poseidon GTX 980 graphics card, which has proven to be among the best in the industry. EVGA’s GTX 980 Classified sports custom PCB with 14-phase VRM, its voltages can be controlled using a special device. It will be very interesting to see whether Asustek’s engineers have managed to create a better voltage-regulating module than developers from EVGA and whether such VRM actually enables better overclocking. Will the record of 2.20GHz/9GHz (GPU/memory) stand or fall?




Features:
- DIGI+ VRM with 14-phase Super Alloy Power: deliver 30% less power noise and 2.5X greater durability.
- Japanese-made black metallic capacitors: 20% better temperature endurance and 5X longer lifetime usage.
- ROG LED light: pulsate in glorious red when the card is active.
- GPU Tweak: modify clock speeds, voltage and more via an intuitive interface.
- GPU Tweak Streaming: let you share on-screen action in real time – so others can watch live as games are played.


Specification:-
- GeForce GTX 980
- GPU: GeForce GTX 980 (GM204)
- Core Base Clock: 1253MHz
- Core Boost Clock: 1342MHz
- Memory Clock: 7010MHz
- Memory Size: 4096MB GDDR5
- Bus Type: PCI Express 3.0
- Memory Bus: 256-bit
- CUDA Cores: 2048
- DirectX 12: Yes
- DVI Port: 1x Dual-Link DVI, 3x DisplayPort & 1x HDMI
- DisplayPort: Yes
- HDCP: Yes
- HDMI: Yes
- Power: 2x8-Pin
- 600W PSU Required
- 375W TDP
- Warranty: 3yr


Only £599.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW
 
I don't have four of these. Just the one. I will be testing LN2 for sure though. Will be interested to see how this compares to HOF.
 
Out of this and the HOF 8 Pack, which one have you found to be the better card on air cooling? Both look to have very decent coolers.
 
setter said:
Out of this and the HOF 8 Pack, which one have you found to be the better card on air cooling? Both look to have very decent coolers.
Click to expand...

Both have very good coolers peaking under 60 when hammered. Both have the best designed back plates also which are for practical use not only for show.

I actually find it difficult to choose but if I had to pick one on air would say the HOF shades it. Very well designed PCB and power delivery and because all my HOF cards have overclocked marginally better so maybe the bin is slightly higher.

In multi card then the narrow ASUS cooler helps a lot with airflow. SO for SLI I would go with ASUS.
 
Time to update this post. My Matrix is amazing on LN2 clocking to between 2175-2200 core and 2175+ on mems.

Here we go with two world records and a global second.

http://hwbot.org/submission/2748024_8_pack_catzilla___1440p_geforce_gtx_980_14660_marks

http://hwbot.org/submission/2748016...eme_preset_geforce_gtx_980_6272.54_dx11_marks

http://hwbot.org/submission/2748034_8_pack_3dmark___fire_strike_geforce_gtx_980_20776_marks

For the extreme this card is for sure up there with the best. More scores to come as I bench this more.
 
On the 5960x which Motherboard would you say is the best today, with the most stable Bios out there??

Regards,

Ajay.
 
Congratulations 8pack, nice work ;).

Now knowing the potential of the Asus, is your suggestion still the same?. Asus SLI, HOF single?. I know it's one card but things like world records could possibly change ones mind.
 
J.D said:
Congratulations 8pack, nice work ;).

Now knowing the potential of the Asus, is your suggestion still the same?. Asus SLI, HOF single?. I know it's one card but things like world records could possibly change ones mind.
Click to expand...

+1, congrats from me *pack.
So which is the best single card to get Hof or the Asus?

Mark
 
ajay57 said:
On the 5960x which Motherboard would you say is the best today, with the most stable Bios out there??

Regards,

Ajay.
Click to expand...

For benching and 24/7 my favourite boards are Gigabyte X99 OC Champion and Rampage V Xtreme by ASUS. Both great efficient boards.
 
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