ASUS Announces the ROG Matrix GTX 980Ti Platinum

With the superb overclocking abilities of the GTX 980i, it’s no surprise that overclocking oriented cards like MSI’s Lightning and EVGA’s K|NGP|N have launched already. Today, ASUS has announced their own counter, the ROG Matrix GTX 980Ti Platinum. While being part of the gamer-focused ROG lineup, there can be no mistake that the card is overclocking oriented, living up to its Matrix branding.

Right off the bat, the card feature’s ASUS’s classic DirectCU II along with 10mm heat pipes. This should put the cooling solution well beyond many others and it’s supposed to offer 25% cooler performance and 3X less noise than the reference card. This is combined with Wing-blade fan technology which should improve air pressure by 105%.

On the power delivery side, ASUS has gone with their usual Super Alloy Power II components to ensure high-efficiency and clean power delivery. As befits an overclocking card, the ROG Matrix Platinum also features Memory Defroster, a defrosting for the GDDR5 memory when under sub-zero conditions. This means that LN2 users won’t have to worry as much about insulation when searching for those high clocks.

As a way to ensure stability as well, the card also features a once-click Safe Mode button that restores the VBIOS to its original settings in case something goes wrong; this makes using custom VBIOS that much safer. Another useful feature is a color-coded ROG load indicator which shows GPU load without having to delve into software. While not that useful for overclocking or even normal users, it’s a neat feature to have.

Overall, ASUS has what appears to be a solid card coming along the heals of the Strix and Poseidon. The bigger question is how the card will fare against rival 980Ti overclockers like MSI’s Lightning and EVGA’s K|NGP|N editions among others. There is also one GTX980Ti left from ASUS, which is the Gold20th GTX980Ti Platinum.