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The Asus Matrix Platinum GTX 580 arrives in a motherboard sized box, finished with traditional ROG artwork.
The box opens out, highlighting the main selling points of the card listed on one panel. The card is visible through a window on the other section of the packaging.
Our bundle included several power converter cables, an SLI connector, and a video converter. There is also a software disc included.
The GTX 580 Matrix Platinum is a monster, 3 slot card with a dual fan heatsink. As the image above shows, the rear is covered with a metal plate, this protects the components underneath and also helps to transfer heat.
The card requires two 8 pin PCI power connectors to operate. This indicates a potential demand for up to 375 watts of power.
No, the red button isn't a self destruct option, it is used to switch the fan speed to 100%, then back to automatically controlled speeds. This will help overclockers quickly adjust the cooling to maximum when needed for testing. The plus and minus buttons underneath are used to change the operating voltage outside of software controls. 12.5 mV can be added to the hardware based voltage regulation circuitry. No software is needed for these to work.
The card has two DVI ports, a full sized HDMI (1.4a) port to the left and a full sized Displayport (1.2 compliant). No need for converters with this board. Two displays can be active at once, a limitation of Nvidia's hardware right now. It can support 2, 3 and 4 way SLI configurations (if your case can handle them all!). There is a safe mode button here which returns the card immediately to reference speeds, and the default bios configuration.
As this is a card specifically tailored to the overclocking audience, there are measuring locations on the bottom right of the PCB to get access to voltage measurements. Asus also include solder points which can be bridged or linked to a 0 ohm resistor to activate additional options.
- Disable OCP – disables overheat protection and also negates overcurrent protection. Risky.
- PEXVDD – to increase PLL voltage
- FBDDO – is used to increase memory voltage
- Power PWM Freq – will double the voltage regulator clock frequency from 250 khz to 500 khz
The cooler is attached to the card with two headers.
The Direct CU Cooler is a potent design, with five thick heatpipes which make direct contact with the GPU core. The heatpipes link into two seperate racks of aluminum fins on either side of the core.
Asus have included a dedicated cooling array for the regulation circuitry, it is directly below the airflow of the fan above. The safe mode button is connected to a header on the custom PCB design to reset all the changes to default settings immediately.
Asus are using Samsung GDDR5 – K4G10325FE-HC04. This memory is rated to a maximum of 1250mhz, or 5GBps effective.
An overview of the hardware in the latest version of GPUz.
Great look card, but it seems overpriced tbh.
Their reputation as one of the finest makers of video cards and motherboards is always strengthened when these reviews appear. The overall design is fantastic and it will be ideal for overclockers. I cant help but feel that those people will ditch the 3 slot cooler for phase however.
Impressive, but the price isn’t quite so appealing. ill stick to the mid/low end I think !
Another dream card I will never be able to afford.
WHile this card is certainly a good showpiece for Asus, its not really practical for the mainstream audience. who cares about soldering? I dont think even most overclockers do. its too high end for 99.9% of the audience. good reading however, thanks.
Great pictures, any chance you could send some of them to me for my desktop? email is in this posting.
Nice looking card indeed. not so sure about the three slot cooler however, is that ‘really’ needed?
Asus get lost with 3 slot cooling on a card which brings nothing new to the market. I could understand 3 slots on GTX590. Why not on such a monster card, but not on 580 (or 570 for that matter). Overpriced like hell.
MSI TwinFrozrIII Lighting GTX580 eats that Asus for breakfast.
Looks like the MSI Lightning 580 is still a better card, mine stays under 65 degrees at 900mhz core while the card is still only double slot.
chance you could send some of them to me for my desktop?