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The ASUS R9 280X Matrix Platinum ships in the distinctive red Republic Of Gamers box. No image on the front, but …
… plenty of information on the gatefold style opening. This card has a ‘MATRIX LED load indicator' colour readout which shows various load states. The bundle is impressive, there is a video convertor, Crossfire cable, LN2 heatsink, VGA hotwire cables, software disc, ROG sticker and a Steelseries branded Diablo mousemat.
There are five colours in total. Light Blue is ‘Light Loading', Green is ‘Safe Mode', Pink is ‘Heavy Loading', Purple is ‘Medium Loading' and Red is “Extreme Loading'.
This is a big, heavy three slot card and is built to the highest standards we would expect from a premium ASUS product. Two large semi transparent fans reside behind a metal shroud. The card also has a backplate to aid cooling and protect the PCB.
Yes, it is a three slot cooler, which seems a little overkill for an R9 280X. It can also cause problems in some systems if you want to run in Crossfire due to the massive physical dimensions. That said, there are no shortage of outputs on the back of the card – a DVI-I, DVI-D and four DisplayPort connectors.
Two Crossfire connectors, if you have the space for the monster three slot cards.
The card demands power from two 8 PIN PCIE power connectors.
The R9 280X Matrix Platinum is a 20 phase super alloy power design. The DIGI+ VRM digital voltage regulation design augments precision overclocking capabilities which are supported with hardened Super Alloy Power chokes, capacitors and MOSFETs. Six thick copper heatpipes run along the full length of the card, supported by the two fans above.
ASUS are using Japanese made black metallic capacitors (Nichicon GT) which offer 20% low temperature endurance and five times longer lifespan.
3GB of SK Hynix GDDR5 is fitted to this board.
The ASUS R9 280X Matrix Platinum core is overclocked from 1,050mhz to 1,100mhz and the memory is overclocked from 1,500mhz (6Gbps effective) to 1,600mhz (6.4Gbps effective). The card has 32 ROP's, 128 TMU's and 2,048 Stream Processors. The 3GB of GDDR5 is connected via a 384 bit memory interface.
a 3 slot cooler seems insane for basically what is a 7970. I like the card overall, but in crossfire I would have no motherboard visible and the cards would be butting against each other.
I would have bought this one if the price was £280 and it has a two slot cooler. three slot coolers just take up too much room
Zardon, any chance you can throw up the 7970 Matrix Platinum (http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/asus-matrix-hd7970-platinum-graphics-card-review) up there in tests? Probably the best apples-to-apples comparison over ASUS’ flagship model between these two generations.
Isnt Vapor-X running @ 950 Mhz while the Matrix Platinum running 1100 Mhz. Wouldnt that give a fair bump in the degrees? (enough to justify the 11c higher in gaming)
My bad i see the site ive been looking at only displays base clock at 950, the boost clock is 1070. Nevermind then 🙂