A key identifier for the MATRIX GTX980Ti is of course Direct CU II cooling solution which engulfs the PCB and indeed the entire design of this graphics card. Make no mistake, this graphics card is gigantic in its proportions, measuring: 29.5 x 13.8 x 5.09 cm. ASUS has designed to place a plastic shroud onto the card and around the twin 100mm cooling fans – this shroud is silver/orange and looks sleek and stylish. On the next page we’ll go into more detail on the actual cooling solution.
Flipping the card over, on the reverse we have a large aluminium backplate which protects the components on MATRX And also prevents the card from flexing/bending. There are two areas marked out with perforated cut-outs to supply some ventilation for the components underneath. Due to the size and weight of the cooler having a backplate like this is essential to maintain rigidity.
MATRIX opts for a twin-cooling fan configuration which is akin to the Direct CU II solution. These fans are 100mm fans use the patented wing-blade design – adding more air pressure and increasing the overall airflow.
Running down the outer edge of the MATRIX is the ROG logo panel which pulsates a variety of colours to indicate the current load usage. Blue – light load, orange – medium load, red – heavy load and green – safe mode.
MATRIX is primarily concerned with ultra-high resolution gaming and as such there is full support for 4K, there are a plethora of ports on the IO plate. These include the following:
• 1x DVI-I port
• 3x DisplayPort 1.2
• 1x HDMI 2.0 port
All of these ports are gold-plated and having such a nice selection of ports paves the way for multi-screen configurations and ensures you’re able to run the card at optimum settings but if you’re planning to go for a single 4K screen configuration it’s a good idea to go with DP or HDMI to get the faster refresh rate.
The GTX 980Ti is a flagship graphics card and as such it comes as no surprise that we have multi-SLI ports to pair up with more than one graphics card.
The reference GTX 980Ti required 6+8pin PCI express power but our MATRIX requires 8+8pin. The reference model also has a TDP rating of 250W, requiring a 600W power supply – although ASUS don’t mention this detail we expect similar specifications of the MATRIX.
Additionally, at the end of the graphics card there is a Molex power connector which is designed to power the memory defroster circuit.
It is possible to cause the memory chips to overheat if memory defroster is activated, the Molex power is connected and the card is used under normal air-cooled usage.
