DirectCU II has been a successful venture for ASUS and the MATRIX card utilises this direct-contact heatsink. DirectCU II uses five copper heatpipes one of which is a whopping 10mm thick. ASUS also state that this solution uses CoolTech – allowing operation which achieves up to 30% better cooling and is three times quieter than the GTX 980Ti reference design.

Although this heatsink is unlikely to be seen while the shroud is attached, it looks especially sleek with its matt-black powder coating.


With the DirectCU II cooler detached from the graphics card we can see take a look at the inner-workings and see the full extent of that monolithic PCB. ASUS has placed a brace support running from the IO plate across the top to supply even more protection to prevent the board from bending.


The driving force behind MATRIX is the GM200 core aka GTX 980Ti. This GPU comprises of 8 billion transistors created by the 28nm TSMIC process. ASUS has applied a factory overclock to this card, increasing the GPU clock to 1216MHz (13171MHz GPU boost) and the memory clock to 7200MHz.


Our graphics card employs a 14-phase Digi+ Super Alloy Power II design, along with Super Alloy II CAPs, chokes, DrMOS, POSCAP. The end result means better temperatures, longer lifespan and less noise. The construction of this card is built 100% by machine via ASUS Auto-Extreme. Stringent quality control techniques are used and production is executed with absolute precision.