ASUS MATRIX GTX 580 PLATINUM GRAPHICS CARD

                Graphics card manufacturers come up with great looking custom coolers that also deliver and offer factory-overclocked settings. Asus goes overboard with enthusiast-class products and concocts incredibly high-end models such as this variant of the GTX 580 called the Matrix GTX 580 Platinum, which belongs to their renowned Republic of Gamers brand. This card is special in many ways, the most prominent being the design. It utilizes a triple-slot design to house a large dual-fan cooler. The fans cool a pair of heat sinks that draw heat from the GPU. The heat is dissipated to the fins via five 8 mm thick copper heat pipes that come in direct contact with the GPU. Another thick heat sink dissipates heat from the 19-phase power circuitry, which according to Asus delivers a 15 percent power boost, 2.5 times longer lifespan, and 35 degrees C cooler operation. What makes the card special are instant-access buttons for over-volting and 100 percent fan speed override. These, along with the bundled utility called GPU Tweak, allow overclocking the card with great ease. GPU Tweak monitors the voltages, temperature and fan speed in real time and also allows writing the values of the core speed, memory speed, fan speed and core voltage to the card’s BIOS. In case of failure, the settings can be reverted back to defaults by pressing the Safe Mode button on the rear panel of the card. The card draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIE power connectors. Asus has provided two adapters that convert two 6-pin PCIE connectors to a single 8-pin connector. To the right of the power connectors, you’ll find check points for measuring the voltage of the GPU, memory, PLL and +12 V rail. The rear panel of the card has a pair of dual-link DVI ports, HDMI output and DisplayPort.
Cables for DisplayPort and HDMI would have certainly added a lot of value, but all you get is a DVI-to-D-sub adapter and an SLI bridge. The Matrix GTX 580 Platinum comes with the GPU factory-overclocked to 816 MHz, which is 5.7 percent or 44 MHz higher than the stock speed of 772 MHz. The memory is left running at stock speed. Such a small bump in the core speed didn’t result in a massive performance boost. The 3DMark 11 score of 5918 points was almost similar to that of a stock GTX 580. Also, there was no fps boost in the game benchmarks. At 1920x1080, Crysis Warhead ran at 44 fps (Enthusiast, 4xAA) and Mafia 2 ran at 37.1 fps (High with AA and max Physx). The true potential of this card can be seen when you overclock it. We pushed the GPU speed to 960 MHz and the memory to 1100 MHz – a good 24.3 percent! 3DMark 11 score went up by 16 percent to 6876 points and the frame rates in all the game benchmarks went up by 6 to 8 fps. The average price of a GTX 580 is Rs 28,000, and this card demands a premium of Rs 4,500 for all the additional goodness it offers.
VERDICT: THE KING OF THE GTX 580 GRAPHICSCARDS.

FOR: Excellent cooling, good overclocking capability, lots of bonus features.
AGAINST: Expensive.

SPECIFICATIONS
www.asus.in
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580; Memory: 1536 MB
GDDR5; Memory bus width: 384-bit; Speed: (Core |
Memory): 816 MHz | 1002 MHz; Video outputs: Duallink
DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort.