Introduction
We all know that AMD just released their newest Graphics Card lineup for the year and they will be officially in stores starting from tomorrow. Instead of only reference designs in the early stages of release, it seems that AMD has worked well with manufacturers and many of them will be bringing out custom PCB and cooling designs for the new Radeon R9 and R7 graphics card. We managed to get our hands on the latest ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum which has the best power and performance solution from ASUS made for their graphics card lineup. These cards are meant to be overclocked and can survive under extreme sub negative temperature. Today, we take an exclusive look at the ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum Graphics Card.
First Look
When a PC component comes in a big box, you will know that it is not your usual piece of hardware. The Matrix Platinum series graphics card from ASUS promises incomparable air cooling solutions and enhanced power circuitry to let you squeeze every single drop of juice out from the graphics card.
AMD has also changed their naming convention from Radeom HD to Radeon RX 2XX instead. 9 in R9 represents the top of the line graphics lineup from them while 280X is a SKU in the R9 series. The R9 280X is in fact the more budget friendly card from the whole new lineup, while the highest end series include the R9 290X and R9 290.
ASUS has adopted a similar box design for the Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum Graphics Card with a simple flap to let potential customers enjoy the true beauty of the card.
In terms of power requirements, your power supply unit should be 750W and above as recommended by ASUS. The card utilizes two 8 pin power connectors, so make sure you have the required connectors before purchasing this new card.
ASUS has used the same DIGI+ VRM digital circuitry design for the card to guarantee the best power stability throughout the card. A 20-phase power scheme also ensures the potential overclocking headroom for this card.
Accessories include a CrossFire X bridge, voltage probes, a DVI to HDMI converter, Speed Setup guide, Drivers CD, a Diablo III mousepad, a ROG case badge and also a LN2 MOS heatsink which is “Designed for MOS cooling during LN2 Overclocking”.
Because I like it fierce
Living up to its Republic of Gamers name, the ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum Graphics Card is most definitely not your usual piece of computer hardware. A glance at it will give a feel of it superiority. It is a premium piece of computer hardware design and art.
In order to ensure optimum cooling performance on the card, ASUS ROG has utilized a 3 slot design. This essentially not only cools the graphics core on the card, but also other components such as the VRAM and power components.
There are 4 display ports and 2 DVI ports on the ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum and Eyefinity will work right out of the box.
The whole back of the card is also protected by a metal shield which has its cooling properties to maintain a lower temperature for the card.
There are 4 voltage taking points as well as 4 pencil mod areas. Out of the 4 pencil mod areas, “R4E” seems to be quite unique to this card. It is in fact a ROG Hotwire feature which allows OC direct from the ROG motherboard accessory such as OC Panel.
“Using the VGA hotwire feature, simply solder two wires on to a graphics card and connect them to a dedicated header connection on the motherboard and you’ll be overvolting your graphics card in no time. It’s easily accessible and adjustable from the OC Panel, OC Key, UEFI BIOS, OSD TweakIt/Monitor or TurboV screens. It is exclusively available for the ROG Extreme motherboards and on the OC Panel.”
As stated, the card requires 2X PCI-E power connectors to provide power to the card.
The card also utilized PCI-Express 3.0 interface.
The signature MATRIX LED lighting glows from blue to red depending on the graphics processing activity.
Hardware based TweakIt buttons are also found on the board directly. It enables overclocking on the fly and could be useful if you want to get that extra one or two points for that world record. There is also a Safe Mode switch and a 100% fan override button right on the board itself.
Stay tuned for a performance review of the ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum coming soon…
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Could you please be sure to attempt overclocking on this card at 1.4v on the core. Asus is claiming the card goes right to 1.4v but is unclear whether this requires a ROG board with the pinouts connected. Thank you much – OCAU.
I will try it tonight. Will keep you updated with a new post
GPU Tweak allows 1.4V