ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum Video Card Review - ASUS has launched the new ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum video card that can be described as the pinnacle enthusiast GeForce GTX 580 GPU. Will all of this customization and new features mean you get fast video card? If this overclock doesn't impress you we suggest trading in your computer and finding a new hobby.
 
Beastly. I do not think I have seen a 1GHz GTX 580 in a review yet! Impressive. Sad these aren't 3GB vram though.
 
Nice card, Looks like we have a new single GPU champion card. Great engineering by Asus and the software looks awesome too. If only they had a 6970 Matrix ROG Platinum planned, sadly they don't seem to :confused:
 
On the topic of RAM: I did not feel that the 1.5GB was holding the video card back, even when overclocked, at 2560x1600. This echos our MSI Lightning 3GB evaluation, that a single video card, even on this large 30" display, works just fine with 1.5GB of RAM, and moving to 3GB won't make any difference in the gameplay experience, even when overclocked. I did not run into any VRAM limitations. Since you can't do NV Surround with 1 video card, it works as a single video with 1.5GB just fine. The advantage of 3GB would come into play when you connect another for SLI and play in NV Surround resolutions. In that configuration, 3GB would be useful.
 
ah, that makes me feel better :)

Then agian, the most VRAM I have ever seen used is 1.4GB :p
 
Brent_Justice said:
On the topic of RAM: I did not feel that the 1.5GB was holding the video card back, even when overclocked, at 2560x1600. This echos our MSI Lightning 3GB evaluation, that a single video card, even on this large 30" display, works just fine with 1.5GB of RAM, and moving to 3GB won't make any difference in the gameplay experience, even when overclocked. I did not run into any VRAM limitations. Since you can't do NV Surround with 1 video card, it works as a single video with 1.5GB just fine. The advantage of 3GB would come into play when you connect another for SLI and play in NV Surround resolutions. In that configuration, 3GB would be useful.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, how does this compare to the MSI 580 Lightning then?

I think it should be compared to the "regular" 1.5 GB Lightning and not the Xtreme 3GB edition, which is at a significantly higher price point.

I'm guessing that the dies on all of these special non-reference boards were probably cherry picked dies, so combined with the better components should offer a bit more overclocking headroom.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Nice card, Looks like we have a new single GPU champion card. Great engineering by Asus and the software looks awesome too. If only they had a 6970 Matrix ROG Platinum planned, sadly they don't seem to :confused:
Click to expand...

Every generation, Asus seems to take one brand for their Matrix.

Then they have dual GPU setup. The ARES (AMD/ATI) or MARS (Nvidia), which is the same brand as their Matrix. Unlike the reference designs, Asus does not underclock them.
 
To bad they take forever to come out with these.. love to see this card on water. Might could take that over clock to the next lvl. Very sexy card though.
 
hyperion0101 said:
Every generation, Asus seems to take one brand for their Matrix.

Then they have dual GPU setup. The ARES (AMD/ATI) or MARS (Nvidia), which is the same brand as their Matrix. Unlike the reference designs, Asus does not underclock them.
Click to expand...

Oh that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up.
 
Very good review. It didn't convince me to buy this card (WAY more than I want to spend) but you have convinced me to take a second look at grabbing a couple 560 Tis or 6950s and using them instead of a single card. Rather impressive showing from the dual-card configs and the highly overclocked MATRIX. I have to admit I smiled when I saw that 1005MHz screenshot, really amazing to see a card be able to hit that level.
 
This card sounds amazing. I would love to buy one of these, but I'm not sure if my processor would be holding it back. I have a dual 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon E5462. Is that even a concern? Any insight would be welcome, thanks in advance.
 
so sweet looking and too bad for the 1.5gb, as I would have loved to get a pair of these bad boys
 
I love this card. It just sucks that it takes them so long to put these out. I have had my current 580s since last November. 9 months lead time is a long time when new video cards tend to come out every 12-16 months.
 
With all the options to increase voltages, I'm really surprised Asus doesn't offer an option of a water block for these cards.
 
Im sure some crazy rich guy will purchase 2 of these beasts in SLI.

Advantage of this card over 560 SLI is you don't need to wait a month or more for NVIDIA to release SLI profiles when a new game is released.

But I am going to wait for ATIs new GPU core in the 7000 series before I upgrade... hopefully Bulldozer will be out then too.
 
ljbade said:
Im sure some crazy rich guy will purchase 2 of these beasts in SLI.

Advantage of this card over 560 SLI is you don't need to wait a month or more for NVIDIA to release SLI profiles when a new game is released.

But I am going to wait for ATIs new GPU core in the 7000 series before I upgrade... hopefully Bulldozer will be out then too.
Click to expand...
These aren't any more money than vanilla 580s were at launch and I bought two of them then :D And I'm not crazy rich. These cards have a definite market.
 
way way too close to the new AMD video cards launching for me to consider these old tech cards.
 
Good work Brent. I think the CF/SLI comparo was an excellent idea. Although this card costs WAY more than I'm willing to fork over for a vidcard, it was good to see the improved construction and materials that went into it and the 1GHz speed it made possible. I realize this card is geared towards the gamer but I'm starting to pay alot more attention to better materials and efficiency 'cause it makes a difference to heat and power consumption, especially if you're folding on the GPU 24/7.
 
This would an ideal for my setup since I dont need the 3gb of VRAM and with this oclock capability, I might snag one before holidays.
 
asusftw.jpg
 
For metro is a bug about 4xMsAA , you can enable it from Nvidia control panel up to 16x and it works. 4xMsaa also works at benchmark which include on the game folder, thats the reason which is a bug on the game and it is for all Nvidia 5xxx cards . I have allready inform Nvidia. For ATI users i cant say nothing for now!
 
After reading the review I came to other conclusions.

ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum Video Card for watercooling/LN2 bench users
High overclock possibilities

1313312700BDaES25VJw_14_1.gif



ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum Video Card for normal users
Only 1.5GB memory, whats often to little for high settings, specially multi-monitor setups

1231699059gxhIx2yvPA_4_11.jpg
 
Very nice review, though it was a bit unfair price-wise.

You could have used two GTX 560Ti 2GB which cost $259.99 AR each, and would have performed better in Metro 2033.
Also, 6970+6950 CF is closer to the ASUS GTX580 Platinum in price. Sadly, the 6970 is [post=1037644767]out of stock at Newegg[/post].
 
player-x said:
ASUS ROG MATRIX GTX580 Platinum Video Card for normal users
Only 1.5GB memory, whats often to little for high settings, specially multi-monitor setups

1231699059gxhIx2yvPA_4_11.jpg
Click to expand...
I disagree. Any setup which is pushing multiple monitors or 2560x1600 and using more than 1.5GB of video RAM is likely going to require more power than a single GTX580 can provide. I have SLI 580s and even at 6080x1200, in games like Bad Company 2, Dirt 3, Metro, etc I am not hitting the 1.5GB of RAM cap unless I am pushing the AA, at which point I generally do not have the power to run the game at fast enough frame rates anyways. 1.5GB for a single monitor, single card setup is good enough for now. The target audience for these cards is not likely going to hold on to them long enough for 1.5GB to become a bottleneck. If you are running these in SLI and running 3x30" monitors that becomes a concern, but that also doesn't really fall into the category of "normal users" that you claimed.
 
Juice isn't worth the squeeze. You can get more performance for less money, so I fail to see how this gets a gold. Just because you can tweak the crap out of it, it still gets you less performance AND less features than what a cheaper setup of 2gb 6950cfx cards cost at 150w more power draw. This would seem to be a fail to me...more work, more money higher power draw and it nets less performance?

I felt the same way about the MSI 3gb cards, they had nice engineering but cost way too much for the performance you get.

It's not like we're talking about a Ferrari vs. Corvette or something where there's a tangible difference in how a car looks and feels vs. it's performance. These vid cards go in a box never to be seen and once you have them set up you don't have any indication of which card is which when you fire up a game.

Single GPU single card is a stupid distinction to make, especially when said card takes up 3 slots and uses more power than a higher performing multi gpu setup. How many enthusiasts out there that would be willing to pay over $500 for a video card setup would be limited to a single pcix slot but still have 2 extra slots next to it to fit the cooling solution?

Even with my pretty narrow window 'enthusiast' system (uATX sff with 2 pcie slots separated by one pcie 1x) it doesn't work as a viable solution in any way. And this coming from a guy with the admittedly compromised gtx480.
 
Rizen said:
I disagree. Any setup which is pushing multiple monitors or 2560x1600 and using more than 1.5GB of video RAM is likely going to require more power than a single GTX580 can provide. I have SLI 580s and even at 6080x1200, in games like Bad Company 2, Dirt 3, Metro, etc I am not hitting the 1.5GB of RAM cap unless I am pushing the AA, at which point I generally do not have the power to run the game at fast enough frame rates anyways. 1.5GB for a single monitor, single card setup is good enough for now. The target audience for these cards is not likely going to hold on to them long enough for 1.5GB to become a bottleneck. If you are running these in SLI and running 3x30" monitors that becomes a concern, but that also doesn't really fall into the category of "normal users" that you claimed.
Click to expand...

Based on my use with a 2560x1600 this card flys..
 
bobzdar said:
Juice isn't worth the squeeze. You can get more performance for less money, so I fail to see how this gets a gold. Just because you can tweak the crap out of it, it still gets you less performance AND less features than what a cheaper setup of 2gb 6950cfx cards cost at 150w more power draw. This would seem to be a fail to me...more work, more money higher power draw and it nets less performance?

I felt the same way about the MSI 3gb cards, they had nice engineering but cost way too much for the performance you get.

It's not like we're talking about a Ferrari vs. Corvette or something where there's a tangible difference in how a car looks and feels vs. it's performance. These vid cards go in a box never to be seen and once you have them set up you don't have any indication of which card is which when you fire up a game.

Single GPU single card is a stupid distinction to make, especially when said card takes up 3 slots and uses more power than a higher performing multi gpu setup. How many enthusiasts out there that would be willing to pay over $500 for a video card setup would be limited to a single pcix slot but still have 2 extra slots next to it to fit the cooling solution?

Even with my pretty narrow window 'enthusiast' system (uATX sff with 2 pcie slots separated by one pcie 1x) it doesn't work as a viable solution in any way. And this coming from a guy with the admittedly compromised gtx480.
Click to expand...
Performance with a single GPU solution is more consistent than a dual GPU solution, and less dependent on SLI profiles (this is evident in the review in some games, if you look at the graphs). To some, this is worth the money. This card is obviously targeted to a more niche market, but it excels at what it was targeted for - hence the praise it got. I personally won't be buying one, but if I was in the market for a 580 now, this is the one I would buy.
 
interesting but I can't see this for myself. but for any OC enthusiast its probably gold. and not to mention you can still OC the 6950 / 260GTX dual card setups.
 
Rizen said:
Performance with a single GPU solution is more consistent than a dual GPU solution, and less dependent on SLI profiles (this is evident in the review in some games, if you look at the graphs). To some, this is worth the money. This card is obviously targeted to a more niche market, but it excels at what it was targeted for - hence the praise it got. I personally won't be buying one, but if I was in the market for a 580 now, this is the one I would buy.
Click to expand...

Multi GPU configurations are problematic. While, lately, you can often get more bang for the buck it's a risk. Single GPU has no such issues.

I slapped one of these on an MATX board and it's fine. I wanted a single GPU.

My only gripe is that it doesn't OC as well as my 580 lightning that's in another build.
 
$500 for a video card? That's almost 2 car payments at my house. Maybe if I win the lotto...
 
Burticus said:
$500 for a video card? That's almost 2 car payments at my house. Maybe if I win the lotto...
Click to expand...

In DC a basic studio in a "don't get mugged" area is 1500 a month, that's chump change. Add 200 a month for parking at work, 200 a month parking at where you live, ugh.
 
those temps, for a card with a TWO slot cooler, is insane
especially since it's dumping all that into your case
 
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