14 DAY TRIAL // The Radeon R9 280X graphics adapter is the one that will be sold in a whole bunch of different versions, and ASUS has just revealed one such version, or perhaps we should say that VideoCardz did.
The product from ASUS is called Radeon R9 280X ROG Matrix and should be factory overclocked, not limited to the standard specs of AMD's reference board.
Curiously enough, during the AMD GPU'14 event of last month, which was shown live on the Internet, AMD didn't provide all the information on this card, or any card really.
The clock did come out though. AMD didn't officially release the Hawaii specs, but that didn't stop rumormongers form digging them up.
The Radeon R9 280X is supposed to operate at 850 MHz for the GPU (1000 MHz for GPU Boost) and 1500 MHz for the 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM memory (6 GHz effective).
ASUS' model is much faster than that, at least as far as the GPU Boost setting goes. According to VideoCardz, the board will be factory overclocked to 1100 MHz.
We suppose it could be that 1100 MHz is the base clock, but that's unlikely. Besides, the 1100 MHz clock suggests the base clock is also 100 MHz higher than normal, at 950 MHz, which is already a significant rise.
ASUS ROG matrix will use a 20-phase VRM (voltage regulation module), ProbeIT, a fan speed switch, TweakIT technology, and dual BIOS.
The dual BIOS and large VRM make it clear that ASUS gears this towards overclockers, with one BIOS used as backup, in case settings go awry and the system doesn't boot with the card installed anymore, or if other weird stuff happens.
All in all, that's a lot to cram on the same PCB used for the Radeon HD 7970 Matrix, but nothing it can't handle. Now, if only we knew what the price was, we'd be all set.
