14 DAY TRIAL // Asus announced its range of GTX 580 Matrix graphics cards just a couple of days ago and now the company has informed members of the press that the GPUs should become available in stores in about two weeks from today.
The first GTX 580 Matrix graphics card to make its appearance is the Platinum edition, while the regular version will be released a few weeks later.
Both of these solutions will use the same custom designed PCB and cooling system and look pretty much identical, since the only difference between the two comes from the GPU clocks used by Asus.
The difference is by no means huge, as the regular Matrix comes clocked at 782MHz while the Platinum runs at 816MHz, and can be easily canceled by slightly overclocking the former.
In fact, both of these cards should be able to reach much higher frequencies thanks to their special PCB design that packs a 19-phase super alloy PWM.
According to Asus, this can provide more overclocking headroom with a 15% performance boost, while it also reduces the card's temperatures by 35°C and prolongs its lifespan.
In addition, their performance should be also enhanced by the company's proprietary DirectCU II design, which relies on a series of direct contact heatpipes to draw the heat away from the core and into a massive aluminum heatsink.
This is topped by two high-airflow fans and the whole cooling assembly occupies no less than three PCI slots.
Since the GTX 580 Matrix series is targeting the enthusiast crowd, Asus also equipped the cards with a series of overclocking-oriented features such as on-the-fly fan RPM control and a dual-BIOS design, in case the graphics card fails booting after an OC attempt.
According to Nordic Hardware, the Platinum version of the GTX 580 Matrix will be priced at 4799 SEK, which translates into $620 US, excluding VAT.
