Shootouts

Clash of the (Ti)tans: Another NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti custom card shootout

By Wong Chung Wee - 6 May 2016

ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti Platinum Edition

Clash of the (Ti)tans: Another NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti custom card shootout

 (left) The ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti Platinum Edition card; (right) the MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Lightning card. Take a good look at them as these high-end cards could be the last of their prestigious breed.

Since its launch in June 2015, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card has set the bar high in terms of gaming performance. We have seen NVIDIA's add-in card partners come up with variant cards that were mainly differentiated by their customized cooling solutions and their power delivery systems. It is almost a year since the debut of this powerhouse graphics card, and its offerings are drying up as NVIDIA card partners wisely shore up their efforts in preparation for the next generation NVIDIA Pascal graphics card. There are even rumors that NVIDIA has halted production of select Maxwell GPUs.

So rumors aside, let’s take a look at what could be the last NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti cards on the market, from ASUS and MSI respectively. For all you know, these could go for a nice price once the new Pascal GeForce cards debut in the next few weeks.

 

ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti Platinum Edition

The ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti Platinum Edition card is one of the most visually striking cards. Its orange on grey fan shroud grabbed our attention right out of the box.

The ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti Platinum Edition card is one of the most visually striking cards on the market. Its orange-on-grey fan shroud grabbed our attention right out of the box. Good looks aside, the card feature 6GB of GDDR5 video memory, and its Digi+ VRM technology drives its 14-phase power delivery system and voltage regulation. There are high-end Super Alloy II components like MOSFETs, 10K black caps, and concrete-core chokes to deliver power reliably to the other PCB components.

The ASUS ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti Platinum Edition card is overclocked at source, from its GPU to its 6GB of GDDR5 video memory. By default, its GM200 GPU operates at 1190MHz, with a boost clock speed of 1291MHz. In its OC mode, it has a base clock speed of 1216MHz, and a GPU boost clock of 1317MHz. Its 6GB of video memory has been overclocked to operate at 7200MHz, instead of the default clock speed of 7010MHz.The top of the fan shroud houses LED lighting that is color coded to indicate the operation load of the card.

The ASUS ROG logo will be lit by LEDs during operation. The lighting can be controlled by the company's proprietary GPUTweak II software.

There are four colors; red for heavy load, amber for medium, blue for light load. If it turns green, the card is operating in safe mode, more on that later in the article. Instead of a gleaming and polished heatsink, the card’s DirectCU II heatsink, with 10mm heatpipes, appears to have been spray painted with a matte black finish.

With the card resting on its backplate, we can see the snaking black heatpipes of its DirectCU II heatsink. According to ASUS, the entire heatsink has been painted black except its plate that's in direct contact with the GM200 GPU.

Aesthetics reasons aside, we also assume that this is done for better heat dissipation. According to the laws of thermal physics, a matte black surface radiates more heat than a shiny one. So with all things being equal, we can expect the ASUS card to perform well during our temperature test. There's a pair of wing-blade designed, intake cooling fans that provide active cooling.

 The decorative backplate of the ASUS card provides protection for the rear PCB as well as heat dissipation for its components.

Besides its unique color scheme and paint treatment of its DirectCU II heatsink, the card comes with a decorative backplate that offers protection to the PCB as well as heat dissipation of vital PCB components.

The card draws power from a pair of 8-pin Molex power connectors; they have LED indicators to tell you if the corresponding power connectors from the PSU have been inserted properly.

There’s a lot going on at the rear PCB area of the card; first, there’s a pair of 8-pin Molex power connectors with LED indicators to tell you if the corresponding power connectors from the PSU have been inserted properly.

There’s a LN2 mode jumper switch, and a memory heater one as well. Both these switches will allow extreme overclockers more overvolting options

Moving to the front of the backplate, there’s a LN2 mode jumper switch, and a memory heater one as well. Both these switches will allow extreme overclockers more overvolting options. If you don't want to meddle with jumpers, there’s also a tiny DIP switch, located next to the Safe Mode button, that will turn on the memory heater.

There's a LN2 dip switch that is located next to the Safe Mode button. The Molex power connector is used to provide extra juice so that the dip switch can be used during sub-zero cooling for extreme overclocking.

The 4-pin Molex power connector provides extra juice for the operation of the LN2 switch. Do note that this is used for sub-zero cooling during extreme overclocking. In the event that you need to revert to the original BIOS state for normal operation, you can just press the Safe Mode button to do so. Remember the ROG Logo with LED lighting effects? It will glow green to show that the card is operating in Safe Mode.

Display connectivity options.

For display connectivity options, there are a total of five ports; one DVI-I port, three DisplayPort outputs, and one HDMI connector. Its ports have been gold-plated for better connectivity.

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