Today's Hard|Forum Post
Today's Hard|Forum Post
Date:
Monday , April 11, 2016
Author:
Grady McKinney
Editor:
Brent Justice

ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum Review

Today we review the ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum, a gaming enthusiast centered video card which boasts enthusiast air cooling and an enthusiast overclock on air cooling. This high-end video card features DirectCU II cooling, making it the perfect comparison to the MSI GTX 980 TI LIGHTNING in class, price, performance and cooling.

continued...

Gameplay Summary

In Rise of the Tomb Raider the stock ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum and the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING were playable with custom maximum settings enabled, while utilizing SMAA. The MATRIX Platinum was a hair faster at stock operating speeds averaging 65.5 FPS compared to 64.9 FPS on the LIGHTNING. The maximum overclock increased the MATRIX Platinum's performance enough to enable 2X SSAA and averaged 50.7 FPS.

In Fallout 4 all video cards were playable with maximum settings at 1440p including TAA. The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum averaged 70.9 FPS compared to 70.5 FPS by the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING. After overclocking the MATRIX Platinum performed 3.7% faster at 73.5 FPS. The LIGHTNING's overclock improved its performance by 5.2% up to 74.2 FPS.

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt all video cards were playable with maximum settings at 1440p including HBAO+ and Hairworks enabled at 8X MSAA. The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum averaged 51.1 FPS with these settings, while the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING averaged 50.7 FPS. Overclocking the MATRIX Platinum improved its performance by 5.1% up to 53.7. The LIGHTNING's overclock provided a performance gain of 6.9% up to 54.2 FPS.

In Grand Theft Auto V all video cards were playable with maximum settings at 1440p including all advanced graphics options enabled at the maximum level. The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum averaged 56.7 FPS with these settings and the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING averaged 56.2 FPS. After overclocking the MATRIX Platinum ran 3.7% faster at 58.8 FPS. The LIGHTNING's overclock improved its performance by 6.4% up to 59.8 FPS.

In Dying Light all video cards were playable with maximum settings at 1440p including all Gameworks features, HBAO+, Depth of Field and PCSS. The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum averaged 68.4 FPS with these settings and the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING averaged 67.8 FPS. Once we overclocked the MATRIX Platinum performance increased by 9.1% up to 74.6 FPS. The maximum overclock on the LIGHTNING improved its performance by 12.5%, increasing the framerate to 76.3 FPS.

In Battlefield 4 all video cards were playable with maximum settings at 1440p, including 4X MSAA and HBAO. The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum averaged 112 FPS out-of-box compared to the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING at 111.2 FPS. The maximum overclock on the MATRIX Platinum provided a performance gain of 2.7% up to 115.1 FPS. The LIGHTNING's overclock helped it operate 4% faster at 115.7 FPS.

Overclocking

The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum is tied for the fastest factory overclocked video card out-of-box that we have evaluated. It operates at 1216MHz on the base clock and 1317MHz on the boost clock. In-game the actual frequency is 1431MHz, and the memory operates at 7.2GHz.

Our maximum overclock was not the fastest overclock we've had out of a GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU, but it is among the highest we've experienced on air cooling. The maximum overclock with voltage provided a 50MHz gain, increasing the boost frequency to 1367MHz and the in-game frequency to 1503MHz. The memory was overclocked to 8.2GHz which is 1GHz faster than the stock speed. These clock speed improvements combined yielded noticeable and increased performance in all games for the highest performance you can possibly get in today's games.

Today we compared the ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum directly to the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING which had a boost clock of 1404MHz and actual in-game frequency of 1518MHz and 8.1GHz memory. Throughout the evaluation we saw the MATRIX Platinum with a faster stock clock out-perform the LIGHTNING. Once we overclocked each video card the LIGHTNING took the slight performance advantage, but not by a lot. The frequency difference did not amount to a giant difference in-game. Both video cards were within 1-3% of each other across the board. Given the price, the ASUS MATRIX seems to have the advantage since it is cheaper and produces indistinguishable performance overclocked.

We also evaluated the MSI GTX 980 Ti GOLDEN Edition with a boost frequency of 1378MHz and in-game frequency of 1504MHz, about the same as the MATRIX Platinum at 1503MHz. The GOLDEN Edition's memory only overclocked to 7.8GHz. The GIGABYTE GTX 980 Ti G1 GAMING boast a boost clock of 1371MHz, with an actual in-game frequency of 1535MHz! The memory operated at 8GHz. The ASUS GTX 980 Ti STRIX DCIII had a maximum boost clock of 1392MHz, which increased to 1531MHz in-game, with 8GHz memory speed.

A few factors that may prohibit us from achieving a faster factory overclock on air cooling are first, the power limit which was only able to be increased by 10% on the ASUS MATRIX compared to 22% on the LIGHTNING. Having a higher power limit allows us to increase frequency more before the TDP starts throttling performance. The two fans in the DirectCU II cooling array exhaust a good amount of heat, but the MSI LIGHTNING has three fans which reduced the temperature to 50c while the MATRIX Platinum was slightly warmer at 57c.

Power Consumption, Temperature and Fan Noise

The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum did an excellent job remaining cool. At 57c with its maximum overclock applied with fans at 100%, it was the second coolest video card based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU that we have evaluated. The MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING was the coolest video card at 50c with its fans at 100%. The 10mm heat pipe plays a role in the rapid heat dispersion, as well as the wing-blade fans. The GIGABYTE G1 GAMING remained stable at 60c with fans at 100%. The MSI GTX 980 Ti GOLDEN Edition's temperature was 70c with fans at 100%, while the ASUS STRIX DCIII was warmer by a small margin at 71c with 100% fan speed.

The MATRIX Platinum was more efficient in using power while idling at 405W compared to the LIGHTNING at 408W. After overclocking the two video cards, the MATRIX Platinum increased to 435W while the LIGHTNING was much higher at 460W. The additional power draw did help sustain a faster maximum overclock. The advantage of utilizing an extra 25W on the LIGHTNING is that you get 1-2% faster performance than the overclocked MATRIX Platinum, but it does have the cost of power from the wall.

The ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum was a quieter video card than almost all of the other GTX 980 Ti video cards we have evaluated. It does only have two fans and a massive heatsink and 10mm heat pipe that help dissipate heat. The other 2-fan GTX 980 Ti was the GOLDEN Edition from MSI, which was louder than the MATRIX Platinum. The MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING was definitely louder with its 3 fans at 100%, however it reduced the GPU temperature by an additional 7c, claiming king of the temperature control battle.

Given the facts on cooling we would have liked to have seen a newer revision of the ASUS MATRIX GTX 980 Ti using the new DirectCU III cooler seen on the STRIX series. Perhaps meld that updated cooler, with a couple of large heatpipes on the MATRIX and temperatures might have been more aligned with those achieved on the MSI LIGHTNING. The ASUS MATRIX still did a great job with the older DirectCU II design, but perhaps it is time to take the MATRIX to the next level now with DirectCU III.

The Bottom Line

In this evaluation the ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum had the performance advantage out-of-box compared to the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING, because its factory overclock was faster. In addition, it was quieter out-of-box, required less power, and performed a little quicker in every single game. Once we overclocked each video card, the LIGHTNING had the faster frequency but at the end of the day the performance difference was marginal. The fact remains that the ASUS MATRIX GTX 980 Ti is able to hang with best air-cooled GeForce GTX 980 Ti overclockable video cards out there in the extreme enthusiast class range.

There are just a couple of things we would have liked to have seen improved that we think might have given the ASUS MATRIX the edge. One would be a higher power target, such as the MSI LIGHTNING is able to offer. The other, as we mentioned is perhaps an updated cooler using the latest DirectCU III technology that ASUS currently has on some other models. If those slight tweaks were made perhaps we would have obtained a higher overclock and surpassed the LIGHTNING in that regard. Still, the results achieved are to be commended, this is no overclock to dismiss, it allows the fastest game performance possible and is indistinguishable in performance compared to the MSI LIGHTNING when overclocked. These are high overclocks out of a GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU on air.

Availability on the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING seems to be scattered, and thus price inflation is in affect on this video card raising it well above its MSRP costing you a great deal of money at this time around $804.99 and into the stratosphere from there.

The ASUS MATRIX GTX 980 Ti Platinum on the other hand can be found right this second at a price that is actually lower than its $719.99 MSRP here for $709 on Amazon. There is no telling though how long this good price will last, as other etailers around it skyrocket in price just like the MSI LIGHTNING.

Given the fact that a video card of this caliber is currently priced under its MSRP, and at much better pricing than the MSI LIGHTNING the ASUS MATRIX 980 Ti Platinum is clearly the better deal. It provides a similar amount of performance overclocked, for a much lower price, at least for now. The price could jump, and if it does it puts both video cards into a price range neither have any business of occupying. In terms of performance, design, quality and pricing the ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum is easily worthy of our [H] Editor's Choice Gold Award.

Article Image

ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum

Discussion