Asus Matrix GTX285 Review :: Card

Card

Fan

ROG symbol

PCI Express cap

The ASUS card is a 2-slot card, meaning that you will need two adjacent slots to install the card into a PCI Express slot. The cooler is a modified version of the reference GTX 285 cooler with the 47-fin fan at the end. ASUS says the card cooler has 12% more area than the reference cooler. The cooler runs the entire length of the PCB with a module on top of the card.

Back of PCB

LED

SLI bridge

Power connectors

The module is a real-time hardware monitor. The card has five different states. Green stands for Safe Mode, Cyan is Light loading, Blue is Medium loading (most of the time this state is in play), Purple is for heavy loading and Red is for Extreme Loading. When a game is using 3D graphics the card is in a constant Red zone, meaning it is in Extreme Loading.

The top of the card has two bridges for SLI technology. With the right motherboard and three GTX 285 cards you can run in Triple-SLI mode, assuming you have a PSU powerful enough to run three cards. The rear of the top of the card has an 8-pin and a 6-pin power connector, as the card requires more power than the PCI Express x16 slot can give it.

Angled view

I/O

Safe mode button

Fujitsu Super ML Capacitor

The rear of the card has the mounting screws for the cooler which also fits on the back of the card instead of the bare PCB as most cards have. ASUS uses a Super ML Capacitor from Fujitsu on the rear of the card the same one found on their TOP cards. The Matrix card has two Dual-Link DVI ports and a HDTV port for the I/O on the bracket. You can install a HDMI monitor or an analog monitor with the appropriate adapters. There is a Safe Mode button that can be used if the card freezes due to too high a overclock.