Introduction

There was a time when the art of overclocking was limited to the bold and frowned upon by manufacturers, but as time went on, the attitudes have changed and so have the expectations, when it comes to enthusiast hardware. In order to run components beyond their factory specifications, replacing the stock cooling solution is first, since extra performance equates to extra heat generated while tweaking the individual hardware settings can now be done from the comfort of the desktop via software. In order to guarantee a good overclocking result, manufacturers use handpicked and high quality components, from the GPU chip itself to the VRM and the cooling solution.

Not all manufacturers are equal however; some are content to using the reference design while increasing the core clock. Although these cards may come out of the factory with higher clocks, the reference video card design hinders further overclocking capabilities. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, for example, has a power limiter and has insufficient cooling for additional voltage. A re-design of the PCB with improved voltage regulation and power management is important not only for regular power users who wish to get a few more megahertz out of their factory overclocked card but also for hardcore overclocking enthusiasts who use extreme cooling solutions.

The ASUS Matrix GTX580 Platinum is part of the Republic of Gamers line, designed for enthusiasts and hardcore overclockers. The ASUS Matrix GTX580 Platinum is outfitted with a custom cooling solution and equipped with a 19-phase Super Alloy Power technology. Similar to RoG motherboards, the ASUS Matrix GTX 580 Platinum has onboard voltage readout and volt-modding features, as well as LED load indicators for the voltage adjustment and GPU load. In case an overclock is unstable, a handy “safe mode” BIOS reset switch can be found at the back that will restore the Matrix GTX 580 Platinum to its factory settings.