Verdict time

I'm kindly surprised that Asus build another non reference card, right after their magnificent MARS card. This 285 Matrix card has got lots of potential to be one of the faster GTX 285 out there. Performance is already on par with some other brands pre OC'ed cards.

The new power design is really able to push this card's GPU and memory to its limits. Once the big OC'ers figure it all out (see Massmans extra page for Vcore soft mod !to be used at own risk! ), they will be able to establish new records with this card for sure. Out of the box the card works like a dream and was able to keep up and surpass the speeds I daily run with my voltmodded vanilla card.

To top it off, Asus' improved cooling system, which isn't just some crazy stunt by one of the marketing guys, really works and is far more efficient then the reference cooler by Nvidia.

For the users that expected to push this card to new heights via the software, it might be a bit off a letdown. This mainly due to the voltage limitation imposed by the iTracker2 software. 1200mV is nice and don't get me wrong it will allow for some nice 24/7 clocks. Sadly there are many GTX 285 cards out there that have 1260mV preset hardware wise. This allows for even more overclocking headroom and stability at high clocks. Since this card is part of the Republic Of Gamers line up, which is more orientated for extra performance and durability, maybe Asus can correct this little flaw. It seemed really weird with such innovations e.g. for tweaking the onboard rams, Vbios etc,... to limit the cards potential with these very safe volt settings.

EDIT : First LN2 Matrix 285 results by Snot aap aka Neil Breems.

During an overclocking competition help by ASUS and Dutch tech website Tweakers.net, a participant named Neil Breems managed to achieve some stellar results on the ASUS GeForce GTX 285 Matrix. Cooled using a liquid nitrogen evaporator, the graphics card was able to reach 1100 MHz (core), 2452 MHz (shader) and 2800 MHz (memory), way up from the reference speeds of 648/1476/2484 MHz (core/shader/memory). The overclocked settings were set using a tweaked version of RivaTuner. Breems put the card to test using 3DMark06.



Picture courtesy of Tweakers.net and Snot Aap

Since the rest of the bench was made of an Intel P55 based motherboard running an unreleased 2.66 GHz Core i5 750, Tweakers.net couldn't publish the final score and CPU score.





To sum it up : If you are looking for a new video card, make sure you have a look at this card. It's a very strong performer. And allows easy out of the box OCing, no real hard mods required. The PCB and components seem build to last.

Asus GTX 285 Matrix Recommended for


We've spotted already Asus 285 Matrix cards at Alternate for €309, making it retail just above the price of some vanilla reference cards.

Even though it's a late arrival on the market, its features make it stand out from the crowd. For the LAN/Modding enthusiast the LED features can do it, for others the easy OC'ing, maybe the better cooling might be the final drop to go for it.

Pros
+ Even though the Matrix arrived late on the market, the GTX 285 is still one of the fastest single GPU video cards out there!
+ Sturdy designed PWM design
+ Improved cooling, that really works !
+ For mainstream user, more than enough OC headroom
+ very good price/performance ratio for a Nvidia card (~$€309)

Cons
- Some small issues with the iTracker2 software (mainly FAN control )
- For OC'ers 1200mV might not be enough
- Review sample was pretty noisy under high loads

A big thanks goes out to Milan from Asus and to Massman for assisting with the volt modding and photography.