ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum Review
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 18.03.14Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the ROG MATRIX R9 290X Platinum Edition, ASUS has created a high-end graphics cards, which comes with quite a long feature list. In this regard we liked the new real-time streaming feature for gamers and memory defrost, which is being triggered by flipping the LN2 Mode switch as well as the VGA BIOS clear button an VGA hotwire. This card is a really good combination and it will please high-end gamers as well as overclockers. Memory defrost is actually quite a tricky and unique thing, since ASUS decided to place heating elements in close proximity to the memory chips, which makes sure, there won't be cold bug issues related to the memory. Overall the card also looks strikingly good and build quality is on a very high level. Especially the DirectCU II cooler, which recieved a black paint job is simply gorgeous. |
- Performance
- Cooling - Design - Backplate - LN2 Mode - VGA BIOS Reset Switch |
- Bundle | |
| Cooling / Noise Level | + | - | |
| The latest version of ASUS' DirectCU II cooler is definitely capable, althought not the very most sophisticated when compared to the competition. Nevertheless the results gathered show this cooler can prevent the R9 290X from throttling, which is actually an achievement. When it comes to noise levels the card is subjectively speaking very silent in idle and under load it can still be described as silent. | - Cooling
- Noise levels |
- Not inaudible in idle | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| The overall performance is very good since the ROG
MATRIX R9 290X Platinum Edition
does not throttle like the reference cooled R9 290X graphics cards.
Unfortunately there is no factory
overclocking on the GPU and the memory, but still this card performs
better than other R9 290X graphics cards. A closer look at power consumption reveals that the figures shows they are rather high, but perfectly in-line for a R9 290X card. In idle the ROG MATRIX R9 290X Platinum Edition from ASUS pulls a little bit more power than the reference card but under load the ASUS card, shines with almost 25 Watt lower power consumption. |
- Performance | ||
| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| So far the new ROG MATRIX R9 290X Platinum Edition has not been listed yet, meaning we don't know about the price yet. Since the feature list is rather long we expect a premium on top of a reference R9 290X of about 50 to 75 Euro. In such a case the card wouldn't be cheap but still worth its money. Overall this is a card we can definitely recommend to enthusiast gamers and we're curious to see what overclockers around the globe are going to squeeze out of this thing. | - Enthusiast | ||
| The ROG MATRIX R9 290X Platinum Edition from ASUS receives 4.5 out of 5 stars. | |||
| Navigate through the articles | |
PowerColor LCS R9 290X Watercooled Review |
ASUS Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II OC Review
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