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Conclusion
The ASUS MATRIX HD 7970 Platinum is a complex beast. Many users probably would never understand what the real capability or design of this card is, but enthusiasts know it is a sign that manufacturers love this just as much as we do. This is the reason that companies like ASUS hire people like Peter Tan and hold OC events to improve their products. As for the card itself, it is a very intense card, and an expensive one at that. For those who never intend to overclock, this card is slightly unnecessary, but might be cool to have nonetheless, especially as it comes with a custom cooler and a rock-solid build quality.
However, this card was designed with overclocking at heart. The HD 7970 MATRIX Platinum has all the right parts for those of us who chase world records in megahertz, and we would definitely recommend it for the overclocking and benchmarking crowd. The only real issue we can think of is that the triple-slot cooler could cause some issues in multi-GPU configurations. The four memory chips left uncovered by the heatspreader concerned us a little, but as you can see, the memory overclocks fine. Overall, this card is great for those looking for an amazing card that can take a pounding. If you do want one, though, be quick, as these GPU’s are hand-sorted for performance, and there are only so many super-sample chips left.
| OUR VERDICT: ASUS MATRIX HD 7970 Platinum | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Summary: The ASUS MATRIX HD 7970 Platinum has a strong, capable build quality and feature set, along with some amazing overclocking ability. For this it receives the Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award. |
I don’t know this card can garner a perfect score. A fine piece of engineering it may be but it’s certainly not value for money & is a niche product. A score of 9 would probably be more fitting.
Hi there Wayne,
Normally I could understand where your coming from, if this were lets say a normal card with a non ref cooler or possible small changes. But this is an enthusiasts class card designed to compete with the likes of the MSI Lightning HD7970 (It costs 10 dollars less than the lightning) and therefore value has to be properly placed in respect to the market. I try to look at it similar to a collectors edition game bundle where at the end of the day its the same exact game in the box but in many cases fetches over 100% higher price just for the additional accessories or whatnot included in the box. well this card is only between 10-20% higher cost than the lowest priced standard models but has a much larger feature set than just another HD 7970.
Another example would be the automotive market, Yes a RS Camaro and a SS Camaro both have 4 wheels and the name “Camaro” on them but there are many differences that merit the price jump you pay for an SS version. Just think of the MATRIX HD 7970 as the “HD 7970 SS”
This is the kind of things we have to look at when we make an assesment of the relative value of a card to the market.
Awesome Review!!
Thank you for an un-biased review.
you’re welcome, and we do try. We try to review products for what they are so that you get a better idea of what the product is and where it fits…
Thank you for the reply.
And if you act now, we will throw-in an active “I am not using the card”, neon sign, so you know when you are not using it. Instead of actually just making the card do something that is actually beneficial to being used, while it is being used. Like, I don’t know… an actual exhaust that doesn’t require the use of 20 more fans to be added, thus, sucking all the power the card would have had available to use, if you actually used it. Instead of killing all the rest of the components inside the computer… The RAM, the PSU, the HD/SSD the CPU, the many added fans to actually TRY to exhaust the easy-bake-oven.
Oh, but it has lights! You like lights… Oh, my precious…. Gimme, gimme… All for only an additional $150 more then the original, for the $2.85 in additional hardware.
No Power Consumption for this Card?