Conclusion

As mentioned earlier in the review when we last looked at an ASUS GTX 580 it was the DirectCU II model and that itself was probably the best GTX 580 we had seen. Since then there hasn't been a model which has hit the same levels so to see an enhanced model from ASUS was quite a surprise.

With the Matrix ASUS have improved the card further as far as enthusiasts are concerned thanks to the ability to tweak the power level and fan speeds via the on-board buttons, as well as adding voltage reading points. The ability to enable a safe mode via external button is also a welcome addition for times when things go a little wrong.

For design the card also scores well thanks to some great aesthetics, PCB layout etc. however there is one aspect we are disappointed by. The use of only 1.5GB of memory. On the DirectCU it wasn't as much of an issue, the card was essentially out to beat the competition... now with the Matrix Platinum we have a card which is out to be THE GTX 580, a maxed out beast of a card... so why ASUS stuck with 1.5GB we are not sure.

That said there is no faulting the performance which is exceptional. Out of the box the card is fast, significantly faster than a stock GTX 580 and quite a way ahead of the fastest single GPU Radeon. Add a manual overclock though and the Matrix excels, there is nothing out there with a single GPU which can compete with this card. When we also take into account the low temperatures and reasonable power use it really is an attractive card for enthusiasts.

Value wise products like this can rarely ever score well. We get a decent warranty, a lot of card for our money and a lot of performance too. There is a nice software suite also but things stop there. A nice touch would have been something like a free copy of Crysis 2... or a similar DX11 game.

Summary
The best just got better.

Prices TBC