Great games are all around us. They’re everywhere. They’re there when you power up your desktop, head down to the mall. Even when you help your landlady with whatever mundane task she has in mind. So what’s a gamer to do about all this temptation in the event their PC needs a graphics boost?
We suggest the ROG MATRIX 5870.
Virtually unbeatable value
Sure, there’s faster and beefier cards out there, like the elephantine EAH5970, still the fastest single-board graphics card in the world. But, the MATRIX 5870 from Republic of Gamers offers a superb value for those who may not need the absolute fastest and desire to spend wisely.
First of all, it’s a ROG card, which means it comes with a truckload of style. I mean, just look at that thing of beauty.
Almost as hot as a woman in red
Secondly, as is ROG’s habit as well, the MATRIX plugs users into a dream world where it’s ok to get tons of extra features and overclocking benefits for the price of admission. So don’t be a pod person, go get one.
Straight to the cortex
The MATRIX follows AMD’s Radeon 5870 design, which means even without the requisite ROG goodies it’s already quite the monster. You’re talking 1600 stream processors and DX11 out of the box, but the ROG model goes beyond spec. It has 2GB of GDDR5 so the memory’s clocked at 4.8GHz actual.
This makes the MATRIX 5870 a very likely candidate for overclocking duties, something elaborated upon by iTracker2, the newest iteration of the extensive overclocking suite. On top of a huge range of tuning capabilities, this one even lets you mess with the memory timings for added effect. Change of voltage? No problem, MATRIX 5870 is a ProbeIt board, so it has contact points on the GPU core, board, RAM and PCI-E to show you the exact voltage at any given time.
And now, the environmental interlude
It’s not exactly politically correct anymore to field massive graphics cards that need their own nuclear reactor to function, so ROG has implemented a very innovative thermal design on this one. The fan-heatsink combo and PCB materials record an average 13% better thermal efficiency than required by the original design, plus the fan itself delivers 22% more air volume than reference.
On top of this, the ROG MATRIX 5870 has the superlatively-themed Super Hybrid Engine technology built-in. This isn’t some synthetic overlord bent on using people as a food source, it’s actually a very friendly and intelligent power management routine that can instantly switch between full GPU computing and low-profile action depending on use. So when gaming, the MATRIX lights up like it’s the 4th of July (or Guy Fawkes Night, Ok?). But when doing something productive like word processing or staying in touch with your non-gamer pals, the MATRIX slows down and keeps the power in check.
The results are impressive – 19% more pixel pushing during intense first person shooter antics, and up to 54% less power consumption while in regular 2D graphics.
Ergo and concordantly, Suds believes you should be part of the MATRIX. Resistance is futile, every end is a beginning of an end etc. One thing’s for sure, the ROG MATRIX 5870 will run your games beautifully. Now that’s real.
Lee