ASUS Announces the Fastest GeForce GTX 980 Graphics Card

[btarunr]

ASUS announced what it claims to be the fastest GeForce GTX 980 graphics card out of the box. Called the ASUS GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition, this card marks ASUS' 20 years of presence in the PC graphics card market. Based essentially on the GTX 980 ROG MATRIX Platinum, this card features a black and gold color scheme, and a higher factory-overclock than its ROG sibling. Its cooler shroud and back-plate feature matte-black and gold-painted metal panels. The rear I/O shield is matte-black, while the connectors are gold-plated.

Under the shroud, the card features the company's largest trim of the DirectCU II cooler, featuring matte-black aluminium fins, and matte black copper heat pipes, ventilated by a pair of 100 mm spinners, which stay off until a temperature threshold of 65°C is reached. Given the size of that heatsink, we reckon a large silence headroom, even while casual-gaming, before the fans begin to spin.



The PCB features a monstrous 14-phase Digi+ VRM by ASUS, which draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. There's also an independent 4-pin Molex-powered defrost circuit, which makes doubly sure that frost doesn't collect onto the PCB which is coated with a water-repelling material. All this, to support a factory-overclock of 1317 MHz core, 1431 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 7.00 GHz memory. More than high clock speeds, the ability to keep the GPU and memory away from temperature-triggered clock-speed throttles, is what ASUS claims, makes this the fastest GTX 980. Display outputs include one each of dual-link DVI, HDMI 2.0, and three DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. ASUS didn't announce pricing or availability, but it wouldn't surprise us if the card costs halfway between the GTX 980 and the GTX TITAN-X.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Animalpak]

Z87 Asus mainboards owners will love it !!

 

[Joss]

I can get the same performance from a regular 980 by overclocking it, and yet I'm tempted to overpay.

 

[ZoneDymo]

yay? GTX980Ti is coming soon enough, same as AMD's new offering, who cares about this?

 

[Chaitanya]

Z87 Asus mainboards owners will love it !!

not just the z87 but also the z97 board owners are going to love it.

 

[zaodrze244]

ASUS envied EVGA GTX 980 K|NGP|N

 

[GreiverBlade]

and ASUS did it again ... pushing out a top end card just before the launch of a Ti version .... is it not the same as they did with the 780 and 780Ti? (well the Titan X was also a good joke but ... from nvidia)

ASUS envied EVGA GTX 980 K|NGP|N

why would they? EVGA is not what i call a reliable brand when it come to cards ... i saw more failure rate at them than any other brand (in the nvidia category ofc, otherwise Club3D and XFX beat them ...) ok ... top end card from EVGA tend to be a tad better ... but overpriced xD (kingpin edition? Hydrocopper? meh...)

 

[Antykain]

Pretty nice beast of a card.. Still skipping the 9xx series and maybe going with the next series released, maybe. My GTX 780 Classy's are holding up nicely still with current games. No need to think about upgrading atm.

why would they? EVGA is not what i call a reliable brand when it come to cards ... i saw more failure rate at them than any other brand (in the nvidia category ofc, otherwise Club3D and XFX beat them ...) ok ... top end card from EVGA tend to be a tad better .)

Hmm.. All my cards for almost the last decade have been EVGA branded cards, some reference cards, some custom.. like my current GTX 780 Classifieds. I've only had to send back 2 cards over that time due to a card failure, which failed because of error on my part.. which EVGA still replaced the cards knowing that is was my fault. EVGA CS and the warranties offered are one of the reasons I still continue to use EVGA cards.

 

[Hood]

and ASUS did it again ... pushing out a top end card just before the launch of a Ti version .... is it not the same as they did with the 780 and 780Ti? (well the Titan X was also a good joke but ... from nvidia)

why would they? EVGA is not what i call a reliable brand when it come to cards ... i saw more failure rate at them than any other brand (in the nvidia category ofc, otherwise Club3D and XFX beat them ...) ok ... top end card from EVGA tend to be a tad better ... but overpriced xD (kingpin edition? Hydrocopper? meh...)

I've always had good luck with EVGA cards. Bought my first one 3 years ago, a 550 Ti Superclocked. Upgraded to 660 Ti SC 2 years ago, and got a 780 TI Classified last year. They all work great to this day (sold the 550 Ti and 660 Ti to friends). Only paid $399 for the 780 Ti Classified Reference from NewEgg, originally $789.99 (Reference card is a Kingpin card that wouldn't clock high enough stably, so they sell it cheap at reference clock speeds). Yes, their cards tend to over-priced MSRP, but their top cards have upgraded VRM and components, so well worth it, especially on sale for half price, new with 3 year warranty.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Oh look, it's actually gold-colored!!! remember MSI's 970 "Gold" edition? It was copper colored!

This does look like quite the beast of a card, though!

 

[GreiverBlade]

Pretty nice beast of a card.. Still skipping the 9xx series and maybe going with the next series released, maybe. My GTX 780 Classy's are holding up nicely still with current games. No need to think about upgrading atm.
Hmm.. All my cards for almost the last decade have been EVGA branded cards, some reference cards, some custom.. like my current GTX 780 Classifieds. I've only had to send back 2 cards over that time due to a card failure, which failed because of error on my part.. which EVGA still replaced the cards knowing that is was my fault. EVGA CS and the warranties offered are one of the reasons I still continue to use EVGA cards.

I've always had good luck with EVGA cards. Bought my first one 3 years ago, a 550 Ti Superclocked. Upgraded to 660 Ti SC 2 years ago, and got a 780 TI Classified last year. They all work great to this day (sold the 550 Ti and 660 Ti to friends). Only paid $399 for the 780 Ti Classified Reference from NewEgg, originally $789.99 (Reference card is a Kingpin card that wouldn't clock high enough stably, so they sell it cheap at reference clock speeds). Yes, their cards tend to over-priced MSRP, but their top cards have upgraded VRM and components, so well worth it, especially on sale for half price, new with 3 year warranty.

oh they do have a good warranty and customer support i reckon that. (tho that doesn't change the fact that EVGA is in my "do not buy list")
well price is another grief i hold to EVGA ... ok let say the failure rate is not so high ...

in fact since recent nvidia behavior any "nvidia only" AIB is in my "do not buy list" ... eh...

ahahaha ... they did it they really did it ... they pissed me off and me, who was not a "brand loyalty" type of buyer went to "all out for AMD GPU"... i can't wait too see the 3xx line (as my 290 still compete just fine with any 970 980 Titan X, and nope you can't say the opposite 55+ fps is enough, specially when you are a "all ultra maniac" )

 

[Captain_Tom]

and ASUS did it again ... pushing out a top end card just before the launch of a Ti version .... is it not the same as they did with the 780 and 780Ti? (well the Titan X was also a good joke but ... from nvidia)

why would they? EVGA is not what i call a reliable brand when it come to cards ... i saw more failure rate at them than any other brand (in the nvidia category ofc, otherwise Club3D and XFX beat them ...) ok ... top end card from EVGA tend to be a tad better ... but overpriced xD (kingpin edition? Hydrocopper? meh...)

Amen! I tell all of my friends and clients to NEVER EVER buy EVGA. They all break. Worst quality control on Earth!

 

[Captain_Tom]

Pretty nice beast of a card.. Still skipping the 9xx series and maybe going with the next series released, maybe. My GTX 780 Classy's are holding up nicely still with current games. No need to think about upgrading atm.



Hmm.. All my cards for almost the last decade have been EVGA branded cards, some reference cards, some custom.. like my current GTX 780 Classifieds. I've only had to send back 2 cards over that time due to a card failure, which failed because of error on my part.. which EVGA still replaced the cards knowing that is was my fault. EVGA CS and the warranties offered are one of the reasons I still continue to use EVGA cards.

Haha besides EVGA, I have never had to send a card back...EVER. XFX, HIS, SAPPHIRE, Gigabyte, MSI, Powercolor, and the rest all have low failure rates. I am not exaggerating when I say that out of the maybe 10 EVGA cards I have come across between me and my friends only 2 have not broke within the first year.

 

[GhostRyder]

Hmm, I dig this card as its looks like a pretty sweet card with some pretty sweet upgrades to the PCB. Actually would not mind some for myself but I intend to wait for awhile (Probably even past the R9 3XX and all the GTX 9XX series).

Still though, I would love to see what the max overclocks a card like this could achieve (By that I mean comparing it to like the classified cards).

 

[Jorge]

When you send an almost new defective Asus mobo in for replacement, they send you a POS used mobo replacement that has manually soldered repairs and is filthy dirty... Won't get fooled again! While all electronics makers have some failures, how those issues are resolved determines future sales. Anyone who has done their homework knows Asus customer support is horrible and there are plenty of nightmare reports online from Asus owners to prove this.

I laugh at the product claims for a "powered defrost circuit... so that frost doesn't collect on the PCB which has a water-repelling material". I'll bet the gullible LN2 kids fall for this nonsense.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I definately would like to see the reviews on this!

 

[Caring1]

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GOLD20THGTX980P4GD5/
Nice pictures to drool over.
Pity they only compare it to a reference gtx980.

 

[GreiverBlade]

When you send an almost new defective Asus mobo in for replacement, they send you a POS used mobo replacement that has manually soldered repairs and is filthy dirty... Won't get fooled again! While all electronics makers have some failures, how those issues are resolved determines future sales. Anyone who has done their homework knows Asus customer support is horrible and there are plenty of nightmare reports online from Asus owners to prove this.
I laugh at the product claims for a "powered defrost circuit... so that frost doesn't collect on the PCB which has a water-repelling material". I'll bet the gullible LN2 kids fall for this nonsense.

well that's when you actually have a problem with a Asus product, which i never had ... heck, my Striker Extreme or my ROG 8800 Ultra are still fine after many kinds of abuse (or my Ranger or my ref 290 or even my AM1I-A in the SG05 but that one is quite new so ... no real data for it )

oh wait i did send a Striker II Extreme for RMA and got a shiny new one in a sealed box, i guess it's on case to case

I definately would like to see the reviews on this!

so do i ... but only if they do a 390X Gold Edition ahah ... (well i would still see a review of that 980 tho )

 

[64K]

That's a very nice looking card imo. Performance-wise it has about 4%-12% faster core clocks right out of the box depending on which $550 non-reference card you look at and about 1% faster clocks than the mighty $800 K|NGP|N edition. I would like to see this card and the K|NGP|N go head to head to see which is the best performer with max overclocks for each.

 

[d1nky]

seen this card on an online retailer yesterday or the day before i believe. I did plan a black and gold mod a long time ago, this card would have been perfect! Look at that VRM and backplate!!

edit: @Jorge frost will form anywhere when temps are well (-180c) below freezing.

 

[64K]

seen this card on an online retailer yesterday or the day before i believe. I did plan a black and gold mod a long time ago, this card would have been perfect! Look at that VRM and backplate!!

Yeah, this card is built for serious overclocking. If btarunr's guess is right then halfway between a 980 and a Titan X is somewhere around $775. That would put it $100 more than a Classified and in a price range with the K|NGP|N edition which is $800. I would expect similar performance from both cards at max overclocks for that kind of $$$ but the Asus 980 Anniversary Edition gets some extra points for looking a lot better imo.

 

[d1nky]

It's up for 600 sterling, so nearly 900 USD but we pay more on average compared to you.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-362-AS

It is damn sexy, but the price is a small jump to titanx territory, and reviews show the titanX is 4k supreme!

 

[Batou1986]

I like the recessed power connectors this should become a standard thing

 

[johnspack]

Just bring out the tis already. Daddy needs a new 970 for cheap....

 

[Vlada011]

Ladies and gentlemen after 20 years ASUS have fastest graphic card from actual series.
What will happen next and what will customers get with GM200 6GB that's question.
Probably they should wait some new anniversary if they don't like gambling.
Or if they like gambling but between 200-300MHz not 0-300MHz.
If they want warranty on competitive clock not to be 1000 points slower in start than others.
Maybe ASUS after this decide to change politic and offer competitive graphic cards as motherboards.
Nobody ask always highest clock because that's impossible, reason is launch date, but always 10-15MHz more or less than highest fabric clock would be great.