A Closer Look

ASUS's thermal solution uses five heatpipes; four of these directly touch the GPU's surface. You can also see a gray thermal pad that cools the voltage regulation circuitry. This is the exact same heatsink as on the ASUS GTX 1080 STRIX Gaming.


Once the main cooler is removed, a shiny metal bar becomes visible; it provides cooling for the memory chips.


The backplate is made out of metal and has an RGB LED module that illuminates the ROG logo.


Near the back of the card are two fan connectors that are in sync with the GPU's fans. You could hook up two case fans that will stop completely outside of games. The main source of heat nowadays being the graphics card, attached case fans will run at the same speed as the GPU's fans that base their speed on how hot the card runs, which is a great idea!


ASUS has also included OC measure and tweaking points; the labels are on the front, but you can access them through the back without taking apart the card - feel free to take a look at the next picture.


ASUS upgraded the 6-pin power input of the reference design to an 8-pin, which is specified for up to 225 W of power draw.


ASUS rebranded their voltage controller; it's an IR3567, just like on the reference design.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4G80325FB-HC25. They are specified to run at 2000 MHz (8000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Ellesmere graphics processor introduces the company's Polaris architecture. It is produced on a 14 nm process at Globalfoundries, USA, with a transistor count of 5.7 billlion and a die size of 232 mm².