Asus Preparing Gold Edition GTX 980 Matrix & Why Such Cards Don’t Make Much Sense For Most Gamers

[TERAFLOP]

 

Asus teased this on its facebook page.

How fast do you think our new GTX 980 is?
Stock GTX 980: 1126MHz
Matrix Platinum GTX 980: 1342MHz
20th Anniversary Edition GTX 980: ?

 

 

Why Such Cards Don’t Make Much Sense For Most Gamers

This is all well and good but frankly speaking the established GTX 980 Matrix Platinum already carries a hefty price tag of $639. That’s just $60 shy of the R9 295X2 which is more than 50% faster on average and still the fastest graphics card in the world. $639 is also $90 over the MSRP of the standard GTX 980 which is already too expensive compared to the significantly more popular $330 GTX 970. There’s a number of fantastic custom cooled GTX 970 options for $330-$340 right now. The MSI Gaming and the Gigabyte G1 Gaming for example can be overclocked past 1500Mhz without too much effort.

So I personally can’t see how I’d justify paying double the price for the 980 Matrix, or even $220 more over the GTX 970 cards mentioned above for the standard GTX 980. All just to get a 15% performance improvement.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Maybe if you're an enthusiast overclocker you'll enjoy this card, but for most gamers the 970, or 295X2 in this case, is a much better solution.

source

 

 

 

[XTankSlayerX]

Make it orange Asus god dammit.

[Godlygamer23]

This gold stuff is stupid.

[Guest MinimalEffort]

The standard Matrix cards are really for LN2 overclocking. This gold edition has value as being a collectors item and will probably be fairly exclusive.

[alexyy]

This gold stuff is stupid.

 

Beats Red n Black

[Godlygamer23]

Beats Red n Black

That's debatable and I would have to disagree with you.

[GRJohn]

This gold stuff is stupid.

Agreed, for gamers it makes no sense.

 

The standard Matrix cards are really for LN2 overclocking. This gold edition has value as being a collectors item and will probably be fairly exclusive.

You're right, for the average joe gamer a 200$ card is more than he'll need. But you can't really put a value on a collector's item. People spend thousands of dollars to collect antiquities, so I can't really complain just because it's PC hardware.

[DontPeek]

Well I think you said it best. It doesn't make sense for MOST gamers. It's whale hunting. You charge significantly more for a piece of hardware that doesn't offer much more from a practical standpoint and you instantly have a product that offers exclusivity. Somebody with money to burn will be drawn to something like that. I personally have no problem with it. It gives the manufacturer an opportunity to sell something at a high profit margin, and really doesn't affect people who want a more practical option. It may even give them to have the opportunity to make the prices on their standard cards more competitive. Seems like a win-win-win. 

[Redmond]

that's not even gold. its barf yellow

[HerEscutcheon]

At this price point, just make the colored part of the shroud easily removable, and include a dozen or so different color variations. Or just stick with black.

[landon418]

Just use some vinyl

[martinrox1568]

The standard Matrix cards are really for LN2 overclocking. This gold edition has value as being a collectors item and will probably be fairly exclusive.

Who the hell will become a professional gpu collector? Its not like someone in a year when this card goes on ebay will be willing to spend more money because it was more exclusive

[martinrox1568]

The standard Matrix cards are really for LN2 overclocking. This gold edition has value as being a collectors item and will probably be fairly exclusive.

Who would become a professional gpu collector? Its not like someone in a year when this card goes on ebay will be willing to spend more money because it was more exclusive

[EliminatingAngels]

finally, a graphics card the matches my motherboard >.< but why's it look more yellow?

[SirSquid]

Make it orange Asus god dammit.

While they are at it, make some green and black cards too.

[Guest MinimalEffort]

Who would become a professional gpu collector? Its not like someone in a year when this card goes on ebay will be willing to spend more money because it was more exclusive

Why do you think the Ares line of cards exists? Each GPU is numbered as there are only a certain amount of them made. This adds a considerable amount of value to them, so I expect this to be the same.

[Biased Opinion]

At this price point, just make the colored part of the shroud easily removable, and include a dozen or so different color variations. Or just stick with black.

they did do that at one point. I think it was with the 780 DUC2 and the 290/290x DCU2. You had the option of leaving it black or running it with gold/red.

[AHaskin14]

Companies need to start making high end cards like this, but without any sort of cooler for an option. Then you can buy the high overclocking cards for a good price and watercool them like many people often do. Not saying you cant get a high OC on an air cooler though.

[martinrox1568]

Why do you think the Ares line of cards exists? Each GPU is numbered as there are only a certain amount of them made. This adds a considerable amount of value to them, so I expect this to be the same.

Go on eBay right now. Sure the Ares is probably priced at $2000 but no one will buy it. If you are buying a GPU from eBay, you'd tend not to want to spend your money on novelties and limited edition cards

[Misanthrope]

Make it orange Asus god dammit.

 

Actually they should just give you sets of stickers like they did with my 290x. I left mine without stickers, looks awesome in all black too

[Victorious Secret]

Go on eBay right now. Sure the Ares is probably priced at $2000 but no one will buy it. If you are buying a GPU from eBay, you'd tend not to want to spend your money on novelties and limited edition cards

 

Collectible GPUs is a weird thing. Its not like they'll go up in value. It's not like a car, which will go up in value so you hold onto it and not use it. 

 

Its a GPU. 

 

Then again, fringe enthusiasts of any hobby are a weird bunch and will spend money in weird ways. Best to not try and understand their madness. 

[Shotgun]

How come these guys dont loose money over this ? I mean msi has 4 versions of the gtx 970 how come they don't loose money.

[NumLock21]

So they have ditched their sticker method?

[Lanciferp]

For such an expensive piece of hardware that thing is kinda ugly. The shape is pretty cool, but those visible fan wires, as well as the piss yellow color are definite turn offs. Just stick with the standard b&white, b&red, and b&blue. if I was dropping that much on a 980, I would want it to match the Maximus mobo I probably would have brought as well. 

[That Norwegian Guy]

Gold isn't enough to save its looks, but it's an improvement over the daft ROG colours.

 

The shroud itself has an ugly shape though, and doesn't cover enough of the card.