Introduction

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The ASUS HD 5870 Matrix Platinum ROG is the latest beast in their array of VGA products. It is highly optimized for overclocking and tweaking on both a PCB design and software level. One interesting feature is the use of 2 GB of GDDR5 memory which is twice as much as on the "normal" HD 5870. Whether this can help make a difference will be something we are going to look at. Compared to the reference design, ASUS has bumped the clock speeds only slightly.

There is also a non-Platinum version of the card which runs considerably cheaper and offers all the same features and specs. The only differences are that the Platinum is running at 850 MHz core clock and the Platinum cards are binned for higher clock speeds than the non-Platinum.

<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th></th>
<td>Radeon 
HD 4870 X2</td>
<td>GeForce 
GTX 285</td>
<td>Radeon 
HD 5850</td>
<td>GeForce 
GTX 470</td>
<td>Radeon 
HD 5870</td>
<td>ASUS Matrix 
HD 5870</td>
<td>GeForce 
GTX 480</td>
<td>GeForce 
GTX 295</td>
<td>Radeon 
HD 5970</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Shader units </th>
<td align="right">2x 800</td>
<td align="right">240</td>
<td align="right">1440</td>
<td align="right">448</td>
<td align="right">1600</td>
<td align="right">1600</td>
<td align="right">480</td>
<td align="right">2x 240</td>
<td align="right">2x 1600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>ROPs</th>
<td align="right">2x 16</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">40</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">32</td>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">2x 28</td>
<td align="right">2x 32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>GPU</th>
<td align="right">2x RV770</td>
<td align="right">GT200b</td>
<td align="right">Cypress</td>
<td align="right">GF100</td>
<td align="right">Cypress</td>
<td align="right">Cypress</td>
<td align="right">GF100</td>
<td align="right">2x GT200b</td>
<td align="right">2x Cypress</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Transistors</th>
<td align="right">2x 956M</td>
<td align="right">1400M</td>
<td align="right">2154M</td>
<td align="right">3200M</td>
<td align="right">2154M</td>
<td align="right">2154M</td>
<td align="right">3200M</td>
<td align="right">2x 1400M</td>
<td align="right">2x 2154M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">2x 1024 MB </td>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">1280 MB</td>
<td align="right">1024 MB</td>
<td align="right">2048 MB</td>
<td align="right">1536 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 896 MB</td>
<td align="right">2x 1024 MB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Bus Width </th>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit </td>
<td align="right">512 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">320 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">256 bit </td>
<td align="right">384 bit </td>
<td align="right">2x 448 bit </td>
<td align="right">2x 256 bit </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">750 MHz </td>
<td align="right">648 MHz </td>
<td align="right">725 MHz </td>
<td align="right">607 MHz </td>
<td align="right">850 MHz </td>
<td align="right">894 MHz </td>
<td align="right">700 MHz </td>
<td align="right">576 MHz </td>
<td align="right">725 MHz </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">900 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1242 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1000 MHz </td>
<td align="right">837 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1200 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1200 MHz </td>
<td align="right">924 MHz </td>
<td align="right">999 MHz </td>
<td align="right">1000 MHz </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Price</th>
<td align="right">$350</td>
<td align="right">$350</td>
<td align="right">$310</td>
<td align="right">$349</td>
<td align="right">$400</td>
<td align="right">$499</td>
<td align="right">$499</td>
<td align="right">$520</td>
<td align="right">$630</td>
</tr>
</table>

Packaging

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While it may not look like it, the ASUS package is big - you definitely get some loot to carry home proudly. The back shows more info about the highlights of the product.

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You will receive:

Graphics card
Driver CD + Quick Install Guide
CrossFire bridge
DVI to VGA adapter
HDMI to DVI adapter
(Fake) Leather CD/DVD pouch
2x PCI-Express power cables
ASUS ROG Sticker

The Card

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The ASUS HD 5870 Matrix has the same length as the HD 5870 reference design. A little bulge has been added near the top edge to accomodate the lighted Matrix logo. On the back ASUS has installed a metal backplate which helps with cooling of the graphics card.

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Just like the reference design cards, you need two slots in your system for installation.

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Along the top edge of the card ASUS has placed a lit Matrix logo which changes color when the GPU load / power draw changes, a very nice touch.

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The card has one DVI port, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort. An adapter for HDMI to DVI is included in the package, as well as an analog VGA adapter.
The HDMI interface is HDMI 1.3a compatible which includes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3, DTS and up to 7.1 channel audio with 192 kHz / 24-bit.

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One feature of ASUS' included software is the ability to save profiles into the VGA BIOS. In case you save an overconfident profile and end up with a non-booting card, you can press this safe mode button to allow booting.

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You may combine this card with any Cypress based graphics card for dual, triple or quad CrossFire.

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Near the top edge of the back side of the PCB ASUS has included little measuring points for five voltage. This is definitely a nice feature for the more extreme overclockers since they have easy access to all voltages now. It would have been nice to see some kind of breakout cable like MSI included with their Lightning Series.

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Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

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As first step we removed the metal backplate of the card. It feels quite solid and thermal pads have been strategically placed to transfer heat from the GPU and memory to the plate. Please note that once you remove the screws from this backplate, the cooler on the front will also get loose.

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The front cooler uses DirectTouch technology combined with five copper heatpipes to transfer heat away quickly from the GPU core.

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This little chip is responsible for interfacing with the ASUS software and provides a means to adjust some additional voltages like VDDCI and MVDDC (the VDDC GPU voltage regulator can be programmed directly).

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A shiny metal SuperML capacitor has been added to the card to help with voltage stability. It's essentially a high (relative to normal capacitors) capacity battery that can quickly charge and discharge to smooth out any ripples in the GPU voltage.

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If you take a look at the picture above, you can see that the row of memory chips on the left makes contact with the heatsink via thermal pad. The row on the front doesn't have such a pad because they are located right above where the heatpipes go through. ASUS tells me that this is no problem because there is some airflow leakage from the fan moving hot air out of the case that cools it.

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ASUS has placed dual 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors on their card, they are definitely not needed, as the power consumption is reasonable - 222W worst case. Two 8-pin power connectors are required only for designs going far beyond 300W. Even when doing serious overclocking I have doubts that there is any difference, it's still a good marketing feature though.

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The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Samsung, and carry the model number K4G10325FE-HC04. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).

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GPU voltage is managed by a uPi uP6208 AM voltage regulator which has I2C software control. While it does not have as many features as the controllers from Volterra, it is certainly a cost effective solution that does the job just fine. The other two controllers are uP6205 to generate VDDCI and MVDDC. They do not support I2C control, so ASUS is using their Super Hybrid Engine chip as interface to control those.

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This is AMD's Cypress GPU, it comes with a whopping 2154 million transistors and is produced on a 40 nm process at TMSC Taiwan. The Cypress die size is 334 mm².

Test System

<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="120" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz (Bloomfield, 8192 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Gigabyte X58 Extreme 
Intel X58 & ICH10R</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">3x 2048 MB Mushkin Redline XP3-12800 DDR3 
@ 1520 MHz 8-7-7-16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">WD Raptor 740ADFD 74 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">BFG ES-800 800W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows 7 64-bit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">NVIDIA: 195.62 GTX 470 & 480: 197.41 ATI: Catalyst 10.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Display:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">
LG Flatron W3000H 30" 2560x1600 <img src="http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_5870_Matrix/images/zotac.jpg" width="120" height="40"></td>
</tr>
</table>

All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting

Each benchmark was tested at the following settings and resolution:

1024 x 768, No Anti-aliasing. This is a standard resolution without demanding display settings.
1280 x 1024, 2x Anti-aliasing. Common resolution for most smaller flatscreens today (17" - 19"). A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1680 x 1050, 4x Anti-aliasing. Most common widescreen resolution on larger displays (19" - 22"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
1920 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing. Typical widescreen resolution for large displays (22" - 26"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2560 x 1600, 4x Anti-aliasing. Highest possible resolution for commonly available displays (30"). Very good looking driver graphics settings.

BattleForge

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BattleForge, a card based RTS, is developed by the German EA Phenomic Studio. A few months after launch the game was transformed into a Play 4 Free branded game. That move and the fact that it was included as game bundle with a large number of ATI cards made it one of the more well known RTS games of 2009. You as a player assemble your deck before game to select the units that will be available. Your choice can be from forces of Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow to complement each other.
The BattleForge engine has full support for DX 9, DX 10 and DX 10.1, we used the internal benchmark tool to acquire our results.

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Call of Duty 4

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Call of Duty 4 is a first-person shooter that is built on the award winning Call of Duty Series. It is the first version to play in modern times. In a near-future conflict between the United States, Europe and Russia you get to play as a United States Marine and a British SAS operative. The engine is Infinity Ward's own creation and has true dynamic lighting, depth of field, dynamic shadows and HDR. Even though the game plot is scripted you will find yourself in intense battles, often working together with computer controlled team mates.

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Call of Juarez 2

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Call of Juarez 2: Bound in Blood is a prequel to the first Call of Juarez game which was one of the first DX10 titles available on the market. This time the plot evolves around two brothers, before each mission you may pick one to play. Your choices affect the game play since both characters have different ways of handling situations and doing combat.
Call of Juarez 2 uses Techland's Chrome Engine 4 which adds Edge Anti Aliasing as one of the first engines on the market. Edge Anti Aliasing looks similar to normal AA but comes with a considerably reduced performance drop. However, due to the deferred shading design of Edge AA, normal AA can't be used on top of it.

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Company Of Heroes

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The real-time strategy game Company of Heroes is set during World War II where you take two American companies through several fights all over France to liberate the country from German occupation. Company of Heroes is the first game to use Relic's next-generation engine "Essence Engine" which includes support for HDR lighting, Shader Model 3.0, normal mapping, dynamic lighting and shadows. You are able to zoom in from the tactical view of the battle field to see the individual units fighting. Often you catch yourself admiring the detailed animations of the soldiers while the fight around you is raging.

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Crysis

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After the tremendous success of Far Cry, the German game studio Crytek released their latest shooter Crysis in 2007. The game was by far the most hyped and anticipated game in 2007, the forums were full of "Can my system run Crysis?" threads because of the high hardware requirements of this game. Just like in Far Cry the plot evolves on a small island with a thick and richly detailed jungle world. A lot of attention has been given to small details like correct physics. For example when you fire on a tree trunk, it will shatter and the tree will fall over leaving a stump behind. Enemies in a car can be stopped by shooting the tire of the car. The game graphics are by far the best ever seen in a PC game so far, yet the game still runs well on most computers.

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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2

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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II by Relic Entertainment is an RTS game based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Unlike other Dawn of War titles there is no base-building element in the game, you simply command units on the battlefield. Due to the non-linear mission design, the choices which mission and objective you pick to pursue have considerable impact on game play and mission difficulty. A "hero" unit concept adds RPG elements to the game, allowing you to advance the unit in terms of levels and abilities. Dawn of War 2 uses the Essence Engine 2.0, version 1.0 was used in the Company of Heroes Series.

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DiRT 2

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DiRT 2 is the first game to offer basic DirectX 11 features, even though they are very limited, the title has been used extensively by AMD to market their DX11 products. The game features a large number of different racing events all over the world with tracks ranging from off-road, over stadiums to complex city courses. We chose not to benchmark DX 11 at this time since this would result in incomparable scores for many of the cards. It should also be noted that SLI does not work at this time which explains the low score of the GeForce GTX 295.

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Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

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The first-person shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is set in the science-fiction universe of Quake and requires several classes to work together to achieve certain goals on a map. In the campaign mode you gain experience which you can use to buy upgrades for your class. The player gets to pick from five classes of either the Global Defense Force or the Strogg faction. As underlying game engine, the successful id Software Doom 3 engine has been licensed, but several features like MegaTextures have been added, giving the outdoor world a much more detailed appearance.

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Far Cry

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Far Cry was released in early 2004 by the new development studio Crytek. It quickly became a massive success because it was one of the first titles to take you in a beautiful 3D outdoor world. Far Cry was one of the most demanding games at its time. Even with today's video cards you can still see big differences in frame rates, especially at the higher resolutions.

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Far Cry 2

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Four years after the success of Far Cry, Ubisoft has published the sequel called Far Cry 2. While the first part was set on an island, Far Cry 2 takes you deep into Africa with game play that resembles Grand Theft Auto much more than the original Far Cry, which was a classical 3D shooter. Ubisoft engineered a completely new 3D engine called "Dunia" which offers a large amount of popular features like DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 support, destructible environments, physics and non-scripted AI while not being as much of a resource hog as Crytek's CryEngine.

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Tom Clancy's HAWX

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Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. is one of the very few recent flight simulator games on the market. Being a console conversion it emphasizes "flight" more than "simulator". It is set in a near future in which private military companies have begun fighting conflicts for nations with their own military gear. You are playing an elite pilot who was recruited by such a private company. During the game you get to fly over 50 different aircrafts, ranging from the MIG 21 to the mighty F22 Raptor. One notable feature of its engine is the use of GeoEye satellite imagery for terrain generation which offers one of the most realistic incarnations of battlefield terrain available today.

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Prey

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Prey is based on a highly modified 3D engine made by id Software. This first person shooter brought a completely new way of gaming to the genre. In many levels you find yourself walking upside down or on the walls. This adds a completely new aspect to the gaming experience in this genre.

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Quake 4

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The Quake titles are among the most successful first person games. Developed by id Software, the famous game studio that brought you DOOM, you find yourself in a sci-fi world that is full of aliens and shocking effects. The main focus of the game is the single player story line. Quake 4 puts you on the home planet of the Strogg. In a number of missions you and your fellow marines will encounter all sorts of enemies, including some really huge aliens.

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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a first person shooter game set in a far future. You are Riddick, a notorious space criminal played by Vin Diesel in the movies. Dark Athena continues where Escape from Butcher Bay ended. A major aspect of the game is its tactical use of shadows and stealth so that enemies can't detect you. Vin Diesel's voice acting also adds greatly to the game experience.
The 0.0 FPS scores for NVIDIA cards at 2560x1600 are caused by driver crashes which seem to be related to card with 512 MB memory and below. Since it works fine on ATI this is not a game problem but an NVIDIA driver issue.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

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Before its release in 2007, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was one of the most hyped games of the last years. This RPG/FPS hybrid game is set a few years in the future, after a nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The release of radiation causes strange things like mutations in the nearby area. You take the role of a Stalker who seeks fame and riches in the contaminated area around Chernobyl. The game engine features all the latest buzzwords like HDR, bullet physics, skeletal animation, soft shadows and weather effects. Stalker's vast outside world is richly modeled, you can interact with a large number of objects in the game thanks to the physics engine.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky

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STALKER Clear Sky is GSC Gameworld's prequel to the 2007 hit "STALKER". Just like in the first part the game is set around the Russian area of Chernobyl and Pripyat, most well known for the nuclear accident that occurred there. You play the role of a mercenary who spends his days in The Zone trying to make a living. The Zone is an area which is affected by so-called anomalies which cause mutants to appear and laws of physics to change. While you investigate these anomalies the plot leads up to the events that happened right before the first game starts. A new in-game faction system encourages you to befriend various groups in The Zone in exchange for information or items. While the graphics of Clear Sky are based on the first Stalker game engine, there are numerous improvements, including support for DirectX10 and depth-of-field/volumetric effects.

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Unreal Tournament 3

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The fourth game in Epic's highly successful Unreal Tournament Series is simply called Unreal Tournament 3. It is based on the all-new Unreal 3 engine which is a major step forward from the previous engine. The game principle is centered about an arena style gameplay where several contestants try to reach a certain kill count or capture a flag for example. As you would expect from a new 2007 title, the graphics are top notch, with large and detailed textures. One major drawback of the way the engine is designed is that there is no support for Anti-Aliasing.

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World In Conflict

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The realtime strategy game World In Conflict by Massive Entertainment is set in 1989 taking the player through a fictional conflict during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unlike other RTS games, World in Conflict is not centered around building a base, you command units on the battlefield with a number of reinforcement points available to replace lost troops.
Massive's Masstech Game Engine makes heavy use of level-of-detail techniques which allow you to zoom in closely on the action displaying fights in high-fidelity with a large number of effects.

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3DMark03

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Futuremark Corporation is the number one player in the world of synthetic benchmarking. The 3DMark series is the most popular test suite for video card testing and is used by gamers, overclockers and manufacturers alike to determine how fast their hardware is. Even though it is a few years old, 3DMark03 can easily stress today's video cards.

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3DMark05

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Another benchmark from Futuremark is 3DMark05 which comes with four completely new game tests that make massive use of shaders and lighting effects. 3DMark05 is a great test for modern video card architectures - in some tests you are often close to the 30 fps mark, below which your games will feel sluggish.

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3DMark06

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Even though it's based on Futuremark's 3DMark05, the new 3DMark06 adds new tests for Shader Model 3.0 and HDR rendering. It is also the first 3DMark to incorporate a CPU score into the final 3DMark score. All tests have received an overhaul, for example in the Canyon Flight test you can now see beautiful sun glare effects with the help of High Dynamic Range rendering.

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Power Consumption

Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially when users are asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why the engineers are now paying much more attention to power consumption of new video card designs.

For this test we measure power consumption of only the graphics card, via PCI-Express power connector(s) and PCI-Express bus slot. A Keithley Integra 2700 with 6.5 digits is used for all measurements. Again, the values here reflect card only power consumption measured at DC VGA card inputs, not the whole system.

We chose 3DMark03 Nature as a standard test representing typical 3D usage because it offers: - very high power draw - high repeatability - is a standard benchmark that is supported by all cards - drivers are actively tested and optimized for it - supports all multi-GPU configurations - easy to obtain - fairly compact in size - test runs a constant duration and renders a non-static scene with variable complexity just like any normal game.

The four result values are as following:

Idle: Windows Vista Aero sitting at the desktop (1280x1024 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Card left to warm up in idle until power draw is stable.
Average: 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. This results in the highest power consumption. Average of all readings (12 per second) while the test was rendering (no title screen).
Peak: 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. Highest single reading during the test.
Maximum: Furmark Stability Test at 1280x1024, 0xAA. This results in a very high non-game power consumption that can typically be reached only with stress testing applications. Card left running stress test until power draw converged to a stable value.
Blu-Ray Playback: Power DVD 9 Ultra is used at a resolution of 1920x1200 to play back the Batman: The Dark Knight disc with GPU acceleration turned on. Playback starts around timecode 1:19 which has the highest data rates on the BD with up to 40 Mb/s. Playback left running until power draw converged to a stable value.

Power consumption of the ASUS HD 5870 Matrix is substantially higher than the reference design from AMD. One reason is that the clock speeds are increased, the additional 1 GB of GDDR5 memory needs power too, another factor is the different voltage regulation circuitry. Overall the power consumption is fine, considering this is an overclocker's card. Using the ASUS HD 5870 Matrix in a Media PC rig doesn't seem to be the best choice because of its high Blu-Ray playback power consumption.

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Fan Noise

In the past years users would accept everything just to get more performance. Nowadays this has changed with people being more aware of the fan noise and power consumption of their graphic cards.
In order to properly test the fan noise a card emits we are using a Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound level meter (~$4,000) which has the measurement range and accuracy we are looking for.

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The tested graphics card is installed in a system that is completely passively cooled. That is passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, passive cooling on the motherboard and Solid-State HDD.
This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified) the measurement is conducted at 100 cm distance and 160 cm over the floor. The ambient background noise level in the room is well below 20 dbA for all measurements. Please note that the dbA scale is not linear, it is logarithmic. 40 dbA is not twice as loud as 20 dbA. A 3 dbA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing is a bit different and it is generally accepted that a 10 dbA increase doubles the perceived sound level.

While the idle noise levels are pleasantly quiet, the card ramps up its fan quite a bit under load. In my opinion this is a bit too much fan noise, but given the load temperatures of 82° I don't see much headroom for improvement via settings here.
If you are shopping for a silent card, the Matrix should probably not be your first choice. The ASUS EAH 5870 DirectCu is quiet for example, and the leader in the quiet high-end segment is clearly the PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+.

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Performance Summary

To create this graph we took all performance results of the five resolutions we tested, threw them together and calculated the relative performance of each card, compared to our review sample. In a sixth graph we also combined all tests in all resolutions to calculate the total relative performance of the review sample.

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Performance per Watt

This graph was created by taking the relative performance numbers and putting them in contrast to the average power consumption results.

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Performance per Dollar

If you are looking for the best bang for the buck, then you will love this graph. We looked up the current USD price of each card on the popular online shop Newegg and used it and the relative performance numbers to calculate the Performance per Dollar Index.

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Overclocking

To find the maximum overclock of our card we used a combination of GPUTool and our benchmarking suite.
The overclocks listed here were achieved with the default fan and voltage settings as defined in the VGA BIOS. Please note that every single sample overclocks differently, that's why our results here can only serve as a guideline for what you can expect from your card.

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The overclocks of our card are 965 MHz core (8% overclock) and 1290 MHz Memory (8% overclock). Both overclocks are not too astonishing, they represent about what you would expect from most HD 5870 cards.

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ASUS includes their iTracker2 software with the HD 5870 Matrix. This utility lets you adjust GPU voltage, memory voltage, and VDDCI. In addition to that you can monitor all the voltages available on the voltage measuring points and the power draw of individual components. Overall this is a nice choice of added features and the software is reasonably easy to use.

I tested some quick voltage increases and got a maximum GPU clock of 1020 MHz @ 1.3V and 1012 MHz @ 1.25V. This shows that the card does scale nicely when more voltage is applied.

Increasing memory voltage one other hand yielded basically no improvement at all.

Overclocked Performance

Using these clock frequencies (965/1290) we ran a quick test of Call of Duty 4 to evaluate the gains from overclocking.

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The actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 7.2%.

Temperatures

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Temperatures are in a healthy range that also has some headroom for overclocking at air cooling - even with voltage increases. Unfortunately the fan is a tad bit noisy under load, but ASUS found a good balance in my opinion.

Clock Profiles

Modern graphics cards have several clock profiles that are selected to balance power draw and performance requirements.
The following table lists the clock settings for major performance scenarios and the GPU voltage that we measured. We measure on the pins of a coil or capacitor near the GPU voltage regulator.

<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th></th>
<td>Core 
Clock</td>
<td>Memory 
Clock</td>
<td>GPU Voltage 
(measured)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Desktop</th>
<td align="right">157 MHz</td>
<td align="right">300 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.06 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Blu-Ray Playback</th>
<td align="right">400 MHz</td>
<td align="right">800 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.11 V</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>3D Load</th>
<td align="right">894 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1200 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1.24 V</td>
</tr>
</table>

AMD includes their own overclocking utility with Catalyst Control Center. While easy to use, it also limits the maximum overclock to a predefined limit in the BIOS. This limit may vary from vendor to vendor or product to product. Following are the upwards limits for overclocking CCC gives you.

<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">CCC Overdrive Limits</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Core</td>
<td>1200 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Memory</td>
<td>1400 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>

Value and Conclusion

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<td>

The ASUS recommended retail price for their HD 5870 Platinum is $499.

</td>
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<td>

Engineered for extreme overclocking
Solid overclocking potential
Native HDMI output
Dual 8-pin power connectors
2 GB of GDDR5 memory
Supports voltage control & monitoring via iTracker2
Support for DirectX 11

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Fairly small overclock out of the box
High price
Higher power draw than HD 5870 reference
Additional 1 GB of memory makes no difference
Quite noisy
No support for CUDA/PhysX
DirectX 11 won't be relevant for quite a while

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<tr><th>8.6</th>
<td>The ASUS HD 5870 Matrix Platinum is a bundle of interesting things. It is clear at the outset that ASUS splurged heavily on its design, and used a lavish choice of components, particularly the voltage regulators and twice the amount of memory. The Matrix Platinum zips through any game you throw at it, with most of the eye candy that noticeably improves image quality turned on. Having double the amount of memory (2 GB) continues to be insignificant in our test bed, though it could be a reasonably good investment for three reasons: 1. Future games, current games such as GTA IV (because its programmers suck) that make use of over 1 GB of video memory; 2. positively impacts resale value of the card if you're selling it at a time when having 2 GB on your video card makes a whole lot of sense, or simply if 2 GB is more appealing; and 3. ATI Eyefinity setups, where the GPU has to draw three different display outputs, the extra memory does come handy in some games. 
For overclockers, the Matrix Platinum is a treat when it comes to out of the box overclock, headroom to overclock further, and all the features that help. The strong VRM coupled with the voltage-conditioning SuperML capacitor are able to give this card overclocking potential on par with HD 5870 cards with 1 GB memory, especially when it has become a bit of a dogma that cards with twice the number of memory chips tend to overclock less in the memory domain. The iTracker 2 software makes it a breeze to tune clock speeds, voltages, and monitor them. For manual voltage measurements, important vMeasure points are consolidated in a place where it's convenient to measure, especially when the card is inside a case and not a station bench. The Safe Mode button can be a life-saver if you weren't careful enough writing clock speeds and voltage tables to the video BIOS. 
Among all the glitz, the Matrix Platinum does fumble in a few areas. To start with, price. While some may argue that at with twice the memory and all the other paraphernalia thrown in US $499 is reasonable, you can't be sure of that. Two cards in particular tilt the value for money equation here, the HD 5870 with 1 GB of memory which can be had for even as low as $399 (some of the non-reference designs such as PowerColor HD 5870 PCS+ can be extremely nice with their overclocking potential and fan-noise levels) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480. Also at $499, the GTX 480 has higher performance, some overclocking potential, and things that will make the GTX 480 a better buy for the same price, albeit horrible power draw figures. Between these two contenders, the HD 5870 1GB is what would make us flip the coin. Secondly, 2 GB of memory still doesn't make sense from a value for money standpoint. Unless you're playing GTA4 all the time or have an Eyefinity setup, the additional memory chips are dead-weight which contribute to the card's higher power draw. Most 1 GB HD 5870 cards have pleasant voltage draws with BD playback, something this card lacks. Further, unless you're chasing records, in most cases the 1 GB reference-design card is catching up in terms of performance. At resolutions lower than 1900 x 1200, 2 GB has very little performance benefits. 
Our final verdict on the Matrix Platinum is pleasant. The card has some serious aesthetic value, dozens of little features that add to its functionality, and that it's more future-ready than reference-design HD 5870 cards. Have $499, buy. Another option could be the ASUS HD 5870 Matrix non-Platinum which goes for arond $470 but comes at a reduced core clock of 850 MHz.
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