The ASUS GeForce GTX 285 Matrix has really been a long time coming, noticed originally at Computex it was only going to be a matter of time before we got the hot little product in our hands. Following the Matrix naming scheme, the GeForce GTX 285 is the latest model to get welcomed into the lineup with open arms. We have to wonder though after having a look at some of the features the card offers, is it simply just a standard GeForce GTX 285 that has been given an nice dress and a set of heels to hit the town with or is there really something there that's going to grab our attention and help us warrant the $359 price tag. So let's check out the package and see if it's going to be love at first sight. - TweakTown

ASUS GeForce GTX 285 ROG Matrix Graphics Review

The first note that we have to make is just how nice it is to see that ASUS has mixed it up with the box design, it's good to see that they have decided to move away from the typical box design for this special Matrix model. The overall design has an really nice theme that does look great and grabs our attention. We can see that across the top we have the Republic of Gamers logo while as we move down we have the model, which in this case is the GeForce GTX 285 Matrix. Below that we have a little bit of a motto followed by the ASUS logo in the bottom corner. Turning the box over we have a bit more on some of the power features.

Coming in as part of their Matrix series means that the board is going to have its own cooling design. Like most GeForce GTX 285's we have a cooler that really manages to cover the board from top to bottom and left to right. The bottom left does show us the ROG logo while the fan on the right side has the ASUS one, but apart from that there isn't a whole lot else to be looking at. The rear of the board has two PCI Express connectors, one an 6-pin and the other an 8-pin, closer to the front of the card we have two SLI connectors that give us the ability to run up to three of these cards together for improved performance.

Something that you can do with this card is set clock rates to the BIOS, much like you could with a motherboard. While for the most part this sounds scary, the good news is that if you do mess it up by going too high, with a single click of the button you can go back to the default clock speeds. We have to admit we're a bit skeptical on this feature. Looking at the card you have to say to yourself, of course the model comes overclocked out of the box. With the look of the card, fancy packaging and flash lights on the cooler, we expected some big numbers out of the model, unfortunately we did find ourselves slightly disappointed.

Now the first thing we have to talk about before we wrap everything up is the new iTracker software. And this is ASUS' own overclocking software that gives you the ability to adjust just a whole array of features ranging from not only memory clocks but timings. The good news is if you stuff something up in the process like your motherboard, you're only a button away from being able to reset it. The whole process of updating the BIOS though with higher clock speeds does seem like a bit of muck around though. If you wanted something that was going to be faster out of the box, you'd probably simply be better off buying a TOP version.

Finishing this up, as we have said, the GeForce GTX 285 Matrix isn't going to be for everyone, some people will love the ability to write their own clock rates and memory timings to the card thanks to the iTracker software, others will also love the lower temperatures that the video card offers. At the end of it all, you have to really decide if these are features you want or not, with this GeForce GTX 285 being around for so long now we've got a lot of companies that offer higher out of the box clocks and just all round cheaper cards. You will have to figure out if the Matrix edition is the GeForce GTX 285 for you.