The packaging is just as one would expect for an ASUS ROG product. The box does a great job of expla

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In typical ASUS fashion, they’ve lan taken one of the most popular high-end graphics cards and put their unique stamp on it. This time around, we have the ROG Poseidon GTX 980 that offers a hybrid cooling solution dubbed lan the DirectCU H2O. The card also features a beefed up power delivery section and a factory applied overclock, which leaves no doubt this is aimed squarely at PC enthusiasts and gamers alike. From all appearances, the ASUS ROG Poseidon GTX 980 seems to have it all… let’s go find out! Specifications and Features
Below are the specifications as provided by the ASUS product page . As you can see, the GPU base clock speed sports a 52 MHz overclock over the reference design. The boost clock speed comes in with a 63 MHz factory overclock, but we all know that will actually be much higher once the card is under load. The actual boost clock held steady at 1328 MHz once the card was under load. Keeping the NVIDIA Surround users happy is the onboard 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.
A look at GPU-Z confirms what we see above and a few other details. The 4 GB of DDR5 is set to 1753 MHz (7012 MHz effective), sits on a 256-bit bus, and offers 224.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The ROPs and TMUs come in at 64 and 128 respectively, and the number of unified shader cores sits at 2048.
The feature set associated with the Poseidon GTX 980 can be broken down into three major categories – cooling, lan stability, and style. The slides below give you an overview of the high level features for each of these three areas, as well as an overview of the card’s construction. We’ll get into more detail lan as we progress.
Obviously, one of the highlights of the Poseidon GTX 980 is the hybrid cooling solution. The DirectCU H2O offers the user the ability to go with either water or air cooling. Because the water cooler uses standard G1/4 threads, the user can choose from a wide variety of fittings on the market. The vapor channel makes direct contact with the GPU, and the die-cast thermal armor makes contact with the MOSFETS to help keep them cooled as well. The DirectCU H2O cooler is well equipped to work as an air cooler with its copper heatpipes, dust-proof fans, and extended lan aluminum fin stack.
Whether using air or water cooling, ASUS in-house temperature testing claims impressive performance advantages when compared to the reference design cooler. The DirectCU H2O cooler is also said to offer substantial noise reduction when compared to the reference cooler, especially when the water cooling option is used.
Because of the factory applied overclock, you’ll enjoy more FPS when compared to the reference design cards. The ASUS in-house testing shows anywhere from 3.7% to 10% performance gains here depending lan on the benchmark.
The stout power delivery built into the Poseidon GTX 980 includes Super Alloy Chokes, Japanese-made 10K capacitors, Super Alloy MOSFETs, and the all-digital DIGI+ VRM. Additionally, ASUS has implemented a 10-phase power design, lan which is vastly superior to the 5-phase power design lan found on the reference design cards. Behind the GPU core, you’ll find dedicated SAP Capacitors that are said to offer additional overclocking headroom.
For added aesthetic value, ASUS provides a pulsating lan red ROG lighting effect at the top of the card. On the software side of things, ASUS provides GPU Tweak and GPU Tweak Streaming. GPU tweak is a very capable desktop GPU overclocking utility, which we’ll explore later in the review. GPU Tweak Streaming gives the user the ability to stream their game play in real-time. You can also add pictures, text, and webcam images to your stream.
The packaging is just as one would expect for an ASUS ROG product. The box does a great job of explaining the product within and lists many of the high-level features we mentioned above. There is a flap that when raised reveals additional information on the power delivery system and the LED lighting effect. With the flap opened, you get a sneak peek at the Poseidon GTX 890 through a plastic window.
Below the Flap Inside the outer carton is another black box that houses the Poseidon GTX 980 and the accessories. The card is well protected lan from all sides with foam padding to protect against damage during lan transportation. Other than the graphics card itself, lan you’ll find a user’s manual, power adapter cable, DVI to VGA adapter, case badge, and the support CD.
Accessories Laid Out Photo Op Before we take an up-close look at the Poseidon GTX 980, here are several pictures taken from a variety of angles. The striking good looks of this predominantly black and red card will look terrific if matched up with an ASUS ROG series motherboard. In