First Look: The Asus ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 Brings Liquid Metal to the 4090

Sep 09, 2023

TAIPEI—Asus’ periodic Matrix editions of its highest-end video cards are rare birds. The last one showed its PCB face during the GeForce RTX 20 series days, and the company has maintained something of a mystique and a limited-edition ethos around them. Of course, these being elite-grade cards with a limited clientele, they're more aspirational products than practical for most buyers. You admire the Ferrari, but you buy the Ford.

If you don't consider yourself "most buyers," though, then it's time to get a bit impractical…and get your wallet ready for some hurt. Asus teased, just before the official opening of Computex 2023, a Matrix edition of the Nvidia flagship GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, dubbed the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090.

Asus did not announce pricing at the outset, and the assembled press had just a few minutes to ogle and shoot the card during a trip to Asus headquarters in Taipei. So let's get down to some of those pix…

The Matrix is a liquid-cooled RTX 4090 card with the distinction of using liquid metal on the GPU die. As Asus reps explained, using liquid metal on a component that may be oriented and used in one of several different directions, depending on the installation, presents something of a challenge. (It's safe to assume, in contrast, that a laptop employing liquid metal will predictably be used at full tilt only when it's more or less parallel to a desk.) Liquid metal needs to be "dammed" in place to keep it from flowing out when heated (obviously a bad thing).

As a result, Asus had to implement a special adhesive barrier, visible above and below in these PCB shots, around the GPU keep the metal contained when it's in a flow state. After all, a PC might have the card installed vertically, horizontally, or even up on end. The last is not uncommon in certain small-form-factor cases.

This Matrix card is paired with a triple-fan radiator using three 120mm fans, and the product comes pre-assembled and pre-filled, in the same vein as an all-in-one liquid cooler you'd buy for a CPU. It's tethered via the liquid hoses to the 2.5-slot-wide video card.

The pump mechanism is mounted along with the PCB inside the outer rim of the card, a sturdy metal surround that makes the card look like art suspended in the frame.

The card, according to reps, should hit a power limit at 600 watts. It should also have the highest GPU boost clock available in an RTX 4090, a claim that Asus reps say they have verified with Nvidia. The liquid metal on the GPU, as well as a large copper cold plate, help contribute to getting this card out to the furthest performance reaches.

The fans on the radiator are daisy-chainable and magnetic. Asus Aura Sync will handle the lighting tweaks, though we did not get to see anything but the stock blue on the radiator fans in our brief time with the Matrix. Display-output connectors on the port plane comprise three DisplayPorts and two HDMIs, one more than typical.

The card is 28cm long, though Asus advises 35mm of clearance to allow for a proper gentle arc/bend for the liquid cooler hoses. We’ll update this piece with pricing and availability as soon as we're able to pin some down. In the meantime...admire the view.

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