ASUS ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 Serves Up Liquid Metal Cooling
Asus has unveiled a new limited edition Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card that ditches the concept of fans in favor of a novel liquid metal design, which actually claims to offer a record performance boost. The ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 looks unlike any GPU out there with a unique dual-pump design, but more importantly, it is touted to provide "the highest out-of-the-box boost clocks of any RTX 4090 in the world."
The company is no stranger to using liquid metal to handle thermals on computing machines. In fact, Asus has its own patented process for safely applying Liquid Metal over the CPU in some ROG series gaming machines. However, this is the first time that Asus has attempted the feat for a GPU, and the results look as if they belong to an art collection.
As good as liquid metal happens to be at its thermal conductivity job, it's also corrosive to other metals like aluminum, and leakage could lead to a short circuit across the circuit board. To avoid that, Asus put UV resin bordering the GPU die, and then plastered two extra layers between the PCB and the die so that the liquid metal doesn't leak out and damage other parts — especially considering that this custom edition GPU can be safely mounted vertically or horizontally.
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To augment the cooling process, there is a daisy-wheeled 360mm radiator unit built especially for the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090, packing three ROG MF-12S ARGB fans peaking at 1,000 RPM. There is a single magnetic connector for power transfer, easing cable management, while the GPU itself relies on a 2.5-slot instead of the more mainstream 3.5-slot docking for top-end GPUs.
There is no need for an auxiliary fan on the card, as Asus is putting the heat management faith into a metallic plate and a GPU frame built entirely out of metal, while the coolant pump is also more efficient this time around. For deeper insights into heat monitoring, Asus also put temperature sensors on the power input routes, chokes, and the voltage regulator module, in addition to those on the GPU die and the memory module.
Going a step further, Asus made a new feature called "Thermal Map" just for an expanded scope of thermal analysis, alongside a new Mileage feature that tracks GPU usage stats across different power levels. There is also a Dual BIOS switch, which lets users switch between regular and performance modes depending on the usage scenario — somewhat like the MUX switch system in the pre-installed Armory Crate app.
Unfortunately, Asus won't say when the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 hits the shelves and how much it is going to cost.