One thing I like about some Asus graphics cards is their simplicity. TUF graphics cards, for example, are, for people like me, pure minimalistic and blocky bliss. So it’s saying something that I’ve had my socks and shoes blown off by the Asus ROG Matrix RTX 5090, because retro though it may be, it’s not exactly minimalistic.

As I watched the company announce the GPU ahead of Gamescom for its 30th anniversary of creating graphics cards, I couldn’t help but get suckered into the whooping and hollering from the audience, because this thing slaps. Just look at it.

Then comes the news that it’s a 2,730 MHz 800 W card, compared to the base 575 W the RTX 5090 is rated for. That’s not exactly the 2000+ W we’ve seen some adventurous overclockers attempt, but this is an air cooled card, with nary a drop of liquid nitrogen in sight.

It achieves this “via dual power inputs”, ie, you plug it in via 12V-2x6 and BTF (ie, back connect) connector. I’m not sure whether that particular use was anticipated when the back connect motherboards were dreamed up, but hey, I’m here for it.

An 800 W RTX 5090 will, of course, pump out not only frames but also a lot of heat. So, on that front Asus has not only poured on some liquid metal and lots of copper, but also whacked a fourth fan on it, making it look triple-fan from the one side and single-fan a la blower style from the other.

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All pretty neat stuff, but really, I’m just here for that schweet curvature. The long edges and bulbous end (no snickering in the corner, thank you). The lighting around the edges adds something, too, and that’s coming from someone with a historical disdain for all things RGB. It’s very Tron—well, Tron but red.

I’ll take three. Oh, wait, there are only 1,000 of them out there? Okay, I’ll not be greedy. Just two, then.

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