Asus has already teased the new GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition on its Facebook page, revealing that it will feature the highest factory-overclock of any Asus GTX 980 graphics card. The new Asus GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition is based on the well known Nvidia 28nm GM204 Maxwell GPU with 2048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs and 64 ROPs. It comes with 4GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface.
In order to make it a bit more special, Asus has completely redesigned the PCB equipping it with 12+2-phase DIGI+ II VRM and Asus Super Alloy Power design. In order to cope with such design, Asus' new GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition graphics card needs two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors, which means that it can go as high as 300W, leaving plenty of room for additional overclocking.
As noted, Asus has decided to set the bar high and use the highest factory-overclock so far. While the Asus GTX 980 Matrix Platinum OC was set to work at a rather impressive 1342MHz, the 20th Anniversary Gold Edition goes even higher, with a base GPU clock of 1317MHz and GPU Boost clock of 1431MHz. The 4GB of GDDR5 memory remained at reference 7008MHz, but should have plenty of addition overclocking potential due to the custom cooler, so they should easily reach 8000MHz.
Asus used a special edition DirectCU II Platinum cooler for the new GTX 980 20th Anniversary Edition graphics card. It is a dual-slot, dual-fan cooler which does not feature a CoolTech fan design, which is surprising considering how much Asus praised it on its earlier released graphics card. Nevertheless, it still has two 92mm fans that do not spin up until the temperature reaches a certain level, a hefty heatsink and quite a few heatpipes which are in direct contact with the GPU.
Asus used its recognizable gold/black color scheme, something that will go well with Asus' recently released 9 series motherboards.
Unfortuantely, ASUS did not reveal any details regarding the price or the availability date of the new ASUS GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition but a quick check shows it listed over at Overclockers.co.uk for a rather steep £599.99 inc. VAT or €826,74.
