When many think of the term "liquid metal", they might picture in their head the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. However, the term is also used to describe a compound that can be used to cool PC CPUs. Today at Computex 2023, ASUS announced that it is using liquid metal for the first time inside one of its graphics cards.
ASUS"s press release states that the new ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card was made with a new and exclusive production process that will allow the liquid metal compound to be placed on the card"s GPU and still allows the card to be installed vertically inside a PC. It adds:
By applying a UV resin above the surface-mounted capacitors that border the GPU die, and then adding two additional protective layers between the die and the main PCB, ASUS has ensured that the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 can leverage the incredible thermal transfer inherent to liquid metal with no risk of leakage.
In addition, the graphics card has a 360 mm radiator and three ROG MF-12S ARGB fans to keep the GPU and card cool. ASUS claims that this allows the card to have the "highest out-of-the-box boost clocks of any RTX 4090 in the world". However, the press release did not go into much detail on exactly what the clock speeds will be like on this card.
The design of the card and its housing is also something different from normal NVIDIA graphics cards. ASUS states:
The ROG Matrix RTX 4090 features an incredibly bold and modern design, with the GPU frame and housing built entirely out of metal. Sporting the first use of indirect ASUS Aura Lighting, the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 4090 also boasts a "hollow" chamber, with the main cold plate, circuit board and pump shroud protected by a larger aluminum frame. Bold ROG branding adorns the card, with lightbars in the central cavity and across the top of the card
So far, there"s no word on when the ASUS ROG Matrix RTX 4090 will be released. There"s also no indication of a price point, but considering all the extra hardware features, it"s likely to be more expensive than normal NVIDIA GeForce 4090 cards.