With the start of Gamescom yesterday, Asus unveiled what could be the coolest graphics card it’s made to date — the ROG Matrix RTX 5090 Anniversary Limited Edition. We don’t mean that literally, this is an aircooled card after all so the water-cooled ROG Matrix RTX 4090 from last year probably runs cooler. While that is also a good-looking GPU, it can’t hold a candle to ROG’s latest.
There’s always a catch
Asus says the card was inspired by its ROG Matrix 9800 GT from 2008 but where that card had a TDP (thermal design power) of 125W, this behemoth needs more than six times the power (up to 800W). It achieves this with dual power connectors, both the 12V-2×6 and GC-HPWR (so-called BTF connector) power connections. That’s almost 200W more than standard 5090s need.
To keep all that power in check, the ROG Matrix RTX 5090 Anniversary Limited Edition uses four fans, a copper vapour chamber, and liquid metal.
Read More: Asus ROG Strix G16 (2025) review – Great portable gaming package
You’re probably thinking the catch is a prohibitively expensive price tag, but you’d be wrong. If you didn’t catch the ‘limited’ in the headline, Asus is only making 1,000 of these cards, and unfortunately, they aren’t for sale.
But you might be able to get your hands on one by winning it through Asus’ Gamescom competition. We’re still not sure what to make of the theme park-themed competition but we have at least confirmed that you’re still eligible if you live in South Africa. These terms and conditions are probably worth reading all the way through if you’ve gone and got your hopes up (like we have).
