We headed out to ASUS’s ROG Media Day where they promised an “Unlocking of the ROG Lab” if we were to appear at their headquarters at the invited time. Of course, we did so and got to check out some new kit that should be of interest to gamers.
RTX 50 Series BTF Updates
We’ve been taking a look at BTF kit from ASUS for a couple of years now at both Computex and CES and always come away from it being concerned about the proprietary nature of the connection which would make it difficult for down the road updates (i.e. if BTF is the new BTX and goes the way of the dinosaurs). ASUS has heard this message loud and clear with updates to its RTX 50 Series BTF cards which will now feature two different ways to connect the additional power to the card: The 600W 12VHPWR connector or via its BTF connector which they have made a removable adapter in case you want to drop it into a board that does not support BTF. Quite frankly, this paves a path for all ASUS cards to be BTF which would really expand the ecosystem significantly.
RTX 5080 Noctua Edition
ASUS stealthily sat a RTX 5080 Noctua Edition card out and didn’t say a single word about it. Of course, we had to take a look, but there really wasn’t much information available on it other than the obvious use of 3 fans instead of 2 larger fans from their last collab. The spec card indicated that the fans are Noctua model NF-A12x25 G2 120mm fans. We’ll predict this will be available “eventually” and at a premium price.
ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 DOOM Edition
To celebrate launch of yet another DOOM game, ASUS decked out its Astral RTX 5080 in a full DOOM theme and put it in a DOOMY system to show off the wares. It sports an OC mode boost clock of 2,790MHz (same as the standard skinned Astral) and looks even DOOMIER while cranking out the gaming performance (Ed: Enough with the variations on DOOM already). We understand it to be a limited edition, so good luck in finding one once they hit the market (Ed: Aren’t all RTX 5080/5090’s limited editions?).
ROG HARPE II ACE & ROG SHEATH II XXL
Moving on to the newest mouse, the ROG Harpe II Ace gaming mouse (second one from the right above) is the latest from their collab with Demon1 (who is fairly good at VALORANT from what we understand) that results in a wireless mouse that weighs a mere 48g (11% lighter than its predecessor, or about 5 paper clips), which includes the battery. Overall, the mouse had a good hand feel and allegedly sports an up to 8000Hz polling rate should you need to crank it up.
The mouse can be configured via ROG Gear Link which does not require any software to operate it, The weight reduction is achieved by using castor oil for its construction (bio-based nylon) as opposed to the typical dinosaur sourced plastic.
The rodents in the picture are sitting on the ROG Sheath II XXL mouse pad that sports a non-slip rubber base and is made with an “advanced cooling fabric” that will allegedly help keep you cool by dissipating heat better than standard mouse pad fabric.
ROG FALCATA
Next up we have the ROG FALCATA keyboard which will be priced at the premium level (basically you will be asked “why would anyone ever spend that much on a keyboard” once you’ve acquired one). It is a 75% sized split keyboard that lets you free up more desk space for mouse movement by only having the left half on your desk as you do the gaming thing.
The keyboard switches are the ROG HFX V2 Magnetic Switches that allows you to customize the actuation levels between 0.1 and 3.5mm at 0.01mm intervals (Ed: Really? Who can adjust their typing at a 0.01mm interval?). It sports a 100-million keypress lifetime and the switches are hot swappable, so you can rotate your WSAD keys out like you rotate your cars tires.
A 8000Hz polling rate is available and the batteries should last up to 610 hours. It can connect to three devices at the same time via Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless or USB.
ASUS TUF GAMING T500
Here we have the TUF GAMING T500 system that ASUS is trying to use to bring down the cost of a pre-built gaming rig. It sports (up to) a mobile Intel i7-13620H processor, (up to) 64GB of CAMM2 memory and (up to) a RTX 5060 Ti graphics card. The thing that really isn’t captured well in this photo is how small the whole box is – should be interesting to see where pricing lands (Ed: You didn’t have a banana for scale handy? Come on man!).
ROG XG Station 3
Rounding it out, we have the ROG XG Station 3, a Thunderbolt 5 based dock that accepts the latest video cards and connects them to your PC that might be lacking a compatible slot, like a laptop. It uses a SFX power supply to provide juice to your graphics card and sports a few extra USB ports should you need them.