Asus has brought the joy of wood grain to its graphics card lineup. The PC and components giant has just taken the wraps off its first RTX 50 graphics cards to swell the ranks of the ProArt family, and they all feature “a classy brown wood grain design.” Moreover, this first quartet of RTX 50 ProArt cards is the firm’s “first to offer USB Type-C support for enhanced versatility for creative workflows.” Two of the models also sport an M.2 slot, which will please some users, as long as Asus’s price premium isn’t too ambitious.
The most desirable model among the new Asus ProArt GeForce RTX 5080 models is the OC Edition with M.2 SSD slot. We’d probably rank the non-overclocked M.2 slot packing card next, followed by the ProArt GeForce RTX 5080 OC, and then the ‘vanilla’ but still wood effect finished and USB Type-C port packing model.
Regular readers will be well aware of the key attractions of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, and if not, please check out our extensive review and consider its place among the best graphics cards on the market in mid-2025. Asus has two new ProArt cards, which will offer ‘reference’ specs, and two with an overclock applied to the GPU. We can’t drill down on those figures, though, as Asus hasn’t added the specs to the product pages at the time of writing.
Like a log in your PCIe slot
Probably the more important differentiation here is with the cooler, M.2 slot, and USB Type-C connectivity, though. The Asus ProArt design looks a lot like a reskinned Prime card, but here it has ProArt motifs and the headlining wood grain effect along the top. Like you’ve installed a log in your GPU slot.
Asus’s cooling system is listed as “2.5 slot small form factor size,” but it isn’t low-profile or similar. The triple spinner design is taller than the PCI bracket and probably approaches 300mm in length. Asus says the cooler features a MaxContact design with vapor chamber, and there’s a phase-change GPU pad between the cooler and the GPU to help keep this card cool, calm, and collected.
Moving along to the other special features here, all four new ProArt RTX 5080 models also feature USB Type-C support, which is great for a growing number of monitors and devices.
If you choose one of the models with an M.2 slot, you can benefit from up to PCIe Gen5 speeds. Moreover, the ample cooling of the graphics card should also cover the needs of any toasty SSD you might equip.
Wood be welcome
Some retro tech enthusiasts may be quite pleased to see the return of wood-effect finishes to tech. Whether it comes in the form of actual wood construction or parts, wood veneers, or even just wood-effect plastics – the look and feel can bring back fond memories of old tech and gadgetry like TV, Hi-Fi, and even games console systems.
With Asus introducing these ProArt designs, and knowing there are already numerous wood-finish cases around, the dreams of an all-wood finished PC are getting nearer. Wood finish keyboards and mice have been a thing for quite some time, and we also know there are wood finish CPU air coolers from DeepCool at Computex. A wood completist might still long for wood-finish motherboards, RAM, and storage. Finally, a wood-bezel monitor shouldn’t be a big challenge to DIY-frame, if no firm steps forward with some lignin-lover options.
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