Tuesday, June 5th 2012
ASUS ROG MARS III Dual GTX 680 Graphics Card Detailed
The ROG MATRIX 7970 wasn't the only new Republic of Gamers graphics card on display at Computex, it was sitting next to the MARS III. This monstrosity is a dual-GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, it packs two 28 nm GK104 GPUs with clock speeds that match or exceed those of the GeForce GTX 680. ASUS stopped short of revealing the clock speeds. The card draws power from three 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors, next to it is an instant fan-override button that revs up the card's fans to 100%. The card gives out three dual-link DVI display outputs, and is capable of driving 3D Vision Surround using three >1920x1200 pixels displays. Unlike the MATRIX 7970 and countless recent examples of ASUS' ugly fixation with triple-slot cooling solutions, it's a pleasant surprise seeing that the triple-fan cooling solution of the MARS III needs just two expansion card slots. The MARS III will be manufactured in limited quantities, and will probably cost more than a GeForce GTX 690.
54 Comments on ASUS ROG MARS III Dual GTX 680 Graphics Card Detailed
I'm happy though that they are replacing the Direct Cu cooler with a double slot for single GPUs though.
Sick card, hope they can give us unlocked voltage control, otherwise this has no point to exist.
YOUUUU SHALLLL NOT PAAAASS!!!!
I just dont like that they put the button next to the power connectors. Should have been placed on the I/O so you dont have to leave the side of your PC case open to push use it and then reset it to standard use when not using anything intense that will cause the down-clocks.
But will cost you your kidney :D
The MARS II made some sense, since the 590 was far short of 580 SLI. However, I can't imagine this card being worth much of a price premium even in what is already a super-niche market.
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The vanilla dual 680 (aka 690) already ships with a very unique and very effective cooler.
As someone else had said, this will need a little more than two 680's to make any point. The GK104's are binned for voltage and they've all been locked so far.
If this can be over volted and work outside the power envelope Kepler works with it might be interesting, otherwise, its a very expensive and unnecessary card.
EDIT: And the Dual doesn't stand for dual slot which maybe where everyone is confussed..
But IMO, the 690 as it is is already a premium luxury product unlike the GTX 590. For the Asus variant to be worthy of an even higher price, it needs to be more open to overclocking and have higher memory etc. Otherwise it's just a more power hungry 690 with higher clocks.