Wednesday, June 6th 2012
New Details on ASUS ZEUS Emerge
A star attraction at the motherboard section of ASUS booth was its ZEUS Dual-GPU X79 concept motherboard. We got a chance to talk at lengths with people at ASUS about the exhibit, and learned a few details beyond what we already know. To begin with, ASUS is likely using a pair of "Southern Islands" family discrete mobile GPUs, not desktop ones. Further, it's likely that the GPUs are 28 nm "Pitcairn" based. The two GPUs are installed in CrossFire configuration. The next big detail is that the design focus on [evidently] isn't the integrated dual-GPU, but to demonstrate the first Thunderbolt-equipped X79 motherboard. The ZEUS has not one, but two Thunderbolt ports. The third (and most depressing) detail is that it's "highly unlikely" that the ZEUS will ever make it to the market. Think of it as yet another tradeshow concept by a big company. Perhaps ASUS doesn't want the ZEUS to end up like the ROG GSurf-365, its first off-beat ROG motherboard, which went beyond the show-floor but didn't have market-success.
17 Comments on New Details on ASUS ZEUS Emerge
I think it would have some market since it is m-atx form factor...but that would depend on the performance of the GPUs and price of course
Also, I'll be amazed if that passive sink can keep two pitcairns anything close to cool. A single down-clocked GK104 would be faster and more power efficient anyway. This is full ATX. Use the memory slots for perspective, and compare with this:
mATX X79? :eek: DO WANT RIGHT DAMN NAOW!!!
ASUS sure has some awesome boards right now, I do gotta get my hands on them!!
There are currently three m-ATX LGA2011 boards available, and all three offer SLI and CFX in the first and third slots at full x16 3.0 speed. The only one of the three I've seen hold a decent OC is the Rampage IV Gene, and that was a fully-loaded system(4.8GHz 3930k @ 1.41v 24/7, GTX560Ti SLI, 16GB DDR3-2400 @ 1.645v).