# ASUS ROG Ares Graphics Card Benched



## btarunr (Mar 2, 2010)

Here are some of the first pictures of a "living, breathing" ASUS ROG Ares graphics accelerator. This ASUS' latest creation packs two AMD Cypress GPUs running at 850 MHz (core), 1200 MHz (memory), with twice the amount of memory (2 GB per GPU, 4 GB total). It also packs an enthusiast-grade voltage circuitry that gives it an amount of overclocking headroom, as well as a complex cooling assembly. 

At its CeBIT exhibit, ASUS also showed off the card's 3DMark Vantage score in the Extreme preset. The card secured a score of X14416, compared to a typical score of the reference Radeon HD 5970 to be around the X11000 mark. The bench was driven by an Intel Core i7 965 XE processor, ASUS Rampage II Extreme motherboard, and 6 GB of triple-channel memory. The ROG Ares should be out in a few weeks time. Its price and availability remain a mystery.



 

 



*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## TIGR (Mar 2, 2010)

I believe a few naysayers in this thread got pwndizzled.

(Sorry, just had to. )


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## wolf (Mar 2, 2010)

lol nice TIGR, nice benches too.


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## krisna159 (Mar 2, 2010)

*wow......*

 wow...look those card like litle beast monster..with red and black color...and POWER hungryand expensive Too


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## Kitkat (Mar 2, 2010)

hahha that cooler man lol...... i got no love for it... card sounds monster but man that cooler just makes monster look lol strange


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## mtosev (Mar 2, 2010)

by looking at the 3dmark score it isn't worth the extra $$$.


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## cadaveca (Mar 2, 2010)

It's more about the extra ram for those running eyefinity.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 2, 2010)

Did anyone notice how screwed up the fins on the heatsink look in the second picture?  It reminds me of some of the car radiators you see at the junk yard.  This card, or at least the heatsink, has definitely been very well used or mishandled!



TIGR said:


> I believe a few naysayers in this thread got pwndizzled.
> 
> (Sorry, just had to. )



Yeah, but it isnt really AMD's responce now it is?  It is more ASUS doing the crazy shit that ASUS does...


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## Animalpak (Mar 2, 2010)

That thing is just ............................................. Humongous !!


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## TIGR (Mar 2, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> Yeah, but it isnt really AMD's responce now it is?  It is more ASUS doing the crazy shit that ASUS does...



I'm not about to argue over a thread title. Was just playing anyway.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 2, 2010)

TIGR said:


> I'm not about to argue over a thread title. Was just playing anyway.



I'm not arguing, just saying.  ASUS does crazy shit.


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 2, 2010)

I still don't think this is AMD's answer, as per normal AMD/ATi have told their partners they can make a beefy 5970 if they want. It'll nice to see what other partners release.


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## Inioch (Mar 2, 2010)

Even I'm not going to argue with that. It was always just the title Sampsa used.

Asus seems to give a good amount of space for their engineers to come up with interesting stuff we can drool at. Sapphire is releasing a similiar card but they just doubled the memory and slapped an Arctic Cooling fan on top of it. Wohoo, great engineering.

As for AMD, I'm guessing they still have something up their sleeve, maybe a 5890 or something.


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## OneCool (Mar 2, 2010)

I noticed the CPUZ screen shows the CPU speed @ 1.600ghz.

Im guessing its throttling down do to no usage?


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## soldier242 (Mar 2, 2010)

i want one for free!! plz asus plz here me!


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## Inioch (Mar 2, 2010)

OneCool said:


> I noticed the CPUZ screen shows the CPU speed @ 1.600ghz.
> 
> Im guessing its throttling down do to no usage?



Multi is also at the minimum (12x), so with a 24x multi it would be @ 3.2GHz


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## btarunr (Mar 2, 2010)

mtosev said:


> by looking at the 3dmark score it isn't worth the extra $$$.



Record-seekers wipe their 'backs' with $$$ bills. Besides you don't know its price to come to that conclusion.


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## mtosev (Mar 2, 2010)

expecting 1.7-2x the price of a 5970


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## btarunr (Mar 2, 2010)

mtosev said:


> expecting 1.7-2x the price of a 5970



Which still isn't much considering ROG MARS was "1.7 - 2x" the price of a GTX 295 for people who could buy it. ASUS was able to clear off its 1000 unit inventory.


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## kinc (Mar 2, 2010)

ROG ARES is a graphics card that follows the same footsteps as 7800GT DUAL and ofc ROG MARS. Just like MARS, ARES is 100% ASUS engineering.


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## mtosev (Mar 2, 2010)

ofcouse they sold every card if it was a limited edition. CFing two HD 5970's is much better


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## btarunr (Mar 2, 2010)

mtosev said:


> ofcouse they sold every card if it was a limited edition. CFing two HD 5970's is much better



And CFing two Ares better than that. Once again, price does not matter for the target consumer of Ares. It's the kind of people who think spending  $2000 for a 'better binned' Core i7 XE chip is better than a $999 boxed chip, and so on..


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## laszlo (Mar 2, 2010)

a card for people with too much money


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## douglatins (Mar 2, 2010)

I would like to see 500W being exhausted in the case, that should provide some fun


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## mtosev (Mar 2, 2010)

btarunr said:


> And CFing two Ares better than that. Once again, price does not matter for the target consumer of Ares. It's the kind of people who think spending  $2000 for a 'better binned' Core i7 XE chip is better than a $999 boxed chip, and so on..



i'm more a rasional type of guy. i would ever pay more for a single component that only has a higher clock, or a higher multiplier.


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## jaredpace (Mar 2, 2010)

Yeah you can always overclock the 2gb memory to 4gb, and overclock the three volterra slaves to the point that the fourth appears.  It's never worth it.  You may as well overclock the stock 400 watt vapor chamber too


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## zithe (Mar 2, 2010)

mtosev said:


> i'm more a rasional type of guy. i would ever pay more for a single component that only has a higher clock, or a higher multiplier.



Make around 200k a year and you'd be surprised what you'll start slipping into in a couple years.


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## my_name_is_earl (Mar 2, 2010)

That's on sexy card. Next article: "OMG, single GFX break 600w barriers" or so I thought.


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## Polarman (Mar 2, 2010)

3 slots wide. 3 power connectors. Ouch!

My PSU could handle this card but my wife would not like the electric bill.


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## wolf (Mar 3, 2010)

jaredpace said:


> Yeah you can always overclock the 2gb memory to 4gb



sigworthy.


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 3, 2010)




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## melodyaries (Mar 3, 2010)

*So powerful!*

god! it needs two 8pin plus one 6pin!


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## HossHuge (Mar 16, 2010)

btarunr said:


> ASUS was able to clear off its 1000 unit inventory.



Are you sure about that?  Cause I can buy one if I want to.

http://buy.yahoo.com.tw/gdsale/gdsale.asp?gdid=1661683


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Mar 16, 2010)

clear doesnt mean that there isnt any for sale, just that asus got them all out thru the door and recieved $$$ for it.


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## HossHuge (Mar 16, 2010)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> clear doesnt mean that there isnt any for sale, just that asus got them all out thru the door and recieved $$$ for it.



Ya, you're right.  Though, I wonder how many actually sold?


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## cadaveca (Mar 16, 2010)

Probably about 80%. I know 3 people locally who have 2 of 'em.

Heck I have the X1950 "UBER" edition pair, Toxic 4870x2, paid the same price for both, and have never even put them in a system...


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