# ASUS ROG MARS III Dual GTX 680 Graphics Card Detailed



## btarunr (Jun 5, 2012)

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. 



 

 

 



*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## Recus (Jun 5, 2012)

Clash of the GPUs. : D


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## radrok (Jun 5, 2012)

The only type of VGA that could justify a triple slot cooler now has a double slot one, not that I am disappointed but I wouldn't mind a triple slot on a dual GPU.

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.


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## madness777 (Jun 5, 2012)

TPU review pls =)


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## Chaitanya (Jun 5, 2012)

Droooooooooooooool


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## EnergyFX (Jun 5, 2012)

I can hear my wife bolstering defenses on our bank accounts as I type this.

YOUUUU SHALLLL NOT PAAAASS!!!!


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## SIGSEGV (Jun 5, 2012)

> The card draws power from three 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors



i bet no one here will talk about power efficiency..


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## Xzibit (Jun 5, 2012)

> 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%.



I like the Fan-Override feature. Could be the answer to the throttling when the card hits 75-80% fan use and the chip down-clocks for those still on air. If the driver fix doesnt come through. It would be worth it over a 690.

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.


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## Splave (Jun 5, 2012)

radrok said:


> The only type of VGA that could justify a triple slot cooler now has a double slot one, not that I am disappointed but I wouldn't mind a triple slot on a dual GPU.
> 
> 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.



680's run cool  its asus there will be voltage control for sure


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## blibba (Jun 5, 2012)

Interested to see what Asus can do with this. 2x4GB GGDR5-7000 is a must to differentiate it from the 690 imo. Especially as, if the Mars II is anything to go by, it might actually exceed the power consumption of 680 SLI.


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## okidna (Jun 5, 2012)

The answer to PowerColor 7970 X2!! 

But will cost you your kidney


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## BigMack70 (Jun 5, 2012)

Not sure I really understand this one... it sounds like basically an overclocked GTX 690.

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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## Delta6326 (Jun 5, 2012)

THIS IS awesome! Can't wait for a review! I want one so badly!


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## dj-electric (Jun 5, 2012)

btarunr said:


> and will probably cost more than a GeForce GTX 690



Must.... resist... putting... meme..... can't..... nooo

..


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## the54thvoid (Jun 5, 2012)

Umm...

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.


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## lZKoce (Jun 5, 2012)

Bricks are so awesome, who new . Can't they put a high-air-flow bracket on this one as well? It's has the "wavy" type of exhaust one. I know it for as long as I can remember. It's not important, but when you sacrifice a couple of thousand of cash, you want it to be perfect


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## eddman (Jun 5, 2012)

Three 8-pins?!! Max possible power draw of more than 500W?!!! Isn't this just a major overkill?


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## chodaboy19 (Jun 5, 2012)

eddman said:


> Three 8-pins?!! Max possible power draw of more than 500W?!!! Isn't this just a major overkill?



Well it is part of the MARS line.


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## dj-electric (Jun 5, 2012)

These are just statements for worst case. The connectors' ability s up to 500 watts, yes.


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## OneCool (Jun 5, 2012)

> and will probably cost more than a GeForce GTX 690.





DAAAAAMMMMN


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## Mindweaver (Jun 5, 2012)

> will probably cost more than a GeForce GTX 690.



I don't see why this is so surprising to people. It's an enthusiast dual GPU.. "Dual GTX 680"... I'll say it slower.. DDuuaaalllll..  

EDIT: And the Dual doesn't stand for dual slot which maybe where everyone is confussed..


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## the54thvoid (Jun 5, 2012)

Mindweaver said:


> I don't see why this is so surprising to people. It's an enthusiast dual GPU.. "Dual GTX 680"... I'll say it slower.. DDuuaaalllll..
> 
> EDIT: And the Dual doesn't stand for dual slot which maybe where everyone is confussed..



The 690 is a dual gpu as well.  With injection moulded magnesium cooler with plexiglass and all that shizzle.


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## Mindweaver (Jun 5, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> The 690 is a dual gpu as well.  With injection moulded magnesium cooler with plexiglass and all that shizzle.



Err yea and?.. I'm not arguing that I'm just stating why wouldn't it be more? it's a MARS...  If i remember correctly the first single GPU MARS was like 1400 bucks I'd say this will smash a GTX 690 as well.


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## the54thvoid (Jun 5, 2012)

Mindweaver said:


> Err yea and?.. I'm not arguing that I'm just stating why wouldn't it be more? it's a MARS...  If i remember correctly the first single GPU MARS was like 1400 bucks I'd say this will smash a GTX 690 as well.



Cool, I thought you were implying the 690 wasn't dual.   

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.


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## fullinfusion (Jun 5, 2012)

now thats some serious eye candy!


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## ironwolf (Jun 5, 2012)

I heard it comes with a free pocket nuclear power plant...


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## VulkanBros (Jun 5, 2012)

Ha...my Voodoo 2 + Matrox Mystique will bring this to falllll.......

That is.....on the power draw site......


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## Hayder_Master (Jun 5, 2012)

but it will an overclocked GTX690, anyway it depend how much this monster overclock range.


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## Beertintedgoggles (Jun 5, 2012)

I'm kind of surprised they didn't wipe off the greasy fingerprints before taking a picture of the backside of the card.


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## HammerON (Jun 5, 2012)

Can't wait for reviews to see how it stacks up against a GTX 690!!!


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## Animalpak (Jun 5, 2012)

man that thing is WILD !


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## Zubasa (Jun 5, 2012)

Mindweaver said:


> Err yea and?.. I'm not arguing that I'm just stating why wouldn't it be more? it's a MARS...  If i remember correctly the first single GPU MARS was like 1400 bucks I'd say this will smash a GTX 690 as well.


FYI, every Mars and Ares cards are dual GPU 
The original Mars was a dual GTX285


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## Mindweaver (Jun 5, 2012)

Zubasa said:


> FYI, every Mars and Ares cards are dual GPU
> The original Mars was a dual GTX285



Thanks! I couldn't remember.. hehehe or I thought I remember it as single.. but yea you are right and the special thing about the dual GTX285 was that it was exactly that, the GTX295 has the memory volume and frequency of two GTX 260 cards yet the raw shader processor horsepower of two GeForce GTX 280 cards., but not GTX285's.  I loved my GTX285.. hehehe  I'm not sure and maybe you can tell me, but the GTX690 is it 2x GTX680's?


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## the54thvoid (Jun 5, 2012)

Mindweaver said:


> Thanks! I couldn't remember.. hehehe or I thought I remember it as single.. but yea you are right and the special thing about the dual GTX285 was that it was exactly that, the GTX295 has the memory volume and frequency of two GTX 260 cards yet the raw shader processor horsepower of two GeForce GTX 280 cards., but not GTX285's.  I loved my GTX285.. hehehe  I'm not sure and maybe you can tell me, but the GTX690 is it 2x GTX680's?



More errata 

The GTX 295 (I had one) was two GTX 275's.  The GTX 295 came out first and they released the 275 afterwards as single cards - they went head to head with the 4890's I think.

And yes, the GTX 690 IS two GTX 680's but downclocked a little.


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## perryra1968 (Jun 5, 2012)

be right back...need to change my underwear...


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 5, 2012)

Hopefully they'll do double vram this time. There isn't much they can do to differentiate as the 690 is a lot more overclock friendly than the 590.


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## hhumas (Jun 6, 2012)

who would buy this card when 690 is available


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## Delta6326 (Jun 6, 2012)

hhumas said:


> who would buy this card when 690 is available



So you can say you own Mars...

I hope this is much faster than the 690.


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## Jurassic1024 (Jun 6, 2012)

I love that backplate.
I also wanna see this compared to the 7970 X2's that are coming out in terms of power consumption.


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## Jurassic1024 (Jun 6, 2012)

hhumas said:


> who would buy this card when 690 is available



People that want more powah than a 690!

Also, this card comes with 8GB VRAM.
http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/Computex-ASUS-Mars-III-Dual-GTX-680-Card-Comes-8GB-RAM


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## sc (Jun 6, 2012)

As a 690 owner I see only one advantage over what I got now: the red/black ROG color scheme will fit with my Rampage board.
But for the price of this I'd rather get a 2nd 690 and stick with the green lit GEFORCE logo


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## Prima.Vera (Jun 6, 2012)

SIGSEGV said:


> The card draws power from *three* 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors



Haha, who cares?! I have my Arc Reactor ready and kickin'


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## SIGSEGV (Jun 6, 2012)

Prima.Vera said:


> Haha, who cares?! I have my Arc Reactor ready and kickin'



you did wrong quote, yeah like as i said before, i bet no one here moaning about their power efficiency, but if it was amd cards, i'm sure it'd be different..


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## LiveOrDie (Jun 6, 2012)

Would of been cooler if it had dual link for SLI, So 3 cards could be linked not just 2 like the 690.


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## radrok (Jun 6, 2012)

Live OR Die said:


> Would of been cooler if it had dual link for SLI, So 3 cards could be linked not just 2 like the 690.



There is no driver support for more than 4 GPUs and even with tri or quad configurations lots of problems arise...


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## Filiprino (Jun 7, 2012)

If the card has 4GB per GPU, then it's a very interesting offer. Put two of those in SLI and you are ready to travel through space to Mars.


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## Jurassic1024 (Jun 8, 2012)

Video:
http://hexus.net/tv/show/2012/06/ASUS_previews_monstrous_ROG_MARS_III_graphics_card


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## Prima.Vera (Jun 8, 2012)

So this will cost more than 1500$ ????


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## deathcall666 (Aug 9, 2012)

It will be at least 20% faster than the reference gtx 690 and with a monstruous overclocking capability. Simply look at the fight between gtx 590 and mars2. Mars3 will probably(99%) dominate everything and i say it from the eyes of an ati(now amd ) fan.


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## radrok (Aug 9, 2012)

deathcall666 said:


> monstruous overclocking capability.



Nvidia said nope, maximum voltage allowed on Kepler is 1.175v.


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## TheMailMan78 (Aug 9, 2012)

EnergyFX said:


> I can hear my wife bolstering defenses on our bank accounts as I type this.
> 
> YOUUUU SHALLLL NOT PAAAASS!!!!



My wife took my cards away and changed the paypal account password a while back. I have an allowance now. I apparently live in Arkham Asylum. But, I'm not one of the cool super villains like the Joker or Zsasz. I'm not even an armed goon for them. I'm just some dude Batwife beats the piss out of randomly.


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## puma99dk| (Aug 9, 2012)

a really nice card, but still price will be the main issue so i can't buy one ._.


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## deathcall666 (Aug 9, 2012)

Yes indeed but there is alwais a way. The 6870x2 from powercolor was better than any 6870 at  frequencies because it used lucid hidra chip . The oc frequencies will  probably be 7000-8000mhz for efective memory and lets say 1250mhz at core. the amd 7970 reached 1700mhz care are 8000mhz memory even trough i dont believe it is not very practicle to keep suck a thing near you when youre playing. I mean just look at this http://hwbot.org/submission/2292252_ryba_purepc.pl_3dmark11___performance_radeon_hd_7970_15868_marks  . Its ridiculous


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## radrok (Aug 9, 2012)

All of the highest HWBot submissions are made under LHE or LN2, highy unpractical 

Of course there is a way to get around the 1.175v cap on Kepler but you'll need to do some voltmodding, this card will probably support hotwiring so it would be easier.


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## NHKS (Aug 27, 2012)

MARS 3 pcb shown
http://www.expreview.com/topic/img/review/News/201208/0827/marsiii01.jpg
http://www.expreview.com/topic/img/review/News/201208/0827/marsiii02.jpg
http://www.expreview.com/topic/img/review/News/201208/0827/marsiii03.jpg


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