Friday, July 16th 2010
ASUS Working on MARS II Dual GTX 480 Graphics Accelerator
After treating the enthusiast community to the Republic of Gamers (ROG) ARES Dual HD 5870 graphics accelerator, ASUS isn't wasting any time is designing its successor, referred to (for now) as "MARS II". This graphics accelerator uses two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 (GF100) GPUs on one board, that's right, the first dual-GPU accelerator based on GF100, which is dreaded for its thermal and electrical characteristics so much, that NVIDIA is content with having the second-fastest graphics card in the market (GTX 480), with no immediate plans of working on a dual-GPU accelerator.
ASUS' ambitious attempt is in the design stage deep inside its R&D, where the design is in an evaluation state. The R&D gave us some exclusive pictures of the MARS II PCB to treat you with. To begin with, the card's basic design is consistent with almost every other dual-GPU NVIDIA card in recent past. There are two independent GPU systems, each with its own VRM and memory, which are interconnected by an internal SLI, and connected to the system bus by an nForce 200 bridge chip. On this card, two GF100 GPUs with the same configuration as GeForce GTX 480 (GF100-375-A3) are used, each having 480 CUDA cores, and connecting to 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface.
ASUS' innovations kick in right from the PCB, since it takes a lot of effort to keep such a design electrically stable, as well form an overclockers' product. MARS II uses a PCB with 3 oz copper layers to increase electrical stability, and used a strong VRM. Each GPU system is fed by an 8+2 phase VRM of its own, which use a new Super Alloy choke that reduces core energy loss. The card takes its power input from three 8-pin power inputs, which are fused.
The card is quad SLI capable, and can pair with another of its kind (and probably single GTX 480s). To cool this monstrosity, ASUS is coming up with a beefier than ever cooling solution. With the product being still at an evaluation stage, how long it will take to reach production, or whether it will in the first place, remains to be seen.
ASUS' ambitious attempt is in the design stage deep inside its R&D, where the design is in an evaluation state. The R&D gave us some exclusive pictures of the MARS II PCB to treat you with. To begin with, the card's basic design is consistent with almost every other dual-GPU NVIDIA card in recent past. There are two independent GPU systems, each with its own VRM and memory, which are interconnected by an internal SLI, and connected to the system bus by an nForce 200 bridge chip. On this card, two GF100 GPUs with the same configuration as GeForce GTX 480 (GF100-375-A3) are used, each having 480 CUDA cores, and connecting to 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface.
87 Comments on ASUS Working on MARS II Dual GTX 480 Graphics Accelerator
But in 6 months when the next gen comes out and they are still eating cheesy mac out of a can, and when they realize they have no money for a upgrade and the next gen provides the same performance they become like
And then in like two years when they finally have enough to buy a new card they always brag about how awesome and great their card was, even though they hated it. even though inside they feel like
So who wants to step up with their fail and take part in the last step here?You sir deserve a cookie!!!
Its a $1000+ card. Big deal, there a couple of people on TPU running GTX 480 SLi, and i don't think they will be stuck with those cards for 2 years. Hell, i saw some guy running Tri or Quad SLi GTX 480s. lol :laugh:
In agree that 460x2 would have been much better choice than 480x2 ....
Oh and forget about 1000 USD price , this is going for about 1200+ (maybe even 1200 euro) at release.
World Cup 2010 fever will live on in the MARS II!
If you hated the vuvuzelas while trying to hear the soccer commentary in FIFA 2010, you're gonna have a ball trying to hear the in-game cutscenes with the MARS II!
:roll: