Monday, June 25th 2012
ASUS Readies ROG ARES 2 Graphics Card with Dual-HD 7870 GPUs
ASUS is working on its second Republic of Gamers (ROG) ARES graphics card, the ARES 2 dual-HD 7870. Its first ARES was dual-HD 5870. ASUS' decision to go with a pair of Radeon HD 7870 GPUs, instead of the premium HD 7970, certainly comes as a surprise. With it, one could deduce the target market-segment ASUS is aiming at: US $650-750, providing a solution that outperforms even the fastest HD 7970 GHz Edition and GTX 680 graphics cards, while being cheaper than Radeon HD 7990 (which is MIA), dual-HD 7970 X2, and of course, the GTX 690.
ASUS ARES 2 will back two 28 nm "Pitcairn" GPUs with all components unlocked; likely factory-overclocked speeds beyond those of the HD 7870 GHz Edition; and a total of 4 GB of GDDR5 memory (2 GB per GPU system). The card will draw power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and will have a TDP of around 300W. It will take advantage of AMD ZeroCore CrossFire, with which it powers down the second GPU when not gaming, or with light 3D loads that the first GPU can munch on. With the monitor idling for a set amount of time, both GPUs power down. It's likely that ASUS will use a triple-slot cooling solution, despite the fact that the HD 7870 is a generally cool GPU. Pictured below is the first-generation ROG ARES (dual-HD 5870).
Update Jun 26: We have received word from ASUS that "There is no plan to release a dual 7870 VGA".
Source:
VideoCardz
ASUS ARES 2 will back two 28 nm "Pitcairn" GPUs with all components unlocked; likely factory-overclocked speeds beyond those of the HD 7870 GHz Edition; and a total of 4 GB of GDDR5 memory (2 GB per GPU system). The card will draw power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and will have a TDP of around 300W. It will take advantage of AMD ZeroCore CrossFire, with which it powers down the second GPU when not gaming, or with light 3D loads that the first GPU can munch on. With the monitor idling for a set amount of time, both GPUs power down. It's likely that ASUS will use a triple-slot cooling solution, despite the fact that the HD 7870 is a generally cool GPU. Pictured below is the first-generation ROG ARES (dual-HD 5870).
36 Comments on ASUS Readies ROG ARES 2 Graphics Card with Dual-HD 7870 GPUs
I guess that upper card is the second generation of Ares :)
Even at 2x 1200mhz the 7870 design will be quite some distance away from 2x 1000mhz 7970.
And the 7970 will still have additional OC room if you can keep it cool D:
With 20% over clock this should be hd7970 vanilla territory per gpu
They just always end up buggering something up :laugh:
im looking forward to this...
keep fighting the good fight asus....im wit'cha
But it doesn't live up to their previous Ares, or the Mars for the nVidia side in terms of prestige.
Too bad most games are still dx9 and don't play nice with crossfire.
Link