ASUS Designing Dual-HD 5870 Graphics Accelerator?

[btarunr]

ASUS is known to toy with bleeding-edge technology to give out high-end products. Earlier, ASUS put two GeForce GTX 285 GPUs into one accelerator to give out a custom-design product that outperformed NVIDIA's dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295. According to o.v.e.r.clockers.at, ASUS might be doing something similar, this time around with AMD's Cypress GPUs in its Radeon HD 5870 avatar. It is said to be working on a dual-HD 5870 graphics card, codenamed "Ares".

While the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 uses full-featured AMD Cypress GPUs (with all its stream processors and memory bus width available), ASUS will attempt to use the one disparity between an HD 5970 and two HD 5870 to its advantage: clock speeds. The Cypress GPUs in HD 5970 feature lower clock speeds (725/1000 MHz core/memory) compared to the single Cypress GPU on the HD 5870 (850/1200 MHz). Electrical constraints are probably the reason behind this. It is likely that ASUS will use stronger VRM circuitry to power the two GPUs to run at higher speeds, while also providing some overclocking headroom.

AMD in a recent conference call to the press said that it didn't expect to see custom-design HD 5970-like accelerators till Q2 2010, although we don't infer there to be any sort of restriction in place, as was the case with NVIDIA and its GTX 295. Ares is likely named after the Greek God of warfare by the name. An apt successor to Mars (which also happens to be the name of the Roman God of war), ASUS' previous attempt at an extreme high-end graphics card of its own design.

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[Reefer86]

i bet it will be dam expensive just like that mars!

 

[Fourstaff]

Mars will look so weak compared to this.

 

[cadaveca]

Please 4GB, please 4GB, please 4GB!!

100w Idle is fine with me!





Isn't 5870 like 200W? Is 2x 8-pin gonna be enough, or have they been super-binning their gpus?

 

[Weer]

That is stupid. The GTX 295 was inferior to the MARS in a few ways, such as memory bus and capacity. The 5970 simply has lower clocks, which is meaningless because it can be overclocked to 1Ghz on stock.

 

[mtosev]

i hope this is true. i like costum gfxs.

 

[1Kurgan1]

Going to be honest, this makes no sense. With the MARS it did, the 295 uses a weaker GPU (weak by more than just clock speed) than what the 285 is. But the 5970 doesn't user a weaker GPU and they overclock almost exactly the same. So why not just OC it up and be done with it, I mean in the end, spend $650 for a 5970 and OC it to 1ghz or spend $1000 for this card and not gain any performance...

 

[yogurt_21]

wow that was the biggest load of marketing bs I've heard.

lets translate "Asus is going to overclock the 5970, call it something else, and charge you twice as much"

yay all made possible by the delay of fermi.

 

[Phxprovost]

your all missing the point, it makes perfect sense and heres the breakdown
Asus : $$$$$$$$
The consumer : "top of the line" card to extend E-Peen

 

[Papahyooie]

It is likely that ASUS will use stronger VRM circuitry to power the two GPUs to run at higher speeds, while also providing some overclocking headroom.

Did you guys miss this part? IF they actually do this it will clock higher than a regular 5970. Sure its just epeen, but that doesnt mean it doesnt make sense. There will be a market. They wouldnt make these if they couldnt sell them.

 

[eidairaman1]

as long as they make their Own PCB, and make it run cooler/efficient use of power without losing any performance but also shorter than the 5970, Cherry Picked 5870 Cores, 4GB Shareable memory and not Not overclocked (Let the Tweakers do the work like back during the X1950 and Lower Series). This should be Designated the 5975.

 

[Kitkat]

sure the hell hope so lol cause i want it

as long as they make their Own PCB, and make it run cooler/efficient use of power without losing any performance but also shorter than the 5970, Cherry Picked 5870 Cores, 4GB Shareable memory and not Not overclocked (Let the Tweakers do the work like back during the X1950 and Lower Series). This should be Designated the 5975.

mmmmm lol lets just get one...

wow that was the biggest load of marketing bs I've heard.

lets translate "Asus is going to overclock the 5970, call it something else, and charge you twice as much"

yay all made possible by the delay of fermi.

lolo prety much yeah ... advertising press releases .... *waves hands in a circle* lol pretty much yes.

 

[Kreij]

Not all that interesting to me.
Now if Asus wanted to bet the bank and put 4 x Cypress chips on a single card, I would pay much more attention.

 

[PP Mguire]

Or just spend less money for 2 5870s and call it a day.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

+1 for 2*2GB GDDR5 in this card... and 6 monitor output.

Otherwise, it won't make sense.



And just to make it clear: I won't even think of buying this card, I just find it cool.

 

[werez]

Asus Nibiru

 

[ToTTenTranz]

as long as they make their Own PCB, and make it run cooler/efficient use of power without losing any performance but also shorter than the 5970, Cherry Picked 5870 Cores, 4GB Shareable memory and not Not overclocked (Let the Tweakers do the work like back during the X1950 and Lower Series). This should be Designated the 5975.

lol @ shareable memory.

People have beem dreaming with that for how long? 6 years?

When it comes from ATI or nVidia (hydra already doubles the memory in multi-gpu configurations), it'll come like a blast.
Rest assured, shared memory between GPUs won't come in a "special edition" card, unless Asus puts a Hydra 200 in the card itself (highly unlikely).

 

[KainXS]

seems like a waste of money, whereas the HD5970 uses the same two gpu's as the HD5870 the GTX295 was missing rops since it is based of the GTX275, the HD5970 only has lower core clocks.

 

[Roph]

Fools will buy it; just look at how much marked up "F4T4L1TY" stuff sells.

 

[qwerty_lesh]

the should concentrate on making their mobos less shite tbqh imho.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Its ASSUS, you'll have to pay out of ur ass

 

[btarunr]

This makes for a different product because: It runs at HD 5870's speeds out of the box, will have big headroom, probably will have 2 GB /GPU memory (and the memory bandwidth to make use of it), and who knows, Eyefinity6 output. There still are many design changes ASUS can use to make this different and better from the HD 5970. Since it will be the fastest card in existence, it will have a high price. Just like Mars did.

 

[Makaveli]

I thought the 5970 was downclocked to not exceed the 300watt ATX spec for videocards.

Is this new asus model going to come bundled with a 1000watt PSU

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

maybe 3 pci-e plugs 3 * 8 pin

 

[1Kurgan1]

Did you guys miss this part? IF they actually do this it will clock higher than a regular 5970. Sure its just epeen, but that doesnt mean it doesnt make sense. There will be a market. They wouldnt make these if they couldnt sell them.

Thats been a marketing term on a lot of things and I haven't seen that stuff help much if any at all on already top end hardware.

Or just spend less money for 2 5870s and call it a day.

Or buy a 5970 and save another $150 on the 2x 5870's, since they OC to the same levels.

This makes for a different product because: It runs at HD 5870's speeds out of the box, will have big headroom, probably will have 2 GB /GPU memory (and the memory bandwidth to make use of it), and who knows, Eyefinity6 output. There still are many design changes ASUS can use to make this different and better from the HD 5970. Since it will be the fastest card in existence, it will have a high price. Just like Mars did.

If it has 2GB per GPU then it will be something to see, but currently no 5870 has 2GB, that would be something they should work on instead rather than making another $1000+ card. And out of the box clocks with such easy to use programs like MSI afterburner, I think my mom could OC the current gen of cards and when they can reach the same level as their single GPU brothers, I just don't see out of the box mattering much. I mean if it came down to volt mods and all that, then I could see it, but with the voltage regulators on board, it don't matter much now.