The Card

The watercooling solution with its integrated pump is permanently connected to the card. It comes pre-filled and is maintenance free. The hoses are made out of thick rubber and feel quite sturdy.


If you look closely at the slot cover, you can see that the top plate increases the height of the card beyond two slots. I'm not sure if that was intendentional, but it adds enough height to make installing two of these cards on a motherboard with two slot PCIe spacing impossible. You can, however, simply remove the top plate to make the second card fit such a motherboard (I tried).


Display connectivity options include two DVI ports and four full-size DisplayPorts. By default, both DVI ports are single link, and all DP outputs are enabled. You can enable dual-link DVI by switching the BIOS switch into the second position.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.


A single CrossFire connector is available, so you may combine this card with another ARES II for even higher performance.


Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods, etc., please include a link back to this site, or let us post your article.