When you name your graphics card after the God of War, you'd better hope it brings some heat, but judging by early reviews, that's just what ASUS has done. The three slot monstrosity above is the ARES, a $1200 limited edition, fully custom board, sporting twin
Radeon HD 5870 GPUs, four gigabytes of GDDR5 memory and practically enough raw copper to smelt a sword.
We're not joking: the thing weighs nearly
five pounds and requires a 750 watt power supply with three power connectors (two 8-pin, one 6-pin) to even run. Of course, you're getting a graphical behemoth for that kind of price, steamrolling every other GPU on the planet -- paired with even a 3.8GHz Core i7-930 CPU in 3DMark Vantage (on Extreme settings),
Overclock 3D racked up a fairly ludicrous 15,000 score, and the card ripped past 25,000 with a
Core i7-980X and a second ARES in CrossFire. The card was less impressive in actual gameplay, merely spanking the (much cheaper)
Radeon 5970 and
GeForce GTX 480 by a modest amount, and several reviewers complained it was fairly loud... but as the old adage goes, nobody
needs a Ferrari to drive the speed limit, but we'll all drool over them anyhow.
Bring on the liquid nitrogen, folks.
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posted July 8th 2010 3:09AM
... and just large enough to fry a strip of bacon over.
@iRawr Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend me your cash!
@iRawr pfff, its just as large as my origional sapphire 4870x2 (1 week afater launch perchase yo! 559.99)
but stil, id like to own one of these, be a nice upgrade. 4870 is getting slightly old, its had a great 2 year run and it still kicks ass.
@huskie fluff I'm still happy with my 4850, but i don't play games to much now anyway :/
@NeatOman *throws free torrents of games at you* WELL GET TO IT SON! dont make me get gunny in here.
@huskie fluff
Mate I'm still riding an NVidia 8800GTX...I'm determined to make that £400 ish I spent back in 2006/7 go the distance!
@JLPicard
Where are the stimulus check when you need it when it matters most?
@iRawr
Surely the Sapphire 5970 4GB Toxic is more powerful than this card...
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=340
@iRawr
The heatsink is a terrible design, as usual. How hard is it for mfgs to actually mold plastic that really seals of hear to ensure it exits the back?
I had to tape paper to my card to make a funnel. GPU dropped 5 degrees on load, and the psu above it is significantly cooler to the touch.
Failbait says basic engineering fail.
@iRawr
This will probably blend the blender from that youtube blender guy..
@huskie fluff
I have a 4870x2 and 4870 doing a threesome of GPU debauchery, and honestly all my games run just fine.
The only thing I hate is that AMD won't update the drivers to allow eyefinity or whatever its called now. =/
But otherwise, it seems to me that the pace of gaming graphics has greatly slowed. I'm thinking its the fact that they try to cross develop, and so have to be able to scale all the way back to now half-a-decade old xbox360 technology.
@Hobsie Ditto on the 8800GTX. Good enough for now. I'll save my money for more useful things... like my iPad paperweight. Or my netbook dust collector.
@iRawr actually, this should come ready for watercooling. No way are you this hardcore and using aircooling (no duh this things loud)
@JLPicard I come to bury Nvidia not to praise it!
$1200? no thx. My normal 5850 didn't even come out yet and I'm already overbudget
@BlackRock Shooter I meant it didn't come yet. not "come out"
@BlackRock Shooter suuuuuurrrreeee...
I'll wait for the ASUS KRATOS version.
@BachNg
LMAO.
You f'ing nailed it brotha!
@BachNg
That's the sort of thing that comes out when you eat WIN for breakfast
But can it play... ah never mind.
@sintricate
...yes, i'm pretty sure it can handle Wolfenstein 3d
@sintricate
no it will not play dos games
all this power to play what exactly? and oh yah probably it will run Crysis like 30 PFS.
@xdeiri 4870x2 did that 2 years ago at release, so wheres your point.?
@xdeiri
if you get a card like this you wont have to buy one for about 10 years!!
@DefPoet Or until Direct X 12 comes out in 2 years...
@Locust
you still be able to play the games just not with the updated eyecandy
;)
Am i the only one with his credit card out...this thing sounds amazing
@jj1ggz914 Probably, $1200 can be a whole system.
@jj1ggz914 $1200 can be 2 gaming rigs.
@jj1ggz914
$1200 can be a night of ... ahh nvm ^_^
@jj1ggz914 i mean i would buy it when it drops 50% in like 6 months after its release even thoe its just a dream now
This thing probably isn't meant for playing games...more like engineering and photo manipulation...and games when the boss isnt there.
@B3astofthe3ast those are workstation gpu's pal, and they use a different architexture. oh and they cost loads more, and are larger.
Cards like this exist to improve the brand's image and its technical reputation. I'd be surprised if the project earns much money on its own.
OR...
You could just buy a 5970 and overclock it, saving you over half the price since it's also two 5870 cores downclocked to 5850 speeds.
@r3loaded
No
Pair this with an i7-980x and overclock the shit out of it while cooling it with liquid Helium.
Let's see some 50,000+ scores on this sucker.
I just bought a Radeon 5770 and I must say it kicks the crap out of my old NVIDIA 9800GT.
@jackjumper85
Yep my 5750 also spanks my old 9800GT
Ehhh, I needed a heater anyway.
So is it like two cards that are crossfired together, but together their one piece?
@jackjumper85: that's what I was wondering- can anyone tell me if dual GPUs amounts to the same thing (or almost) as crossfire, or if it's better/worse? My noobish brain can argue both cases... In any case, the fact that you can crossfire two of these (or according to the LegitReview, an ARES and an HD5870 if $2,400 is too much of a streetch) is rad. The video card equivalent of gluttony, but still rad.
@fightorflight
For the 4870x2, yes, you are really just saving space over two crossfired 4870s. Its the smart way to go though IMO if you need dual-GPU performance.
@Ducman69
Thanks for clearing that up
$1200 doesn't seem cost effective when it barely outperforms a $700 Radeon5970
@Luffy
I don't see the point of it either. Bragging rights? I sure hope it can be used in some application to make it worth the price.
@Luffy That's why this is a limited edition. People don't buy the best luxury cars and worry about the price ratios. They get them because they want the absolute best.