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.
Read - Legit Reviews
Read - Overclock3D
Read - Guru3D
Read - PC Perspective
Read - TechPowerUp
Read - Hot Hardware
posted July 8th 2010 3:09AM
Can you link up two of them?
@Greg Can you RTFA or even the summary for that matter?
".... and the card ripped past 25,000 with a Core i7-980X and a second ARES in CrossFire."
You can just install that in my rig right NOW, thank you.
Oh, and one for my bro's machine too, since dreamin' is free.
Nice.
All this power and then they have 1x DVI-D, 1x HDMI & 1x DP, when will they ever learn.
In past I had bad experience with ASUS custom boards. Their version of ATI Catalyst drivers is extremely crappy. And you need the customized drivers with the crappy ASUS software to run it optimally. IIRC just to be able to regulate fan speed automatically you have start 3 or 4 apps. I would avoid the board if only for the ASUS drivers....
"nobody needs a Ferrari to drive the speed limit"
The difference is any custom built car it's value will go up over time if it's not a complete buttugly homer simpson mobile, while this video card will make a couple of nice keychains bits in a few years when cutup.
@Amusednow
Uhhh, say what? I have had several sports cars, and the only one that held its value somewhat is a 1995 Chevy Impala SS.
Most sports cars, like most cars in general, are horrible investments and will depreciate about $10K or more when just driving it off the parking lot.
The idea behind the purchase is the same reason you might eat icecream off an expensive high class hooker. Its not good for you, its not an investment, its just delicious fun. You only live once*. =)
*exception to buddhists
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this type of design not appealing whatsoever? Graphics cards seem to follow the same "ohh, jaggedy-sharp plastic everywhere" aesthetic that I've associated with lesser-end products for the past decade.
Oh, and I still want two of these...
But...will it play Crysis?
But will it cook pork shoulder?
hell no $1200
i bought 2 Visiontek 5770s at Bestbuy for $104 each and i still think i payed too much
I bet it only runs on plutonium...just enough to generate 1.21 Gigawatts!
Greatest. Headline. Ever.
So this is how you play APB? Crap! Just built my first "rig" yesterday with a Gigabyte G41M-ES2L mobo, an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400, 4gb ram, & a Galaxy nVidia GTS 250 1gb, 600w PSU. Once I download the client again, if it doesn't run good, I'll go pick this bad boy up for sure! =D Maybe I could mod the new Onyko HTPC...
i'd have to cut a hole with window in my $800.00 thermaltake level 10 case so you could see this beast and something else i paid too much money for to have for my computer ...
Will it make my PacMan game run in 3D now? :)
Will it fit an iPad?
CCL are getting one in, next week, for £1200.
Eep!
Haha, this is the price of my system, not sure I could justify it