We'll be honest with you, we thought the
GTX 480 was finally a graphics core too damn large and power-hungry to get the dual-GPU treatment. ASUS, however, is making us think again. Imagery has emerged of a
Mars 2 (or II, if you're into outdated numbering schemes) reference board that fits two 480s on its densely populated surface, and is fed by not one, not two, but
three 8-pin auxiliary power connectors. Back when Galaxy showed off a
dual-GTX 470 prototype at
Computex a month ago, we deemed it an unreasonable proposition -- in terms of power draw, heat dissipation, and cost -- but apparently those Taiwanese focus groups are really into their extravagantly overpowered video cards. We suspect if and when this Mars 2 hits retail it'll do so in a highly exclusive fashion, like its predecessor, and anticipate the unveiling of its cooler -- which is likely to be either the biggest or best engineered one we've seen yet.
posted July 18th 2010 10:21PM
Just look at it, its amazing.
@MEH
Meh, Nvidia still dropped the ball on this one, this was nearly there iPhone 4
@Simnol
Meh, Nvidia still dropped the ball on this one, this was nearly 'their' iPhone 4
/fixed
My god. That is fucking huge.
@Simnol Must the iphone be in the comments of every post?
Obi-Wan Kenobi: that's no graphics card... it's a space station.
Han Solo: What are you talking about, it's too big to be a space station.
centizen, that's what she said.
@centizen .... you know what im gonna say....
@centizen
That's what she said?
Prepare the fire extinguishers!
@MEH
First came gunpowder, then came Hiroshima, and now we have the Quad-SLI dual 480 GTX. What's next?
i hear its competition for the highest power draw...right behind the LHC of course
in all seriousness, i want one, scratch that, i want two!
@MEH Saw a dual GeForce GTX 480 from ASUS and I jizzed in my pants
*whispered* I jizzed in my pants, I jizzed in my pants.
@MEH
The must be like a 12 layer circuit board with that chip density.
seriously - there is no space wasted on this beast. I predict a 4 slot-wide cooling solution is needed.
@miacanes
Sadly, yes. If its not the iPhone fanboys being complete idiots. Its the android fanboys being complete jackasses.
Freaking fanbois
@centizen Thats what she said, to me
@MEH
The requirements of graphics cards are becoming ridiculous... when is it going to end?
First we started taking up two slots instead of one to accommodate the huge fans...
Then came 2 power connectors, cards got longer, heavier, 3 power connectors and for some recent models (5970 4GB) they take up 3 slots...
Makes me want to go back to old classic games... you know, back when the gameplay/story was the main attraction instead of just pure eye candy with no compelling story to go with it...
@MEH
wow i always wanted to see how a tactical nuke looks like!
@miacanes
I could have said it was nearly their (yep missed that typo first time) Vista, but that's hardly in fashion now is it.
I remember the good old days of Vista release where "it's their Vista" was everywhere.
Good times, good times.
But no I'll just stick with ATI until Nvidias next iteration.
@MEH
Minimum system requirements: 1500watt PSU + 3 slot cooler \ HSF
@Terodius Live in the coldest climbs of your country? Well we've got the solution to heat your home and get those frame rates you've been looking for. Welcome to the Mars 2!!
I'm just looking for a modern video card that is mid-range to high mid-range but has passive cooling =(
Seems all everyone wants to do these days is see how much bigger they can make power supply makers make their PSes and thus put on bigger coolers with faster, noisier fans.
@paul34
I totally agree, but as long as they feel they can get away with it, they will continue to do so. I look forward to when they start shrinking things back down so that PSUs don't have to jump through the roof.
It won't be long until the power supply is actually a separate case next to your computer. Actually, at this rate it wont be long until your power supply sits outside your house like a air-conditioner unit and a huge cable has to be ran to your PC.
@Elaith There are plenty of frugal, low-profile, and passive heatsinks on the market.
You could pick up a passive Sapphire HD 4670 for example.
You can't get this kind of raw performance with today's technology without the need for serious juice though, and the more juice, the more heat.
I mean, I'd love to have a 1000hp W16 engine that fits in a Ford Fiesta and gets 30mpg too, but its not going to happen.
@paul34: What you are asking for is unrealistic. If you want a passive cooled video card, then you have to get a shitter card: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2630/2
This will forever be the case. Imagine we are at the year where something with the power of the GTX 480 is passive cooled. Well, then there would also be a GTX 880 with substantially more power that is actively cooled. If there is a means to produce a card that is capable of more processing but runs hotter, then it will be made, since it is still reasonable to produce such a card, as a fan cooled heat sink is not a deterrent for customers. Sure, you can opt for the GTX 480 at that time, but then it wouldn't have the power required to run games that are made in a time where GTX 880s exist. See what I'm getting at?
the passive cards will always and forever be relegated to lower performance models, barring some breakthrough in cooling technology (which still has to be active in some way, just without a fan), since that is the only way to manufacture a card that can produce very little heat. Make it less powerful than what can be made.
What would have to happen is for game developers to basically put a halt to all advancements in graphics, and continue on with whatever eye candy they can muster today with no increases in quality, effects, and resolution. then a world of passive cooled graphics cards can be a reality, because why would you need a more powerful graphics card that produces more heat when the graphics it has to produce can be done on lower powered cards? Personally, I don't want that to happen.
@Ruben "What would have to happen is for game developers to basically put a halt to all advancements in graphics, and continue on with whatever eye candy they can muster today with no increases in quality, effects, and resolution."
*coughXBOX360using2005integratedgraphicstechnologycough*
=p
@Ruben Or in the case of the Nintendo Wii, not only halt it, but go back in time hehe!
@daniel142005 How soon do we forget the Voodoo 5 series?
@daniel142005
Woudnt it just be easier to LIVE inside your computer?
@Ducman69
Dont the 360 and PS3 have similar graphics power?
@Firewave PS3 is a bit better, and at least has its own 256mb of dedicated DDR3 memory unlike the 360.
@Ducman69
No. The PS3 actually has weaker graphics, but devs can make up for that by moving stuff off the GPU to one or more of the Cell SPE's. Unfortunately most cross-platform games aren't optimized for the PS3 like that, which means the 360 version almost always has better graphics. Fill-rate of the 360 GPU is much higher.
Also, the PS3 does not have 'dedicated video RAM'. It has 512MB XDR RAM that is split into two 256MB banks, of which only one has full-bandwidth from the GPU, but it can still also used as system RAM for the SPE's, who also have full bandwidth, while the PPC core can only use an extremely low-bandwidth path to it. The PS3 memory does have higher bandwidth by the way, but the Xbox 360 compensates for this by having a much better cache architecture, where each of the 3 CPU cores/2 HW threads per core can choose to lock cache lines and use them as ultra-fast scratch memory.
All in all the PS3 does have a slight edge in terms of specs, but it's also a very strange beast in terms of its architecture, which means only very few games actually make good use of it. 3rd party games are almost invariably better on the 360. I can tell since I have both, and the 360 is modded, so the cross-platform games that had serious issues on my PS3 I just downloaded for the 360, which gets better framerates, better load times and (marginally) better graphics.
@drange
Some PS3 exclusives blow every 360 game out of the water by the way, so by no means I'm saying the 360 is 'better'.
I'll take a 1.21 Gigawatt power supply please
@10nisman94
Youd need to make your entire pc out of copper to run this thing. Three 8pin power connecters?? I want to see some SLI this.
@tobsmonster2
I thought it was crazy that my 4870x2 took a six pin and eight pin connector... rofl!
@tobsmonster2
you mean quad sli?
1.21 GIGAWATTS!?!?!
How could I have been so careless...
Want want want.
@Pryomancer
I'd suggest that you give up your heating system (whatever it is that you have) if you decide to get this. I, for one, would put a tunnel of air ducts behind this beheamoth, draw the heat away from it and use it as my house heater!
@hero785 I'm going to strap a 747 to my house and use the wash from the jets at full throttle.
Can someone explain to me the need for triple SLI? I bet these Taiwanese think that Americans will buy anything.
@Sea Urchin Well, people buy boutique gaming PC that cost more than my 2000 Civic. So yes, there's a market for these.
@Sea Urchin Americans do buy anything.
Either lots of it or just a little. There is always a market for anything, specially if us the people have the income for it, and many US residents have the income..
@SskyNnet
I think the majority of people making use of it would actually have a reason to have it. Most people (including me) are probably scared away by the price tag. Of course, there are always those who need to compensate *that* badly.
@Sea Urchin
e-peen +3 inches
Is there a PS that has 3 8-pin plugs for this thing?
@prolab A PlayStation? Probably, I heard they can do anything.
@SskyNnet
I believe he was referring to a PS as in power supply, and there are some high end power supplies with 3, 8 pin connectors.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153054
im sure there are cheaper ones but i just started at the most expensive and worked my way down. but then again if you are going to buy a 1000 dollar gpu this is nothing.