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Mars 2 (or II, if you're into outdated numbering schemes) reference board that fits two 480s on its densely populated surface, and is fed by not one, not two, but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
@prolab Yes. Many. But I would not buy this thing.
/like.
More of these type posts, less iProduct posts please!
This is incredible, glorious overkill. I'll stick with my 4870 though, it's much more power then I'll need for the next few years.
@Dafrety
True enough, but I have three 24" monitors wrapped around me on my power-rig for example, and being able to run my games across all three in 7680x1600 resolution maxed out is making me consider upgrading heheh!
*fapfapfap*
The cheap-man's alternative though, is to just get a 720P projector up onto a 72" screen. Feels really sweet too, and that low resolution takes almost nothing to run.
@Ducman69
I was not aware of the existence of 24" monitors with 2560x1600 resolution, as nice as that would be to have.
@midnightblade
Sorry, that was a 9 digit typo, since I clearly meant 5760x1200.
*Sniff* What's that smell? *Computer catches on fire*
Still stick on a 9800gt here. HAHA
kicking strong with my OC i7 860
VooDoo, is that you?
I just want a laptop with two of these. I know that they have them with one 480m, but I need moar powerz.
@HowardtheDuck We need a laptop with 2 of these in SLI silly, one just will not do
@thefrataline
Only if you want your laptop to be the size of a Commodore SX 64. Or maybe a Mac Portable if you're lucky. ;P
Seems this would be better with an external power supply, like the old 3dfx card that never came out.
I think a lot of people would rather plug this into the wall than tax their PSU. Assuming it's really that simple, but if 3dfx was doing it 10 years ago...
@MosquitoControl
But... 3DFX wasn't doing it ten years ago. You just said that it never came out. Thus, it was clearly lies and propaganda.
/s
@Dafrety
Except it DID come out.. with "Voodoo Volts"
@hfm
Ok.. well.. it never came out retail, I always thought it did.. self downrank :)
@hfm
S'alright. ;)
Can I get a dual power supply with this, please?
But can it run Crysis? LoL was suprised nobody had said het yet. Nvidia really is pushing way to far in the power requirements. I'll stick with ATI until nvidia can lower the power comsumption.
@4u2nv Not even Crytek could run Crysis.
@4u2nv
Crysis > Your GPU
Blender > Your GPU
Lord Vader > Everything
Can I get a dual power supply with that, please?
...that's what she said
brb powering up my nuclear reactor to run this
It amuses me to see that 50% of the board is dedicated to power. I wonder what kind of efficiency they design that to.
What's with the white block next to the 3 power connectors? What's that hiding?
@Malachi42 Chuck Norris socket. How else could you power this?
8 pin power connectors can do 150 watts max according to spec. So expect this card to have max power consumption of up to 450 watts.
To paraphrase Jaws: We're gonna need a bigger power supply.
@Jacob1 The PCIe bus can provide another 75 watts for a grand total of 525 watts. Impressive. I guess this is to follow up the Asus Ares?
So long as we can use that to crunch things apart from graphics, great.
Video encoding assistance and RAR compression assistance anyone?
@DCal
And watch eight bluray movies simultaneously.
@DCal
You can use video cards to help compress/decompress files? When did this happen!?
@Dafrety Lookup CUDA. A million and one uses and potential uses for the computational power of a graphics chip. (apart from graphics!)
This is off topic, but can someone please tell me why my avatar never bloody changes from the default one?! Ai ai ai!
@jaminroe
Because God caught you touching yourself, and this is your punishment.
@jaminroe
Try uploading it on Joystiq or Download Squad, or a different AOL website. Also, maybe try changing the format or compressing it a bit?
ill take 3 for my computer!!
Color balanced photo for mutual enjoyment - http://devato.com/aoi/awsomecard.jpg
Does it play crysis?
Anyway, I want cooler gpu, cpu, motherboard, etc. I just had to send my computer back for the MB burning out. Xfired 5750's do just fine, this is overkill. I want something that can take 6+ hours graphicly intense gameplay without melting.
iPhone this... Iphone that.... Gotta love it....3mil and counting!!!!!
Oh god. I think I just sexed in my pants. *drools, ignoring others from other countries stating that Americans will buy anything...hey, I'm not denying it* WANT!
Sweet! A grill, heater, and graphics card all in one! Jokes aside, Nvidia is finally getting back on top. I'm getting a 460 as soon as I can afford it.
have they included the warp drive yet?
Dear Asus,
I would like to make love to you.
You'll probably need a dual i7 just to run this thing.
The stock cooling must be friggen huge.
Another video card which requires a new case
Another video card which requires an additional power supply
Another video card which doesnt work for BF: BC2?
Hope it can keep itself cool!
It takes two to tango while burning up twice as much dance floor.
Also, this is my one thousandth comment; here's to the next thousand.
q: What's the power supply level of this graphics card?
a: IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!