ASUS ROG ARES II Video Card Review

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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ASUS ROG ARES II Video Card Review - ASUS is launching its latest flagship ROG series video card, the ASUS ROG ARES II. This beast takes two Radeon HD 7970 GHz GPUs and provides CrossFire performance in a dual-slot configuration with unique custom closed-loop external cooling. This powerful limited edition video card is a born overclocker!
 
Damn that is one awesoem setup. It is almost a shame that this is going to be a limited run of such a small number. That cooling setup is also sweet by itself.
 
My goodness thats a LOT of power. Both Graphics processing power, and consumed power. What a fantastic piece of engineering though. *drools*
 
Amazing card. Shame it did not come with 6GB per GPU like the Sapphire 7970 Toxic. When it comes to the price comparison. I would disagree about the markup being $650 over and above a 7970 crossfire array as you forgot to add the other major components that make up this beastly card.

1) the two "GPU only" blocks at $50-$75 each
2) an integrated pump which if bought as a stand alone piece would be at least $30
3) A really thick 1x120 radiator that seems to be of above average quality ~$40
4) 2x seemingly decent fans $10 ea.
5) Tubing and fluid

Overall, this would add somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 in cost to a crossfire array, plus the cost of whatever goodies come in the box and the briefcase box itself.

If instead you treated the blocks as full cover or hybrid based on the full covered top and the integrated central fan then the component cost would likely jump to around ~$300-$350 in extra parts plus more for the extra goodies.

If one were willing to void the warranty then it does not seem like it would be too hard to integrate the the card into a full loop.
 
So pretty...

I'd still be nervous running 2 of those babies on a standard 15amp breaker. Would hate popping the breaker mid-game hitting a peak... :D

Awesome card with 2 obvious missing features, 6GB ram PER gpu as was said before, and a proper 6 display port setup.

Haven't given many lately, but Kudos on the review!
 
Do you think that I will only use half of it, if I run Skyrim at 60Hz?
 
I would disagree about the markup being $650 over and above a 7970 crossfire array as you forgot to add the other major components that make up this beastly card.

1) the two "GPU only" blocks at $50-$75 each
2) an integrated pump which if bought as a stand alone piece would be at least $30
3) A really thick 1x120 radiator that seems to be of above average quality ~$40
5) Tubing and fluid

Overall, this would add somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 in cost to a crossfire array, plus the cost of whatever goodies come in the box and the briefcase box itself.

If instead you treated the blocks as full cover or hybrid based on the full covered top and the integrated central fan then the component cost would likely jump to around ~$300-$350 in extra parts plus more for the extra goodies.

LOLZ $250 my ass. That's a cheap AIO. Similar to this thing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asetek-760G...-for-NVIDIA-GTX-470-480-570-580-/280965116990
 
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Those cheap wall meters are notorious for giving out wrong values.

You need a high tech precision meter for accurate power consumption, which is a relatively big box that costs at least a few hundred.

That's a 350W card under real world conditions, at stock.
 
Nice care but the pricing of it is just insane, and that is exactly why they make it a limited number, since at that price the market will be mighty small.

Personally I'd love to see someone come out with some reasonably priced closed loop water cooled videocards since I don't see most people, even those building their own rigs, wanting to void the warranty on a new $300-400 videocard so they can install a watercooler on it.
 

I had forgotten that product existed (though it is for gpu and cpu rather than dual gpu). However, a quick Google search led to a user posting on overclock.net where the initial poster indicated that the parts if bought separately as part of a custom loop would be on the order of... guess what... $250. Why $250? because custom loop parts are usually exceptionally expensive for what you get.
 
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I had forgotten that product existed (though it is for gpu and cpu rather than dual gpu). However, a quick Google search led to a user review on overclock.net where the initial poster indicated that the parts if bought separately as part of a custom loop would be on the order... guess what... $250. Why $250? because custom loop parts are usually exceptionally expensive for what you get.

No shit.
 
This cooling solution reminds me of what Corsair is doing with the Hydro series. I think it is great and hope it becomes more available on more cards.
 
Cooling solution is awesome but if you already have one of the corsair hydro coolers what are you supposed to do?
 
Those cheap wall meters are notorious for giving out wrong values.

You need a high tech precision meter for accurate power consumption, which is a relatively big box that costs at least a few hundred.

That's a 350W card under real world conditions, at stock.

Do you always talk out your ass?

Or do you have some proof that Kill-a-watt or similar wall meters put out wrong values?
 
Asetek GPU mount $8 http://triptcc.com/product/fan-bracket/

7900 series shim $4 http://www.frozencpu.com/products/14971/ex-blc-1051/EK-VGA_Supreme_HF_HD7970_Cu_Adapter.html

Antec 620 $57 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209049

And 1 92MM fan of your choice for VRM cooling.

Thats the way to go over that arctic overpriced cooler. I just did mod for my 7950's. Never go above 55c at 1.3v

This Asus card is so fucking badass, but the Price....wow, but its well deserved. Those engineers who created this masterpiece deserve that money.
 
I'd still rather go custom. Custom is the way to go as long as your budget allows, it's always been. AIO's are nothing more than half-assed solutions that don't last a lot because a better one constantly gets released and you go ahead to buy that one.

Custom is expandible. Custom is higher quality and custom is much better performing.

But yes, it's also much more expensive. The Swiffy H220 is the only AIO that's worthwhile because of it's expandibility and the pump it features which is a slightly lower lowered MCP355. It beats every other AIO and you can add a GPU block to it.
 
Amazing card and yet again another amazing [H]ard core review.

Quoting from the conclusion, "There will be only 1,000 of these video cards sold, and only 100 of those in North America."

However, is this really a product that even the [H]ardest core members here will be able to get their hands on? If the "only 100 units in NA" is true, these things are going to sell for a huge premium over the already high price of $1500.

I'm sure Vega already has two on pre-order. LOL.
 
It's a waste of money regardless of how well of a built card it is.

You can go watercooled 680 Quad for that sorf of price.
 
It's a waste of money regardless of how well of a built card it is.

You can go watercooled 680 Quad for that sorf of price.

No you can't, but yeah. Waste of money. Though it is quite an impressive waste of money.
 
No you can't, but yeah. Waste of money. Though it is quite an impressive waste of money.

I was referring to buying two and not one.

You'll probably need to couple it together with some stupid combo if you want to buy it from the Egg, as it's been the case with Asus` dual 580 offering, which made the card reach to a ridiclious $1500 or somewhere along there.

This is a card for the guy that buys the most expensive believing that it's the best.

This thing is inefficient and not as fast or as good as custom cooler/custom PCB'ed 680 SLi. For the price of one of these things, I'd much rather get three Galaxy 680 White's with the Volterra VRM, OC them to the max and leave this overpriced piece of shit in the dust.
 
I was referring to buying two and not one.

You'll probably need to couple it together with some stupid combo if you want to buy it from the Egg, as it's been the case with Asus` dual 580 offering, which made the card reach to a ridiclious $1500 or somewhere along there.

This is a card for the guy that buys the most expensive believing that it's the best.

This thing is inefficient and not as fast or as good as custom cooler/custom PCB'ed 680 SLi. For the price of one of these things, I'd much rather get three Galaxy 680 White's with the Volterra VRM, OC them to the max and leave this overpriced piece of shit in the dust.

or maybe you just can't comprehend the purpose of this card.. this cards not meant to be bought by the average consumer, its a limited edition technology demonstration to show what is possible with no R&D budget attached to it. even at 1500 bucks i highly doubt 1000 of these even cover the R&D cost to create them.
 
or maybe you just can't comprehend the purpose of this card.. this cards not meant to be bought by the average consumer, its a limited edition technology demonstration to show what is possible with no R&D budget attached to it. even at 1500 bucks i highly doubt 1000 of these even cover the R&D cost to create them.

No, I do.

This card has been done before with 580's and it was, again, a pointless piece of shit.

I don't care what can be done, and this card surely has some R&D budget going into it with a single double thick 120 rad and an AIO cooling it...

if there was no budget concern, then they'd have put it on a 240 or 360 rad with some better WC'ing hardware on it. And with 38mm thick fans and not 25mm cheap OEM fans.

When the Galaxy 680 White with Volterra VRM blows the shit out of this card's VRM, why should I buy this thing? Especially when I can get three which is also much faster? This thing is pointless, unnecessary and sort of ludicrous.

And no, they're going to get back MUCH MORE than what they put out to build this card. It doesn't cost as much as you think it does to build this thing.
 
I read 90% of the article and may of missed it but....
Big question
Did Asus fix the Xfire stuttering jitters?

An obvious complete waste if not. Nvidia SLI is so silky smoooooooth.
 
I read 90% of the article and may of missed it but....
Big question
Did Asus fix the Xfire stuttering jitters?

An obvious complete waste if not. Nvidia SLI is so silky smoooooooth.

At best Asus could only fix something if it was a hardware issue. Stuttering is on a game by game basis. Some are fine, others aren't. It's down to drivers, CAPs, and the individual games for fixing any stuttering issues.
 
Great review of a niche product - and I say that purely because of the 1000 unit cap. This, like the GTX690, is not priced for everyone but EVERYONE would want one, fwiw. I am the proud owner of a 690 and this card evokes similar feelings for performance enthusiasts, pe's for short. PEs don't look @power bills. PEs don't care about branding. PEs want great IQ AND high frame-rates, smooth as butter. So [H]ers/PEs, just look @the card not who provides the GPU - Nvidiots, be gracious, this is a BIG card!!...Admittedly, I will keep my tidy 'little' 690 but 1 of these would be unbeatable for 3 monitor setups...wd Asus, thnx for the review [H]!!!
 
I read 90% of the article and may of missed it but....
Big question
Did Asus fix the Xfire stuttering jitters?

An obvious complete waste if not. Nvidia SLI is so silky smoooooooth.

SHHH!!! This is about how wonderful this beast is!!;););) X-fire is terrific...isn't it??? I do agree, SHLi works better now...to clarify, my 690 is fantastic when set to 'maximize 3D performance'..Disable multi-GPU mode is not as good:eek:
 
Nice card. Why they don't realise cards of this type unchained. Or simply release the matrix with a waterblock and double up, be nice to not have to wait until EK or similar makes a block. I get why they do it (a set level of performance), but i think they miss most of their market because of this also.

These cards are for enthusiasts , so why not let enthusiasts take them to the extreme with custom watercooling. Either ambient or subambient. 71c under load when overclocked , great results for AIO ... but custom .. try 0c under load ocd to 1400/1850 in CFX ;-)
 
Great review and pretty cool what ASUS made there but really a niche product.
I'd still take a single GK110 over this :)
 
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