Asus Ares - The Card That Costs a Lakh!
| by Anand Tuliani
CHIP had a crack at the world's most expensive graphics card, but was it enough to win them over.
|
Let’s get this straight right off the bat: The Asus Ares costs Rs 1, 00,000. That’s one lakh rupees for a graphics card. Now that that’s crystal clear, we can get on with our evaluation. Asus claims that the Ares is the fastest graphics card on the planet, by virtue of its custom design and dual ATI Radeon 5870 graphics processors. Many manufacturers have released limited-edition graphics cards and motherboards at ever-higher price points over the years, primarily to grab media attention, when in reality no one would really ever be able to buy and use them. These products make a select few overclockers and enthusiasts happy, and also help the companies secure titles such as “world’s fastest” which they can brag about. This card is no exception—it isn’t officially a limited edition but it’s highly unlikely that anyone will keep huge stocks of these on hand anticipating a ï¬ood of buyers. Quite understandably then, we start out with a little bit of prejudice—the knowledge that this graphics card, which alone costs nearly three times the amount a decent laptop would, will almost certainly be overthrown from its claimed top spot in less than six months.  Like all high-end graphics cards, you pay a certain premium for exclusivity. Once that wears of, you still have a superb card to play games with; it just isn’t the “best”, “fastest”, or “most extreme” anymore. If you can make peace with the fact that there will most likely be something just as powerful at a much lower price, which consumes less power and makes less noise, consider yourself a candidate to buy this card. Oh, and don’t even think about it if you’re running a 30-inch monitor or a couple of 24-inchers. You’ll just waste its potential with anything less. The premium So what exactly is it that sets this card apart? First of all, it arrives in an imposing black metal-rimmed briefcase, somewhat reminiscent of the kind government agents in movies are seen with. It’s an impressive touch, but opening it reveals tacky foam stuffing with needlessly colourful cardboard stuck on in the upper half, and cut-outs for the card and its accessories in the lower half. Along with the usual dongles and manuals, you also get an Asus ROG GX8000 gaming mouse which features a 3200 dpi resolution and 7 programmable keys. Surprisingly, there are no bundled games. This is a pretty big missed opportunity to tempt buyers and show off the card’s potential. The card itself is astounding. It’s unabashedly huge and heavy, with a sharp, aggressive red and black plastic cowl covering the heatsink assembly. A single, enormous fan sits in the middle, ï¬anked by two solid copper blocks and eight heatpipes. The card is both longer and wider than usual, rising a good inch above its metal backplate. It’s also wide enough to block off three slots’ worth of space when installed in a cabinet. On the back, there are only single DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort sockets, which is somewhat disappointing. The rear has no fewer than three PCIe power connectors: you’ll need two 8-pin and one 6-pin connectors to power this behemoth. Needless to say, you’ll need to spend a healthy amount of money on a suitable cabinet and power supply in addition to what this card costs. As far as tech specs go, the two GPUs have access to 2GB of RAM each, and both run at their full 850 MHz core speed, as opposed to AMD’s official dual-GPU design for this chip, the Radeon HD 5970, which cuts things down to 725 MHz in order to manage heat and power consumption. You also have greater memory bandwidth, resulting in a true doubling of the 5870 GPU’s potential. In short, it’s true dual-5870 CrossFire on a single card—and yes, you can combine two of them in CrossFire if you’re feeling particularly rich and power-hungry. In addition, the Ares uses a completely redesigned circuit board, not the stock reference 5970 layout. This allows Asus to use beeï¬er power circuitry, as well as dedicated power conditioning for the RAM, which also increases overclocking potential. |
Tags: Asus , Graphics Card , Luxury
reddit
Mixx
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
delicious
MySpace
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn
Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
Specs, Pre-order
13 Jun, 2013, 01:33 PM IST
7.0
We test the most powerful dual-GPU card of this generation, which also happens to be the most expensive.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 770 AMP Edition Review
Galaxy GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST Review
Nvidia to license its GPU, visual computing portfolio to target bigger market
19 Jun, 2013, 07:26 PM
Nvidia launches GeForce GTX 700M series of notebook GPUs
31 May, 2013, 04:22 PM
Nvidia launches GeForce GTX 770 for Rs 29,990
30 May, 2013, 06:32 PM
10 Graphics cards for under Rs. 10,000
Graphics cards priced up to Rs. 10,000 are a sweet spot for gamers who are
War of the big guns - Graphics Card Comparison
We put to the grind 17 of the biggest and baddest guns of graphics cards...
Top 5 graphics cards under Rs.15,000
There’s nothing quite like a good ol’ summer vacation, but sadly, all...
Huawei has big smartphone plans for India;
Google to open Android Nation stores in...
Microsoft to use Qualcomm chips on...
Sony Xperia Tablet Z (SGP321) Review
New MacBook Air coming soon to India;...
Alienware shows three new gaming notebooks
World of Warcraft and expansion packs...
Android-based console GameStick delayed...
About Us | Site Profile | IBNLive News | IBNLive Hindi News | Cricket News | Indian Stock Market | Policy | T & C
Copyright © 2011, Tech2.com India - A Network 18 India Venture
Live TV | FEEDBACK | RSS | Latest Movie Songs | Play Online Games | Business Technology News & Videos | MTV India
