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ASUS ARES II review
Posted by: Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/28/2013 05:53 PM [ 42 comment(s) ]
We test and review the ASUS ARES II as single card and in Crossfire today. The ARES 2 is a dual-GPU Radeon HD 7970 graphics card. Fully customized with 3rd party Liquid cooling. We test the product one one and three monitors in Eyefinity with the hottest games like Battlefield 3, Sleeping Dogs, Far Cry 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Hitman Absolution and many more. This product is based on two Tahiti XT2 GPUs, meaning that it’s clocked higher than one GHz with the ability to Boost the core clock frequency. ASUS unleashed a beast !
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ASUS ARES II Crossfire review
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SLI-756
Ancient Guru
Posts: 3098
Ancient Guru
Posts: 3098
Posted on: 01/29/2013 08:27 AM
OK boys.. Spill it.. Who's getting the card?
Send me your address and I will come and celebrate with you... 
P.S: Hilbert, you have done it again! For once again, you have provided me with about +/-20min of unadulterated reading pleasure.. If I could I would shake your hand and give you a big hug. You deserve some love for this!
We appreciate your hard work. Thank you!
haha, i didn't like the card much, what are you gonna use it for, Crysis 3? By that time the Titan will be here and i'll bet more than a few hundred knocking around. I much prefer some of the older ROG cards to this. Why even make it if it's basically not gonna be available? AMD wasting money at a time like this ain't gonna earn them any sympathy.
OK boys.. Spill it.. Who's getting the card?
Send me your address and I will come and celebrate with you...
P.S: Hilbert, you have done it again! For once again, you have provided me with about +/-20min of unadulterated reading pleasure.. If I could I would shake your hand and give you a big hug. You deserve some love for this!
We appreciate your hard work. Thank you!
haha, i didn't like the card much, what are you gonna use it for, Crysis 3? By that time the Titan will be here and i'll bet more than a few hundred knocking around. I much prefer some of the older ROG cards to this. Why even make it if it's basically not gonna be available? AMD wasting money at a time like this ain't gonna earn them any sympathy.
Ven0m
Maha Guru
Posts: 1035
Maha Guru
Posts: 1035
Posted on: 01/29/2013 08:58 AM
Thanks for the review.
These are beasts. And CPU limitation at 2560x1600 looks really funny :]
Too bad that the most of these games are console ports. I'd like to see one targeted specifically at PC's, capable of using wide range of cards and CPUs including these ones.
Thanks for the review.
These are beasts. And CPU limitation at 2560x1600 looks really funny :]
Too bad that the most of these games are console ports. I'd like to see one targeted specifically at PC's, capable of using wide range of cards and CPUs including these ones.
SLI-756
Ancient Guru
Posts: 3098
Ancient Guru
Posts: 3098
Posted on: 01/29/2013 09:03 AM
Ghost Recon Future Soldier would be a good game for your reviews, it's very demanding, you gotta install around five patches before it's up and running though. But perhaps a candidate to replace BFBC2?
Ghost Recon Future Soldier would be a good game for your reviews, it's very demanding, you gotta install around five patches before it's up and running though. But perhaps a candidate to replace BFBC2?
Undying
Maha Guru
Posts: 2663
Maha Guru
Posts: 2663
Posted on: 01/29/2013 12:06 PM
This is just to much, what a beast!
This is just to much, what a beast!
BlackZero
Ancient Guru
Posts: 8075
Ancient Guru
Posts: 8075
Posted on: 01/29/2013 02:08 PM
Great review, Hilbert.
The card's overclocking potential might be limited by the 525watt maximum power available. Clearly this card is not for power conscious consumers.
Great review, Hilbert.
The card's overclocking potential might be limited by the 525watt maximum power available. Clearly this card is not for power conscious consumers.
alientorni
Member Guru
Posts: 79
Member Guru
Posts: 79
Posted on: 01/29/2013 04:34 PM
what's the point on keep reviewing this type of monsters on 1920x1200 as the main resolution? it should be 2560x1600, and include multimonitoring. it's a nonsense
edit: I did not finish reading the whole review. finally you get some multimonitoring tests
what's the point on keep reviewing this type of monsters on 1920x1200 as the main resolution? it should be 2560x1600, and include multimonitoring. it's a nonsense
edit: I did not finish reading the whole review. finally you get some multimonitoring tests
Koniakki
Master Guru
Posts: 672
Master Guru
Posts: 672
Posted on: 01/29/2013 05:47 PM
what's the point on keep reviewing this type of monsters on 1920x1200 as the main resolution? it should be 2560x1600, and include multimonitoring. it's a nonsense
edit: I did not finish reading the whole review. finally you get some multimonitoring tests
There's a 25x16 benchmark result of every game... But since you said "main resolution" I guess you mean the charts with the cards below the first graph.
Well, 19x12 is used for the sake of comparison with the rest of the cards. If 25x16 was used more than half the cards wouldn't be on the charts.
What I would have liked to see below that 19x12 chart, is a chart with all the available SLI/CF results for each game.
what's the point on keep reviewing this type of monsters on 1920x1200 as the main resolution? it should be 2560x1600, and include multimonitoring. it's a nonsense
edit: I did not finish reading the whole review. finally you get some multimonitoring tests
There's a 25x16 benchmark result of every game... But since you said "main resolution" I guess you mean the charts with the cards below the first graph.
Well, 19x12 is used for the sake of comparison with the rest of the cards. If 25x16 was used more than half the cards wouldn't be on the charts.
What I would have liked to see below that 19x12 chart, is a chart with all the available SLI/CF results for each game.
The Mac
Maha Guru
Posts: 1388
Maha Guru
Posts: 1388
Posted on: 01/30/2013 06:47 AM
Great Review!
i wish more sites would include more than 2 generations of cards in their reviews...
Great Review!
i wish more sites would include more than 2 generations of cards in their reviews...
Brasky
Maha Guru
Posts: 1294
Maha Guru
Posts: 1294
Posted on: 01/30/2013 11:53 PM
2000 for the card from what i saw at vr zone, holy poop.
2000 for the card from what i saw at vr zone, holy poop.
Brasky
Maha Guru
Posts: 1294
Maha Guru
Posts: 1294
SLI-756
Ancient Guru
Posts: 3098
Ancient Guru
Posts: 3098
toivonen
Newbie
Posts: 13
Newbie
Posts: 13
Posted on: 02/01/2013 04:25 PM
Ok, 1st things 1st...
Congratulations, as always, for the great review.
Now...talking about this card is really a mix of feelings, one surelly must be amazed by the technological achivment the guys ASUS/ROG achieved, and yes it's faster (altough less stable) than the 690..but this propt us for the important question, when we say what's the faster generic mainstream card in existance, one can't say it's the ARES II, cause the truth is that this is NOT a mainstream/generic card!...it's a tuned version of a deadborn child AMD never gave birth, ence if we talk about GPU manufaturers, the crown still belongs to Nvidia, and the fastest graphic card (generic/mainstream) is the 690GTX..periood!
I can understand reviews comparing "normal" cards with tecnological excentricites like this one, for the sake of amusment, but not as term inlightning people of what is the current market standards...
...using a very apropriate comparison with cars...it's like if someone was making a comparison between a Ferrari 458 vs Porsche 911, (usually the "normal" 458 is faster than the 911) and had choosen to do so, picking a out of the box/factory standard Ferrari 458, vs a special tuned 911 (like the 9ff TR-1000) wich some german special tune company had made....of course the tuned, exclusivist special made for 10 people, Porsche would have won it!...and surelly that car will be effectivlly measured as the fastes of both, but seriouly people that wouldn't be a "truth" test and not been very correct/serious on the part of the testers, would it?!?...
...besides not hiding the fact that, the Ferrari 458 was in truth the fastest out of the box car!
Truth is, Nvidia knows it made also a tecnological achivment in the 690GTX, and better still, without having the kneed to use special divisions on outside companies to build what themeselves couldn't make it work, and by means of make it absolutly unafordable to the bystandard user, either by the price itself, as for other system requirments like special PSU's, and so on...
I agree that ROG/ASUS put together a magnificent product, but IMHO the technological achievment prize goes to Nvidia, because it made an almost equal performant card, using less sophisticated/exclusivist cooling, (LOT) less use of energy power, and at a price (in some cases) almost half of the cost of the so called WONDER ARES II....if you don't agree with me fine, but what would you call a normal 690GTX user who spent 700Eur, and with just a few cliks on GPU tweak, would outperform the new 1400Eur "golden boy" ARES II, using the same or less amount of energy power and a 850 PSU?!?...a superb engineer, or a SUPER WONDER piece of tecnological?!?lol...i think not, do you?!
Oh before someone starts a RED/Green bashing, i have to reveal that i'm a happy ATI customer by the way!lol What i'm also, is a non-biased person that see things in a broader spectrum and likes to compare things..that are comparable...THANKS
PS-Oh, not to mention that the 10-15% margin of win ARES II had, was almost destroyed a few hours later when Nvidia released Beta drivers 313.96 wich improoves particullary the 690GTX model....call that a coincidence?!?Lol
Ok, 1st things 1st...
Congratulations, as always, for the great review.
Now...talking about this card is really a mix of feelings, one surelly must be amazed by the technological achivment the guys ASUS/ROG achieved, and yes it's faster (altough less stable) than the 690..but this propt us for the important question, when we say what's the faster generic mainstream card in existance, one can't say it's the ARES II, cause the truth is that this is NOT a mainstream/generic card!...it's a tuned version of a deadborn child AMD never gave birth, ence if we talk about GPU manufaturers, the crown still belongs to Nvidia, and the fastest graphic card (generic/mainstream) is the 690GTX..periood!
I can understand reviews comparing "normal" cards with tecnological excentricites like this one, for the sake of amusment, but not as term inlightning people of what is the current market standards...
...using a very apropriate comparison with cars...it's like if someone was making a comparison between a Ferrari 458 vs Porsche 911, (usually the "normal" 458 is faster than the 911) and had choosen to do so, picking a out of the box/factory standard Ferrari 458, vs a special tuned 911 (like the 9ff TR-1000) wich some german special tune company had made....of course the tuned, exclusivist special made for 10 people, Porsche would have won it!...and surelly that car will be effectivlly measured as the fastes of both, but seriouly people that wouldn't be a "truth" test and not been very correct/serious on the part of the testers, would it?!?...
...besides not hiding the fact that, the Ferrari 458 was in truth the fastest out of the box car!
Truth is, Nvidia knows it made also a tecnological achivment in the 690GTX, and better still, without having the kneed to use special divisions on outside companies to build what themeselves couldn't make it work, and by means of make it absolutly unafordable to the bystandard user, either by the price itself, as for other system requirments like special PSU's, and so on...
I agree that ROG/ASUS put together a magnificent product, but IMHO the technological achievment prize goes to Nvidia, because it made an almost equal performant card, using less sophisticated/exclusivist cooling, (LOT) less use of energy power, and at a price (in some cases) almost half of the cost of the so called WONDER ARES II....if you don't agree with me fine, but what would you call a normal 690GTX user who spent 700Eur, and with just a few cliks on GPU tweak, would outperform the new 1400Eur "golden boy" ARES II, using the same or less amount of energy power and a 850 PSU?!?...a superb engineer, or a SUPER WONDER piece of tecnological?!?lol...i think not, do you?!
Oh before someone starts a RED/Green bashing, i have to reveal that i'm a happy ATI customer by the way!lol What i'm also, is a non-biased person that see things in a broader spectrum and likes to compare things..that are comparable...THANKS
PS-Oh, not to mention that the 10-15% margin of win ARES II had, was almost destroyed a few hours later when Nvidia released Beta drivers 313.96 wich improoves particullary the 690GTX model....call that a coincidence?!?Lol
Archonic
Newbie
Posts: 3
Newbie
Posts: 3
Posted on: 02/04/2013 02:19 AM
Amazing stuff, It's really interesting to see all the dual gpu solutions the vendors have come up with so far. I'ts also nice to see them filling in where AMD left off, but as cool as this is, I really hope this doesn't have to happen again.
Amazing stuff, It's really interesting to see all the dual gpu solutions the vendors have come up with so far. I'ts also nice to see them filling in where AMD left off, but as cool as this is, I really hope this doesn't have to happen again.
DLD
Master Guru
Posts: 455
Master Guru
Posts: 455
Posted on: 02/04/2013 01:19 PM
that you cannot produce a decent card. Yeah, but what to do then? Well, try to sell GAMES instead of the card.
Thus, the ''bundled hardware'' was invented... Selling a bunch of good games with the card as an addition...LOL.
Koniakki
Master Guru
Posts: 672
Master Guru
Posts: 672
Posted on: 02/04/2013 11:24 PM
that you cannot produce a decent card. Yeah, but what to do then? Well, try to sell GAMES instead of the card.
Thus, the ''bundled hardware'' was invented... Selling a bunch of good games with the card as an addition...LOL.
Although the concept of "bundle" is true(marketing), I'm pretty sure they will probably sell those hundreds ARES II anyway..
that you cannot produce a decent card. Yeah, but what to do then? Well, try to sell GAMES instead of the card.
Thus, the ''bundled hardware'' was invented... Selling a bunch of good games with the card as an addition...LOL.
Although the concept of "bundle" is true(marketing), I'm pretty sure they will probably sell those hundreds ARES II anyway..
NAMEk
Master Guru
Posts: 181
Master Guru
Posts: 181
Posted on: 02/08/2013 08:24 AM
Ok, 1st things 1st...
Congratulations, as always, for the great review.
Now...talking about this card is really a mix of feelings, one surelly must be amazed by the technological achivment the guys ASUS/ROG achieved, and yes it's faster (altough less stable) than the 690..but this propt us for the important question, when we say what's the faster generic mainstream card in existance, one can't say it's the ARES II, cause the truth is that this is NOT a mainstream/generic card!...it's a tuned version of a deadborn child AMD never gave birth, ence if we talk about GPU manufaturers, the crown still belongs to Nvidia, and the fastest graphic card (generic/mainstream) is the 690GTX..periood!
I can understand reviews comparing "normal" cards with tecnological excentricites like this one, for the sake of amusment, but not as term inlightning people of what is the current market standards...
...using a very apropriate comparison with cars...it's like if someone was making a comparison between a Ferrari 458 vs Porsche 911, (usually the "normal" 458 is faster than the 911) and had choosen to do so, picking a out of the box/factory standard Ferrari 458, vs a special tuned 911 (like the 9ff TR-1000) wich some german special tune company had made....of course the tuned, exclusivist special made for 10 people, Porsche would have won it!...and surelly that car will be effectivlly measured as the fastes of both, but seriouly people that wouldn't be a "truth" test and not been very correct/serious on the part of the testers, would it?!?...
...besides not hiding the fact that, the Ferrari 458 was in truth the fastest out of the box car!
Truth is, Nvidia knows it made also a tecnological achivment in the 690GTX, and better still, without having the kneed to use special divisions on outside companies to build what themeselves couldn't make it work, and by means of make it absolutly unafordable to the bystandard user, either by the price itself, as for other system requirments like special PSU's, and so on...
I agree that ROG/ASUS put together a magnificent product, but IMHO the technological achievment prize goes to Nvidia, because it made an almost equal performant card, using less sophisticated/exclusivist cooling, (LOT) less use of energy power, and at a price (in some cases) almost half of the cost of the so called WONDER ARES II....if you don't agree with me fine, but what would you call a normal 690GTX user who spent 700Eur, and with just a few cliks on GPU tweak, would outperform the new 1400Eur "golden boy" ARES II, using the same or less amount of energy power and a 850 PSU?!?...a superb engineer, or a SUPER WONDER piece of tecnological?!?lol...i think not, do you?!
Oh before someone starts a RED/Green bashing, i have to reveal that i'm a happy ATI customer by the way!lol What i'm also, is a non-biased person that see things in a broader spectrum and likes to compare things..that are comparable...THANKS
PS-Oh, not to mention that the 10-15% margin of win ARES II had, was almost destroyed a few hours later when Nvidia released Beta drivers 313.96 wich improoves particullary the 690GTX model....call that a coincidence?!?Lol
Agreed
Ok, 1st things 1st...
Congratulations, as always, for the great review.
Now...talking about this card is really a mix of feelings, one surelly must be amazed by the technological achivment the guys ASUS/ROG achieved, and yes it's faster (altough less stable) than the 690..but this propt us for the important question, when we say what's the faster generic mainstream card in existance, one can't say it's the ARES II, cause the truth is that this is NOT a mainstream/generic card!...it's a tuned version of a deadborn child AMD never gave birth, ence if we talk about GPU manufaturers, the crown still belongs to Nvidia, and the fastest graphic card (generic/mainstream) is the 690GTX..periood!
I can understand reviews comparing "normal" cards with tecnological excentricites like this one, for the sake of amusment, but not as term inlightning people of what is the current market standards...
...using a very apropriate comparison with cars...it's like if someone was making a comparison between a Ferrari 458 vs Porsche 911, (usually the "normal" 458 is faster than the 911) and had choosen to do so, picking a out of the box/factory standard Ferrari 458, vs a special tuned 911 (like the 9ff TR-1000) wich some german special tune company had made....of course the tuned, exclusivist special made for 10 people, Porsche would have won it!...and surelly that car will be effectivlly measured as the fastes of both, but seriouly people that wouldn't be a "truth" test and not been very correct/serious on the part of the testers, would it?!?...
...besides not hiding the fact that, the Ferrari 458 was in truth the fastest out of the box car!
Truth is, Nvidia knows it made also a tecnological achivment in the 690GTX, and better still, without having the kneed to use special divisions on outside companies to build what themeselves couldn't make it work, and by means of make it absolutly unafordable to the bystandard user, either by the price itself, as for other system requirments like special PSU's, and so on...
I agree that ROG/ASUS put together a magnificent product, but IMHO the technological achievment prize goes to Nvidia, because it made an almost equal performant card, using less sophisticated/exclusivist cooling, (LOT) less use of energy power, and at a price (in some cases) almost half of the cost of the so called WONDER ARES II....if you don't agree with me fine, but what would you call a normal 690GTX user who spent 700Eur, and with just a few cliks on GPU tweak, would outperform the new 1400Eur "golden boy" ARES II, using the same or less amount of energy power and a 850 PSU?!?...a superb engineer, or a SUPER WONDER piece of tecnological?!?lol...i think not, do you?!
Oh before someone starts a RED/Green bashing, i have to reveal that i'm a happy ATI customer by the way!lol What i'm also, is a non-biased person that see things in a broader spectrum and likes to compare things..that are comparable...THANKS
PS-Oh, not to mention that the 10-15% margin of win ARES II had, was almost destroyed a few hours later when Nvidia released Beta drivers 313.96 wich improoves particullary the 690GTX model....call that a coincidence?!?Lol
Agreed
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Ancient Guru
Posts: 10859
I was waiting to see what rich people put in their computers
Good review boss