Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Corsair MM700 & Corsair Katar Pro XT Review
Guru3D Rig of the Month - February 2021
ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 STRIX Gaming OC review
EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming review
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X TRIO review
PALIT GeForce RTX 3060 DUAL OC review
ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 AMP WHITE review
Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact chassis review
Sabrent Rocket 4 PLUS 2TB NVMe SSD review
MSI Radeon RX 6900 XT GAMING X TRIO review

New Downloads
Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.3.7
Guru3D RTSS Rivatuner Statistics Server Download 7.3.0 Final
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema v1.9.10 Download
GeForce 461.72 WHQL driver download
AIDA64 Download Version 6.32.5640 beta
CrystalDiskInfo 8.11.2 Download
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 21.2.3 driver download
GPU-Z Download v2.37.0
Intel HD graphics Driver Download Version: DCH27.20.100.9313
HWiNFO Download v6.43 - 4380 Beta


New Forum Topics
RTSS Overlay Editor Megathread Intel Core i7-11700K Rocket Lake-S is already selling at German etailer Next-gen AMD EPYC (Genoa) Would get 50% larger socket SP5, 96 cores and 400W TDP [Mod Driver] NimeZ Radeon Software - Signature Edition Review: Corsair MM700 & Corsair Katar Pro XT AOC announces V4 monitor series Radeon RX 6700 XT would have a starting price of 479 USD and see better availability Samsung to release variant of Odyssey G9 monitor with miniled backlight and much more Nvidia shows signs ... Who needs a 3080 if you can get GeForce Now..




Guru3D.com » Review » ASUS Mars II review » Page 1

ASUS Mars II review - Introduction

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 09/22/2011 01:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

Tweet

 

ASUS Mars II

ASUS every now and then, does crazy weird stuff, for example every year they are producing a handful of graphics cards that pretty much nobody can buy. 

We've seen the original brutal Mars, the exemplary ARES but ASUS is at it again with the all new Mars II, yep that's right. The x-factor products makes it prodigal return to manage a little bump and grinding.

Seriously, only a thousand of the product as shown today have been made, currently IF you can find them they retail at 1299 EUR (!), yes you might have to sell a kidney to obtain one of those ROG invested graphics cards.

Money aside, the product tested today is uber cool though. It's the stuff that make my digitized ticker, tick a little faster -- and once you have it in your hands, you'll make a nervous giggle.

Yep, the Asus Mars II has arrived, never ever has the phrase "mines bigger then yours" taken so serious. From the moment you pick up the 3 kilograms weighing product up-to the moment when you quickly check that first 3DMark run, you'll be impressed as what ASUS managed to do here, is serous... serious stuff. Or I should say heavy, if you look at it per pound, I'm not joking around the card is reallllly heavy. It's so heavy that it is delivered with PCIe graphics slot support brackets, so you won't damage the slot in that 90 degree angle.

But yeah, ASUS took the GTX 590 concept and pretty much only took the two GPUs and left the rest "as-is". ASUS merged GTX 580s onto a single PCB and each of them GPUs is tick-tocking away at 782MHz, making the Mars II much faster than the (already discontinued) GTX 590.

  GTX 580 GTX 590 Mars II
Core Clock 772MHz 607MHz 782MHz
Shader Clock 1544MHz 1215MHz 1564MHz
Memory Clock
(effective)
1002MHz
(4008MHz)
854MHz
(3416MHz)
1002MHz
(4008MHz)
Memory 1.5GB 2 x 1.5GB 2 x 1.5GB

What you will also notice is that ASUS decided to not spare any expense here, the Mars II has a very sturdy metal shroud with two 120mm (!) fans, and a metal back plate covers the entire rear.

All that power comes at another cost though, the Mars II is noticeably wider than usual, in addition to taking up three slots. Its dimensions are 13" x 6.2" x 2.5". You'll need a beefy power supply as well as not one, not two.. noper-di-nope, three 8-pin PCIe connectors are required.

For the tweakaholics amongst us ASUS threw in a 100% fan speed button. Each GPU gets an 8-phase power system, and each set of memory 2 phases, making for a total of 20 phases on a single PCB, ASUS actually claims 21 so there's another power phase going on somewhere. To help cool this beast, each heatsink has four copper heatpipes.

Ah well, talk is cheap, have a look and then we'll head onwards into the review of the Lucifer of graphics cards, and I truly meant that in the darkest way.

ASUS Mars II




25 pages 1 2 3 4 next »



Related Articles
ASUS Mars II review
We've seen the original brutal Mars, the exemplary ARES but ASUS is at it again with the all new Mars II, yep that's right. The x-factor products makes it prodigal return to manage a little bump and grinding. Money aside, the dual-GPU product tested today is uber cool though. It's the stuff that make my digitized ticker go tick a little faster -- and once you have it in your hands, you'll make a nervous giggle. Ah well, talk is cheap, have a look and then we'll head onwards into the review of the Lucifer of graphics cards.

ASUS MARS review
If you have been living under a rock and don't know what the ASUS Mars is .. let me give you an easy breakdown. You take two GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards, stick 4 GB of memory on there (2GB per GPU), sandwich them, SLI them up, market it as MARS, slap a limited edition label on there and make only a 1000 units. That in a nutshell is the product we'll be testing today. So without making a long and boring introduction, let's pop one of these little frackers into our finest test system and see where it ends up performance wise .. will this really be the fastest graphics card in the world anno September 2009 ?

© 2021