When a package arrives here at the test-lab, huge heavy and then when you open it up you find a security suitcase ... then that definitely draws attention. Though there have been a couple of previews out on engineering sample ASUS Ares videocards, we just received one of the limited edition retail samples for a review.

The ARES is pretty much a Radeon 5970 (5870 X2) model. ASUS uses use up all available stream processors (2x1600) and then opposed to the 5970 use normal clocks.

• Normal clocks: (725/1000 MHz core/memory)
• ARES clocks: (850/1200 MHz).

Now in real-life ladies and gentlemen .. this would just be an overclocked Radeon HD 5970 or simply the R5870 in Crossfire -- but with some more memory and a steep price tag obviously.

It will be interesting to see though as ASUS would use a custom PCB with new VRM control and much needed power phases. The card comes packed with 4GB of graphics memory (2GB per GPU) and should be able to get some really nice 3DMark Vantage and game performance scores.

Somewhere next week the NDA expires and we'll be happy to inform you on all the ins and outs of this product.