Asus reveals Mars II dual-GeForce GTX 580 card
The latest ROG offering from Asus looks like the fastest graphics card on the planet on paper.
Asus says that the Mars II has ‘22 per cent faster performance than reference’ in comparison to a stock GTX 590 3GB. However, as the GPU configuration of the Mars II is an un-official one, it may require a special driver - previous cards of a similarly unofficial design have suffered from such issues. We’ll have to see when we get our hands on the card and run it through our test suite.
We can’t argue with some of the other hardware aboard the card, from the three 8-pin PCI-E power connectors to the chunky triple-slot custom cooler. With other single-GPU cards requring triple-slot coolers, the triple-slot size of the cooler is reasonable. The card is 13in (330mm) long and 6.2in (157mm) wide, so you’ll need a large case.
Click to enlarge
The cooler uses Asus’ DirectCU II design, to produce ‘60 per cent greater airflow and [be]20 per cent cooler than reference.’ The cooler incorporates two 120mm fans that ‘move up to 600 per cent more air than the reference GTX 590 design.’ A Turbo fan button instantly ramps the fan speed to 100 per cent, for heavy overclocking sessions. We can’t see how many heatpipes are included, but there is 21-phase power delivery under the cooler that uses ‘Asus Super Alloy Power technology, which utilizes a special alloy mix for power delivery components that resist heat and material fatigue far beyond the norm.’
There’s no word on pricing or availability yet, but is that a reason to stop being excited about the Mars II, or are you going to wait for some benchmarks before you start saving? Let us know in the forum.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThe spec on scan.co.uk says that it is 2.0.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-asus-gtx-580-limited-edition-x2-40nm-4008mhz-gddr5-gpu-782mhz-2x512-cores-dl-dvi-dp-hdmi
& @Bit-Tech guys, Please don't review this like it's a part of nvidia's lineup. It's SLI inside which you hate so I know you'll slate it for that, but this is the 911 GT3 to the GTX 590's 911. It's meant to have stripped out seats and stripped out features, or in this case, draw more power, produce more heat, run noisily, and require some enthusiast knowledge to get the most from. That's the point of it
I'm sure at sensible resolutions it'll oblitterate it much as SLI 580's does, You can bring every card to it's knees eventually if you keep upping the res, it'll either start to run out of resources or RAM
I think it's in reference to the fact the last Mars sucked balls most of the time, simply because you can't just throw together two cards and expect it to work.
Why?
Driver issues, it's bound to happen, and it's bound to be abandoned after a while whereas older reference cards usually receive minor updates still.
trouble is i can't read swedish so its news to me
As they are a limited edition cards I guess it is up to Asus as to whom they send review cards.
It's not special. It's supposed to be. That's why it's limited, but it's not. The benchmarks that have come out aren't all that great. I'm sure drivers will sort that in time, but honestly? Who would buy a hugely expensive 580 sandwich now? They've very much nearly done their life span.
seriously though, I'll have one if Asus gives me one... for long term testing reasons... yeah...
You could always use Google translate... Even if you just look at the numbers there's some farily eyebrow raising results on show. OC'd Mars II's in SLI max power draw is 1354W...!
D'you think they will let you take this one apart this time?
but mars cards are for extreme setups (benchmarks )
Really good at showing it's sheer size!
Nice video. I thought the GTX 590 was quite long but the MARS really takes that biscuit. Not only is it deep (3 slots) but it also seems very tall. I doubt there would be many cases that could accommodate it.
What really surprised me is how quiet it is, though. The guy on the video didn't appear to be wearing a microphone and was perfectly audible whereas the MARS card appeared to be silent.
That's what she said.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WfxtSQlZP8M/Tbnj8QxPfdI/AAAAAAAAAF8/pAOwkuctW5Y/s1600/captain-picard-full-of-win-500x381.jpg
It'll be interesting when someone manages to SLI those beasts together...
Would i rather buy a generic mobo which does the job or as i have done buy an overpriced flashy one?
Mind you as i start Uni in September i could always use my student loan. I doubt i could justify the cost to my long suffering wife though.
No sane person would buy one though, surely.
On a more seriouse note however, 1200 quid is (even in this case) unjustifyable.
this graphics card comes with a stand for the third pci slot to help stability for the weight. pci-e 2 btw