Companies like ASUS have a their own design engineers and every so often the management will let them run free. When that happens you end up with a ridiculous product that pushes the boundaries for what can be done with current technology. ASUS took the Republic of Gamers (ROG) product engineers and challenged them to design the fastest NVIDIA graphics card possible. The result was the ASUS MARS II and we have a review on the card for you today!
The ASUS MARS 2 is a wonderfully designed video card that offers impressive single card graphics performance. The fact that ASUS got two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPUs running on the same PCB at the same clock speeds as a single GTX 580 cards is mighty impressive. NVIDIA wasn't even able to do that with the NVIDA GeForce GTX 590, so you can see how this was a feat. If you want to own the ultimate NVIDIA graphics card then the ASUS MARS 2 is it, period.
Well, it's not more than MY car, but it IS more than my whole system!!!
800 watts, that is one big light bulb.
I imagine the BSOD is the overclocking problem coming out of sleep mode?
Thank you for the review of a remarkable dreamtime card.
ga-z77-dh3 (great & cheap O/C'er from Gigabyte)
i2600k/16 gigs Kingson 1600 (OC'ed to 4.5Ghz)
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 + (lapped, smok'in deal, 38C idle, 65C loaded)
MSI GTX 660ti Power Edition
Antec 900 case (quiet)
Given you've got the numbers, what about a vs. with 2xGTX580-SLI. That would be the true performance vs. price review. I won't ask for a couple of WC 580 review, because I'm sure would beat that card in performance price and endurance.
The big brands should start shipping their high end cards without cooler.
Gulps down 800W of power, my god...
Was expecting the MARS 2 to trample the Radeon HD 6990 over and over again, but they both traded blows; quite interesting.
For $1,500....costs just a bit more than my whole system...I'll pass.
Cooler Master HAF 932 // Phenom II 1090T @ 4.1GHz (not 110% stable) // ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX // Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler // Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 @ 1150/1500 // 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJaws + 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJawsX @1600 8-9-8-21-1T // Corsair TX850 // Corsair ForceGT 120GB SSD // Kingston V200+ 120GB SSD // WD Caviar Black 1TB // LiteON DVD-RW // Windows 7 Ult. 64-bit
Nice! $1,500 video card and other expensive components all on a $50 plastic folding table.
No offense, just poking fun.
Said it before and I'll say it again. This card should have a game or two with it. The bundled accessories are a joke. It doesn't even have a damn HDMI cable. When buying in lots of 10K what does a HDMI cable cost? $2?
Major_A wrote:Nice! $1,500 video card and other expensive components all on a $50 plastic folding table.
No offense, just poking fun.
Said it before and I'll say it again. This card should have a game or two with it. The bundled accessories are a joke. It doesn't even have a damn HDMI cable. When buying in lots of 10K what does a HDMI cable cost? $2?
10+ years of PC hardware in one house... that is my 6-panel Eyefinity6 setup... it lives there on that table.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
