ASUS RoG ARES 4GB Review

Conclusion

Before reading any further, we’re going place a warning right here and now: this is one heck of a long conclusion. When you’re talking about a $1200 product, there’s a lot to say and that goes doubly for the ASUS ARES. Nonetheless, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that what we’ve seen here today is the absolute pinnacle of modern graphics card design and represents a quantum leap forward for single card performance. The current champion HD 5970 (a card we still attest is bug-ridden and issue-prone) just can’t compete in any way, shape or form.

Indeed, when taken at face value against a HD 5970 this seems like the perfect graphics card for the most demanding of enthusiasts. Its high resolution minimum framerates were just astounding and it will likely provide you with cutting edge performance far into the future. ASUS also built this thing like a bloody tank with a reinforced structure, high-end VRMs and a wonderful number of heatsinks. Speaking of cooling, there’s also plenty of heatsink mass to spare for some impressive overclocking feats. Everything about this card feels like a million bucks and it is more than obvious that ASUS went the extra mile to add all the touches necessary to give it an air of exclusivity.

Nonetheless, there are some issues once the rubber hits the road. For whatever reason, high idle power consumption is the name of the game here but this is easily overlooked when you consider the ARES likely won’t be sitting idle very often. Noise was also a factor since when it is under load, this is far from the quietest card on the block even though it sports a suitably large fan.

The inclusion of the lame, horribly designed and unintuitive Smart Doctor software instead of something like the lower priced HD5870 Matrix’s iTracker is frankly insulting and a serious knock against an otherwise amazing product. It’s like ordering an absolutely perfect yet phenomenally expensive Kobe beef steak only to have it come to your table slathered in mustard. Smart Doctor’s inclusion here is as baffling as a cheap condiment slapped on a $150 steak but at least we had a modified version of MSI’s excellent Afterburner software to fall back on.

Instead of jumping the gun and publishing a quick, half-assed review that didn’t give our readers the full story, we decided to take our time with this one and test the ARES against a broad range of solutions. In all reality, without including competing SLI and Crossfire combinations our conclusion would have been totally different and would have reflected the reviews seen on most other sites. Here's the reality: ASUS’ flagship just can’t keep up with a HD 5870 Crossfire setup, is dominated by two GTX 480s and only narrowly beats a pair of HD 5850 cards in some applications. Like it or not ASUS may market this as one of the fastest single cards on the planet but parallels should still be drawn between the ARES and similarly-priced setups. In this respect, we found it lacking from a number of perspectives.

Some of the blame can be placed firmly upon the PLX chip as it adds a ton of latency. ASUS tried to bypass this with a Gen 2 PLX chip instead of the HD 5970’s Gen 1 unit and they succeeded…sort of. We have a feeling the upgrade in bridge chips was a huge factor in this card’s massive lead over the HD 5970. However, in a perfect world the ARES would have performed neck and neck with two HD 5870s but because of the PLX chip mucking things up in the background, it just couldn’t unless a situation presented itself where the massive 4GB of memory could come into play.

Let’s also talk about the 1000 pound gorilla in the room as well: price. At $1200 per card, the ARES' cost is simply stratospheric and equals the asking price of the $1200 Sapphire HD 5970 Toxic 4GB without offering any of that card’s pre-overclocked goodness. Anyone who can stomach this price can surely afford either a pair of HD 5870s or two GTX 480s; both of which will provide better overall performance. Even two HD 5850 cards will net you three quarters of the ARES’ framerates at less than half its price. Is exclusivity, a fancy box, sexy looks and an included mouse worth four HUNDRED dollars more than two HD 5870 cards? Absolutely not.

Let’s throw practicality out the window for a second here and look at the ARES without taking price into consideration. If you are even considering buying this card, you likely don’t care about cost. You care about exclusivity and having bragging rights for months to come and in this respect, ASUS has succeeded beyond our expectations. There is no denying that the ARES is currently king of the hill when it comes to uncompromising single card performance and everything about its design is cutting edge. As such, it wins our Dam Innovative Award. If ASUS can bring this kind of innovation and forward thinking mentality over to the NVIDIA side of things, we may have a real spectacle to behold.


Pros:

- Mind blowing performance
- Excellent cooling
- Highly overclockable
- Stunning good looks
- A $1000+ card that feels like a million bucks
- High end packaging and accessories


Cons:

- Price / performance ratio
- Can’t compete with two HD 5870 cards in most situations
- Still suffers from Crossfire’s shortcomings
- Quite loud when under load
- Including Smart Doctor with a $1200 card is a massive faux pas
- High idle power consumption