ASUS RoG ARES 4GB Review

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Just Cause 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 has quickly become known as one of the best-looking games on the market and while it doesn’t include DX11 support, it uses the full stable of DX10 features to deliver a truly awe-inspiring visual experience. For this benchmark we used the car chase scene directly following the Casino Assault level. This scene includes perfectly scripted events, some of the most GPU-strenuous effects and lasts a little less than four minutes. We chose to not use the in-game benchmarking tool due to its inaccuracy when it comes to depicting actual gameplay performance.


1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

 

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Metro 2033 (DX11)

Metro 2033 (DX11)

There has been a lot of buzz about Metro 2033 which has mostly centered on its amazing graphics coupled with absolutely brutal framerates on even the best GPUs on the market. For this test we use a walkthrough and combat scene from The Bridge level which starts at the beginning of the level and lasts for about 5 minutes of walking, running and combat. Famerates are measured with FRAPS and Advanced PhysX is turned off.


1680 x 1050

1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

 

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Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine: Heaven v2.0 (DX11)

Unigine’s Heaven benchmark is currently the de-facto standard when it comes to simple, straightforward DX11 performance estimates. While it is considered a synthetic benchmark by many, it is important to remember that no less than four games based on this engine will be released within the next year or so. In this test we will be using a standard benchmark run with and without tessellation enabled at three resolutions,


1920 x 1200

2560 x 1600

 

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8x MSAA Testing (BF: BC2 / DiRT 2)

8x MSAA Testing (BF: BC2 / DiRT 2)

In this section we take a number of games we have tested previously in this review and bring things to the next level by pushing the in-game MSAA up to 8x. All other methodologies remain the same.


BattleField: Bad Company 2 (DX11)

Note that 8x MSAA is enabled via the game’s config file for the NVIDIA cards since it is not a selectable option within the game menu

DIRT 2 (DX11)

 

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8x MSAA Testing (Far Cry 2 / Just Cause 2)

8x MSAA Testing (Far Cry 2 / Just Cause 2)

In this section we take a number of games we have tested previously in this review and bring things to the next level by pushing the in-game MSAA up to 8x. All other methodologies remain the same.

Far Cry 2 (DX10)

Just Cause 2 (DX10)

 

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Core Temperature & Acoustics / Power Consumption

Core Temperature & Acoustics

For all temperature testing, the cards were placed on an open test bench with a single 120mm 1200RPM fan placed ~8” away from the heatsink. The ambient temperature was kept at a constant 22°C (+/- 0.5°C). If the ambient temperatures rose above 23°C at any time throughout the test, all benchmarking was stopped. For this test we use the 3DMark Batch Size test at it highest triangle count with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled and looped it for one hour to determine the peak load temperature as measured by GPU-Z.

For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Vista desktop for 15 minutes and recorded the peak temperature.

The core temperatures displayed by the ARES are extremely good but that was expected considering the massive amounts of copper used for its heatsink. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the amount of noise it produces. ASUS claims their centrally-mounted fan produces significantly more airflow than the reference blower-style design but since there is very little to guide the air, the large fan has to work extremely hard. We doubt you would hear this when gaming but it could still be a distraction to those of us who don’t play with high in-game sound levels.

System Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we once again use the Batch Render test in 3DMark06 and let it run for 30 minutes to determine the peak power consumption while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 30 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption. We have also included several other tests as well.

Please note that after extensive testing, we have found that simply plugging in a power meter to a wall outlet or UPS will NOT give you accurate power consumption numbers due to slight changes in the input voltage. Thus we use a Tripp-Lite 1800W line conditioner between the 120V outlet and the power meter.

Naturally, power consumption is quite high for an ATI card setup which means it still can’t come close to the NVIDIA cards’ numbers. While the minor increase during load is likely due to the extra 2GB of memory over a pair of HD 5870 cards, the idle power consumption increase was actually quite odd to say the least. This is likely due to a combination of different components and once again the extra GDDR5 memory.

 

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Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

ASUS has billed the ARES as an overclocker’s dream due to its leading edge components as well as its excellent heatsink design. But before we go into how far we were able to push overclocks, let’s take a look at the travesty that ASUS included as far as overclocking software goes.

Yes, that’s right. Gone is the excellent iTracker software that accompanied ASUS’ own HD 5870 Matrix and in its place is the same ages-old “Smart” Doctor program. Sure the program works but what in the world was ASUS thinking when they decided to bundle this overly basic and amazingly unintuitive software with at $1200 graphics card? What a disappointment.

Nonetheless, with a very minor voltage bump we were able to push this ARES to simply amazing heights.


Final Clock Speeds

Graphics Clock: 971Mhz
Memory Clock: 4916Mhz (QDR)

 

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Conclusion

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

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