When we think of high end graphics cards, prices floating around the $600 or $700 mark usually pop up but a number of manufacturers are now trying to push the boundaries of pricing and performance even further. ASUS has now entered the bleeding edge market with what they are calling the ARES; a dual HD 5870-totting behemoth that retails for a cool $1200 USD. Could any single graphics card be worth that much? We intend to find out.
July 25, 2010 07:57 PM
Whoa...
This is one cool card in the sense cool should be used for.
Lots of bling on there and some FPS to back it up.
:)
July 25, 2010 08:13 PM
Idk... but buying a $1200 card and only have 3 year warranty seems like a bummer to me.
Also, is it really worth that ~400-500 dollars over the vanilla 5870? I don't think so.
July 25, 2010 08:21 PM
At 3 times the price of a 5870 and not even beating it this thing is a massive waste of money. I'd rather spend 1200$ and triple crossfire 5870s then buy an ARES. Great review on showing it against SLI/Crossfire cards to put its performance better into perspective.
July 25, 2010 08:25 PM
Beast of a card but would rather have 5870 crossfire or 480 SLI. 480 SLI came out on top for most of them.
July 25, 2010 08:49 PM
It's a nice concept but it only has 3yr warranty, doesn't beat out xfired 5870 and it's $1200. it's just not worth it.
July 25, 2010 09:09 PM
That youtube video was beyond cheesy, lol.
And as stated in the conclusion aside from the trophy on the mantle appeal for people with more money than brains, there really isn't much value in that card.
July 25, 2010 09:35 PM
July 25, 2010 09:40 PM
I'm surprised it isn't liquid cooled out of the gate, nobody buying this thing is going to run it on air if they can help it.
July 25, 2010 09:57 PM
July 26, 2010 03:24 AM
I'll admit that it does look pretty cool, both in terms of temps and aesthetics but that hardly justifies the price :S
July 26, 2010 03:28 AM
Idea.... put it on water, Sell the Stock Block for scrap Copper, Make some money back...
July 26, 2010 04:18 AM
The first thing that jumped in my head was watercooling - that was a surprising let down. You would think the 'elite' gamers out there buying this would probably already have a watercooled rig..
This type of product reminds me of the Duesenberg. Highly innovative and the peak of craftmanship - but cost far exceeeds the average (or above average) person in this field. Hopefully companies will "learn" from this and build a more consumer-friendly product.
July 26, 2010 04:22 AM
I believe 5970 reference waterblocks would'nt be fitting on this thing..
July 26, 2010 05:20 AM
Tow non full-coverage HD 5870 blocks will though since ASUS kept the hole offset identical to that of a reference HD 5870.
As for water cooling, I am certain ASUS spent more on that heatsink than any water block around...
July 26, 2010 05:47 AM
I think it looks cool, performs well, but I don't think I'd ever drop the cash on it. I'm more about the price/performance ratio.
July 26, 2010 06:35 AM
Small typo... on page 16 below the temperature graph it says 'We doubt you would heat this when gaming' , im sure you meant to put hear, not heat?
Other than that its an excellent review :D
July 26, 2010 06:57 AM
Great review as usual!
I was all excited when I saw the card but then I became very disappointment when I saw the performance numbers. I see no use for a card like this except for bragging rights.
July 26, 2010 07:12 AM
I have a question for everyone.
When you take into account the amount of development that went into it as well as the high-end components (heatsink, better PLX chip, etc), what would you think is a fair price? Also take into account that this is quite exclusive.
$1000? $900?
July 26, 2010 07:18 AM
Its probably worth more around 900$ then the 1200$ they are trying to ask for it. Even then, its a bit of a stretch to me anyways.
July 26, 2010 07:32 AM
Yeah, nice review as always SKY! This card looks good and comes with a nice case and parts. That said, it loses its luster after seeing the performance reviews. On top of that, the price/performance just doesn't add up. Perhaps as you mentioned, $900. That is still pretty high, but $1200. I'll be keeping my money for something more practical, and could get a pair of 5870s and a SSD for that. I could also get a pr of 480s and still have some money left over for say, some beer!!!
I must admit that I like the look though, so it's got my vote that way.
July 26, 2010 08:13 AM
If you want my opinion on that Sky you just have to look backwards in time and find the word "sideport" that was thrown around way back during the 4870X2s. In a nutshell, a direct interconnect between the two GPUs would eliminate the need for a PLX chip at all - Asus should have spent their money fixing that, rather than wasting their time on a chip that adds latency (and possibly reduces bandwidth).
I say bandwidth because im still one of the ones that wonders "whats the best that can be had?". Regular 5970s are still plagued with problems when running two of them together in crossfireX due to the bandwidth limitations of the single crossfire bridge on those cards and possibly from the PLX chips they use as well. I wonder though if this newer PLX chip on the Ares could solve that problem... but I doubt it.
Dump the PLX I say. Find a way to directly interconnect the GPUs and you'll have a winner. The Ares is just an example of "this is the best we could with a bad design". Maybe someday, someone will actually go a step further and fix the design once and for all.
July 26, 2010 08:40 AM
I would say no more than $1000 but it would also need to have better (or at least equal) performance of 2x5870s as well.
July 26, 2010 09:19 AM
July 26, 2010 09:40 AM
July 26, 2010 09:53 AM
Another great review SKYMTL.
To be honest as soon as I seen the price of this card I was put off, I did read the first two pages then looked at the stats then read the conclusion which was so true.
From my point of view ASUS seemed to be allot more concerned about the bragging rights then that of the consumer, and like I said I didn't read all of the way through this review so I cannot say anything of the actual parts in\on this card but I would really hope that all of the parts are top of the line for that price. I guess that also allot of the expense would go to the developers but geeze that is one very very expensive card .
July 26, 2010 10:13 AM
I think the price of it is definitely the best Asus could have done. You obviously aren't getting the best price/performance. That's what happens in the high end. Diminishing returns. It seems like a very fair price for a totally custom card that comes with such bragging rights. It is the BEST card in the world. No other way around it. That (plus the extremely expensive [? really sky? that much?] heatsink and other bonuses) makes it "worth" $1200 IMO. I would never expect it to be better than a "crude" crossfire setup so to speak.
July 26, 2010 10:25 AM
I really have no idea of how much money this card cost to manufacture but if I was going to buy one based on load temperature and peformance $750-800. More than likly though I would buy 2x 5870 with lifetime warranties if I was in the bleeding edge market.
July 26, 2010 10:51 AM
In fairness to ASUS, this card does what it's supposed to do (Fast single card solution), the only other single card solution which even makes it onto the charts (5970) is bottom of the pack in all of the charts, and only manages to breach the 10%+ performance deficit in a couple of the minimum framerate benchmarks across the entire spectrum of tests.
No matter what we think of the price, I'm sure they'll have no problems selling out of a limited run. Cards like this aren't meant for the likes of us (well most of us anywise.... ;) ), they're marketed towards those folks who absolutely have to have the fastest card on the market, and in some cases, those folks are looking for single card solutions.
Is it too expensive? I certainly think so, but then again, I'm not the target market.
With all that said.... kudos to SKYMTL for doing a full featured review that not only included the only single card competitor, but also included practical comparisons to solutions which aren't single card. It certainly saves folks the grunt work of going through older reviews armed with these benchmarks in order to try to find the comparisons.
July 26, 2010 12:23 PM
I'm willing to bet one of the more crazy people will mod the ASUS cooler to be watercooled...
July 26, 2010 01:20 PM
A little too expensive for my blood but it does make me wonder how would 2 of these stack up? Would it be cheap no, but I'm just wondering if money didn't matter at all would that be the best video card solution you could by? Like would Tri-SLI 480's beat it out or not? Quad 5870's? I'm just thinking of absolute best performance period.
I will give it to Asus for this card though, it certainly looks like it is built to last.
July 26, 2010 02:06 PM
I will give it to Asus for this card though, it certainly looks like it is built to last.
July 26, 2010 03:17 PM
Waste of money. For that price you'd be able to get TWO 5970s, or two 5870s/one 5970, OC and watercool everything.
July 26, 2010 04:16 PM
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...enchmarks.html
July 26, 2010 04:19 PM
Are you guys going to sell this? LoL
July 27, 2010 09:46 PM
When you take into account the amount of development that went into it as well as the high-end components (heatsink, better PLX chip, etc), what would you think is a fair price? Also take into account that this is quite exclusive.
$1000? $900?
When it comes to GPUs, buying something for form instead of function just makes you an idiot. I was pumped for this card when it was announced, but who gives a shit if it can't out-perform anything? It serves no purpose.
July 28, 2010 12:10 AM
July 28, 2010 08:56 AM
2 x 480's = $1060 = performance through the roof.......now I'm going to check out the Review and see how this Card stacks up to it...
July 28, 2010 09:06 AM
I can save you the time, the 480s beat it.
July 28, 2010 09:16 AM
Impressed with the "build quality" and thermals.....performance "meh"....seeing as how I play 1920 x 1200 Full AF/AA.......!
July 28, 2010 10:00 AM
Still the same debate here. 480's beat but at what price. Since the card is over priced due to the ARES series the price in $$ is not a concern. But the power need the heat and the noise are the heavy load to pay. This card seems to be cool, silent, and use only double the power a 5870 can use so pretty much less compare to 480's.
July 28, 2010 10:42 AM
Not if heat is "controlled" and Power isn't an issue.....
July 28, 2010 10:52 AM
You miss the point. If a card is more powerfull but use more power that wont make it a better card. Like hey I have a car the use 10L per KM that can tow 5000 pound but I can have a car that to 6000 using 15L per KM. If ATI would get the power up to that they could add more transistor in the card and make a bigger one. That's the point. 480's are sure great card but their power need is out of any category. To me it's comparing banana and orange.
July 28, 2010 07:30 PM
^^^ Understand...my point Martin is I pay for performance..the 2 480's are cheaper and outperform that single Card with my preferred settings....not to mention Sli Scaling is through the roof with these Cards (just not Tri yet)....
August 4, 2010 09:48 AM
I would rather go with 2 HD5970 2GB or Sapphire HD5970 4GB Toxic