Graphics card battle is still on and it does not matters much whether AMD launch their dual GPU card against Nvidia GTX 690 or not, ASUS take charge and they bring their modified AMD dual GPU card in the market to compete with GTX 690, The ASUS ROG series card, ASUS Ares II is the competitor of GTX 690 at the moment and that beast has 2 AMD HD 7970s inside so its give touch competition to GTX 690 in all aspects. ASUS has made his own solid image in the minds of the people and they are really reliable and consistent so we are going the review ASUS Ares II.
ASUS Ares II has the same two GPUs inside which AMD HD 7970 has i.e. Tahiti XT2 GPUs give the power to compete with Nvidia GTX 690. ASUS Ares II is the same 28 nm based as AMD has launched the 28nm GPU series 7000 long time ago and 8000 is at about 5 months from now. The ASUS Ares II has the 6 GB-GDDR5 memory which is quite enough to compete with GTX 690 which has 4GB-GDDR5 video memory. ASUS Ares II’s memory runs at 6.6 Ghz frequency and the GPU base clock is 1050 Mhz and turbo clock is 1100 Mhz which is quite sensational because imagine 2x AMD HD 7970s running at the 1100 Mhz !. The ASUS Ares II is smaller size as compared to running two 7970s and the liquid cooling make it more easy for over clockers to overclock ASUS Ares II.
| ASUS Ares II Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Graphics Engine | 2x AMD HD 7970 |
| Bus | PCIe 3.0 |
| Base Clock | 1050 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1100 MHz |
| Process | 28nm |
| Power Connectors | 3 x 8-pin PCI-E Power Connector |
| TDP | upto 500 watts |
| Memory | 6.0 GB - GDDR5 |
| Frequency | 6600 MHz |
| Interfaces | HDMI ( Via adaptor), 4x Display ports, 1x DVI-D, 1x DVI-I |
| Utility Softwares | ASUS Utilities Drviers, ASUS ROG Tweak |
The power management is also good and power delivery on 12 layer is good idea to manage the power efficiently as possible. ASUS use super alloy solid capacitor for the high performance. The ASUS Ares II has been design with black and red color theme and the cooling provided from Antic liquid cooling solution with radiator like Corsair H60 so if you are planning to get two ASUS Ares II in crossfire for your gaming setup than I would suggest get a full tower casing first which had the space for radiators.
Lets take a look at benchmarks…..
ASUS Ares II is no doubt the fastest dual GPU available and it performs really good and it has solid nice design which very attractivy and its not as big as other dual GPU cards and cooled with Antic liquid cooling solution so don’t worry about temperatures. The ASUS Ares II has solid alloy capacitor as well. The ASUS Ares II beats GTX 690 but it consumes much power and No HDMI port so you have to use adaptor for HDMI displays. If I want to replace my GTX 690 with ASUS Ares II than I would surely wait for AMD’s new dual GPU card because ASUS Ares II does not beats GTX 690 by much so it does not satisfy me to bring another $1000+ out of pocket but if you want the best and don’t had any issue with price than ASUS Ares II is the Top choice to make. The thing just stop me to give GOLD award is its high power consumption.
- Nice design and color theme.
- Liquid cooling.
- Fastest dual GPU at the moment.
- Beats the Nvidia GTX 690 in most benchmarks.
- Runs cool and quiet.
- Produce such amazing FPS in some games.
- Consume much power.
- Very Expensive card to have.
