Asus Mars II - DUAL GTX480 GPU - Leaked Pictures!
Mars II Sneak Peak!
Published: 16th July 2010 | Source: Asus | Price: TBC |
Mars II - The Worlds Fastest Graphics Card in the making?
Very recently, we were privileged enough to get our grubby hands on the monstrous Asus Aries dual HD 5870 graphics card. The performance was astonishing and the craftsmanship was sublime. While the pricing was just as insane, we still commend Asus for their efforts. These extreme graphics cards are akin to the mouth watering concept cars at motor shows that never make it to production. The only exception is that Asus decided to offer a limited production run of their concept for those who will only accept the best... But what if even Aries isn't enough?
Yes, it is a rather chilling thought that a 2 x 1600 stream processor product with ramped up frequencies is inadequate for anyone, but we have recently learned that Asus are at it again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the MARS II.
...and this is it. Now obviously it doesn't take a genius to realise that this is a Dual GTX 480 graphics card. Sitting proudly on this enormous PCB are two GF100 cores and two dedicated banks of memory. It is not known if there are more memory ICs on the back of the graphics card but we could expect well over 3GB of on board memory!
We all know that the GTX 480 has incredible power demands, noted by the fact that it can consume as much as 30W more than the dual GPU HD 5970. As such, it comes to no surprise that nearly 50% of the PCB is populated by two sets of VRM sections. The Mars II's power demands are also more than obvious by the implementation of three 8pin PCI-E ports.
Like the Aries Graphics Card, the Mars II is also taller than the average GTX 480. Also if you are bonkers enough, it is also possible to pair two Mars II graphics cards thanks to the implementation of a SLI connector.
As unorthodox as this graphics card may seem, it is a truly impressive piece of engineering. While the original Mars and the ATi based Aries had dual GPU siblings in one way or the other, no Dual GTX 480 product exists at present. To see such a complex graphics card fused into a single PCB SLI solution is truly astonishing. With this in mind we are eager to see how well it performs, but also how Asus plan on cooling it!
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Most Recent Comments
It’s a amd 940 3GHz with a gtx 250
that gpu will get some decent points, what spec of gts is it? if its a green version its gonna pull in about an average of 5k but if its a fully speed one it will on some wu's (57xx) will pull in upwards of 6500ppd :)
I think it is a 512MB XFX GTS 250 Green
ah thats the slower one but mate just install EVGA precision/msi afterburner and up the clocks to the same as the normal one and it will run fine then ull get good points :)
Doing some maths I came up with the following regarding the Ares. The retail price is £1199. There were a thousand made. So that means a final selling price of £1199000.
I've been out of retail for a long time now but I do remember that the profit margins weren't very big selling PC hardware. So let's say OCUK are making a couple of hundred quid out of each unit, that leaves Asus with around £999 ish per unit. Reculating that to the thousand produced gives you nine hundred and ninety nine thousand pounds. Pretty much a million quid.
What I don't know of course is how much the cards cost to make. I have a rough idea of component costs of the main GPU and ramdacs as it's quite easy to work out, but the only black hole is how much Asus paid to have the custom PC and cooler designed. I bet it was a pretty bloody penny though ! Good R&D doesn't come cheap, that much I know from working in R&D for a speaker company. Once the R&D was done though component costs could be driven to almost nothing but the costs of R&D took years to recover and profit from.
I also know that any kind of billet CNC doesn't come cheap, and I would imagine copper machining costs even more. And of course the cooler and PCB are the parts on this that Asus will have to live and die by. The rest has all been taken care of by Nvidia (or in the case of the Ares ATI).
Sorry if that's boring.. I just find it intriguing.
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