Asus ARES R.O.G HD5970

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Asus ARES R.O.G HD5970

Roydon Cerejo, Sep 10, 2010 1230 hrs IST

Will only appeal to a hardcore enthusiast with a deep pocket

Great packaging, very good performance, low idle and load temps, unique design

Too expensive, gobbles power, Fan is noisy on load

Expert Rating :

Expert Review

Once a new line of graphics cards are launched and manufacturers have already rolled out their versions of the entire line up, there is a lull period, felt not only in companies but also among consumers. So how do we make this waiting period till the next gen cards roll out seem more interesting? Simple, create a limited edition card and sell it for an absurd price!

This is certainly not going to win any sales competition for the company but it does add some excitement to our jobs. Asus is not alone in this though, Earlier this year Sapphire launched the HD5970 Toxic Edition with 4GB memory and a custom cooler from Arctic Cooling. Recently, XFX announced their own HD5970 Black Edition that ships in a gun shaped case and is available as a limited edition card. So what special surprise has Asus whipped up for us today?

Asus' Republic of Gamers (R.O.G) products have always been trendy and today's product is by far one of the coolest we've come across. In terms of custom graphics cards, Asus has had the Mars and today we have a new breed of the HD5970, aptly called ARES. It is inspired from a character in Greek mythology, who symbolizes power and destruction, which is exactly what Asus is aiming for with this card - destroy the competition!

While this seems easily achievable, let's not forget that despite this being an overclocked HD5970, it's hardly the fastest. The Sapphire card we spoke about earlier has a core clock speed of 900MHz whereas the XFX and the Asus card comes clocked at 850MHz.

The ARES comes with a massive copper block for both the cores and the memory chips, which we'll have a look at in more detail, but the party piece of the ARES has got to be the way it's packaged. In a case designed for Hitman's Silverballers, the card is snugly tucked away in a thick layer of foam along with the rest of the accessories. The metal case that comes with dual number lock on either side is a nice souvenir for this card and possibly one of the coolest we've come across.

Bundle

The Asus ARES comes with the following accessories;

Driver disc
2x 8-pin, 1x 6-pin PCIE to Molex power adapter
DVI to HDMI dongle
CrossFire bridge
Asus ROG gaming mouse
Metal case badge

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Asus ARES R.O.G HD5970 graphics card Asus GTX460 Sapphire HD5970 Toxic Edition XFX HD5970 Black Edition Republic of Gamers R.O.G Asus ARES limited edition HD5970

Discussion Board

(3) Comments

Milford

,Mumbai , on Sep 10, 2010 06:39 PM

This gfx card is drool worthy, but i would love a 4 way SLI of GTX 480s. That would be a true barbecue; the REAL gamers choice ;) @ Roydon could you do reviews on some Sennheisers ~7k(preferably good sound stage and for gaming) Keep up the awe inspiring reviews :D