Asus' ROG Ares II: Four Dual-GPU Graphics Cards, Compared

Earlier this year, Asus joined the extreme high-end graphics club with its own dual-Tahiti-based card, liquid-cooled and overclocked. You can't buy it anymore, but we got our hands on one and are adding it to our database of performance data.

As in the automotive world, the extreme high-end of computer hardware is almost always fun to look at, and rarely practical to own. With its Ares II, Asus set out to build the fastest graphics card in the world, matched by stunning presentation. The final product was mostly supposed to serve as demonstration that the company could build such a performance-oriented product, even if it was only available in limited quantities (the company claims only 1,000 were made, of which only a fraction made it to the U.S.).

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So, why bother looking at it now? Because we had one in the lab, that's why. Oh, and it just so happens that only two samples of the other "fastest dual-GPU card in the world" ever left its manufacturer's lab. That was HIS' Radeon HD 7970 X2 (not X²), and we got both of them last year. Creates a nice little comparison, right? The Ares II offers an additional 50 MHz on the core clock, plus liquid cooling to deal with the incredible heat generated by two Tahiti GPUs.

We previously rounded up HIS' Radeon HD 7970 X2, PowerColor's AX7990 6GBD5-A2DHJ Devil13, and EVGA's GeForce GTX 690 in Radeon HD 7990 And GeForce GTX 690: Bring Out The Big Guns. Now that we have the Ares II, it only makes sense to add it to our round-up numbers. We're using the same benchmark system and drivers to keep the comparison fair. It would have been great to get those other dual-Tahiti boards into the lab to run them with the very latest drivers, but they're both such rare museum pieces that it simply wasn't possible. We settled on turning back the clock and adding Asus's effort. Incidentally, we didn't add Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan for much the same reason (not that it would have mattered, since one Titan is slower than a GTX 690).

Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 Vs. The Dual-Tahiti Competition
	AsusAres II	HIS Radeon HD 7970 X2	PowerColor AX7990 6GBD5-A2DHJ Devil13	EVGA GeForce GTX 690
Shader Units	2 x 2048			2 x 1536
GPU Clock Frequency	1100 MHz	1050 MHz	925 / 1000 MHz (BIOS)	915 MHz + GPU Boost
ROPs	2 x 32			2 x 32
GPU	2 x Tahiti			2 x GK104
Transistors	2 x 4.31 million			2 x 3.5 million
Memory Size	2 x 3 GB			2 x 2 GB
Memory Bus	2 x 384-bit			2 x 256-bit
Memory Clock Frequency	1650 MHz	1500 MHz	1375 MHz	1502 MHz

On paper, Asus' Ares II looks good. HIS' Radeon HD 7970 X2 runs 50 MHz faster than PowerColor's Devil13 card at its overclocked BIOS setting, which is why it proved to be the faster board in our original round-up.

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