Asus (Monster) Mars - first full review on the planet

[onethreehill]

-- ASUS’ Limited Edition Enthusiast Graphics Card to sell in USA/Canada --

Fremont, CA August 25, 2009 - ASUS today announced the limited edition Republic of Gamers (ROG) MARS/2DI/4GD3 custom-built graphics cards as first showcased at Computex 2009 will soon be sold in North America on a first come, first served basis. The exact time and place of availability will be announced on ASUS' Official Twitter social networking page.

The Enthusiast’s Dream Card with ROG Innovations
Breaking away from the standard GTX 295 reference design, ROG engineers implemented dual NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 285 GPUs, awe-inspiring 4GB onboard memory and the world’s first 1024-bit memory bandwidth to spawn the ROG MARS graphics card. 23% more powerful than conventional GTX 295 graphics cards, the ROG MARS graphics card also features an improved thermal design that boasts a 65% increase in heatpipe coverage and a 20% heat dissipation rate—thus delivering extreme cooling, even during graphically intensive operations. With this exceptional innovation and design, gamers can realize ultra high resolution gaming with all graphics features maxed out - making every gamers dream a reality.

ASUS Ultimate Armaments
The ROG MARS utilizes the finest graphics card components for clean power delivery, effective cooling and redundant safety. EMI shielding around the card reduces interference by up to 66%. Covered chokes and Low RDS(on) MOSFETs run 25% more efficient and 15C cooler than standard components. A pair of fuses doubles the overvoltage protection found on reference designs, safeguarding your VGA card.

Each graphics card will be assigned a unique serial number. With only 1000 units slated for production, the ASUS ROG MARS is a masterpiece of power and performance for the hardcore gamer and overclocker.

For up-to-the minute information on the ROG MARS VGA card, prospective buyers should follow ASUS' official Twitter account: http://twitter.com/ASUS_NA

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about22672.html

[XSAlliN]

Looks like and old VCR Videotape. Do they have a DVD looking version?

[Leeghoofd]

Gautam can get one now

[onethreehill]

It's here. Or rather, in the boot of my car now. Sorry for the poor picture quality... SLS car park very dark....

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/sh...7&postcount=53

[Utnorris]

You can also buy one right now for just $2400:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-MARS-GTX-29...d=p3286.c0.m14

Get it fast.

[Helloworld_98]

You can also buy one right now for just $2400:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-MARS-GTX-29...d=p3286.c0.m14

Get it fast.

if it's no.1 then fair enough,

if it isn't, then this guy either got ripped off or knows how to make a profit.

[Spawne32]

5/10 in value now that's exaggerating!


Altough I have to admit those scores we're quite impressive...

like all nvidia products, you have to sell your left nut to own one of them, the graphs are great and keep something for competition to aspire to, but when its all said and done, the winner is the one who is selling products.

[cx-ray]

Holy crap. The hd4870x2 kept up with the mars edition and even beat it out in fallout3, mass effect , ut3, grid, brothers in arms and almost coh.

I wouldn't put too much faith in the benchmark scores of reviews out there. Don't get me wrong. The numbers aren't cooked. It's just that in some instances the perceived frame rate during actual game play can be completely different from what the actual frame rate is.

Take the Mars test of Brothers in Arms or Company of Heroes for instance. The first game is completely useless in (dual) SLI and only gets worse as you add more GPUs. Depending on the direction you're looking in the frame rate will range from looking completely smooth to looking like 20 frames per second.

In the second game example (CoH), things look perfectly fine until you hold down the Alt key and move your mouse around to view the map in a birds eye view. Your completely smooth perceived frame rate will now drop to something looking like 10-15 frames per second. It's still better than a single card, but you're not getting 100% smooth game play as the numbers suggest you should.

Almost no one seems to mention this in any GPU review and if they do it's not all that specific...it's treated like a dirty little secret that has to be tucked away as deep as possible. End-users don't appear to mention anything about it either. I guess it might be a little hard to swallow for some that your $4000 dollar rig won't always play games better than a single GPU $800 dollar clunker PC

[cx-ray]

There is issue with overheating GPUs reached under Load 103C and more ..., because that i cannot to overclock card .... by Asus tech support, it is problem only of my card ... will see in another reviews.

Confirmed by PCGH as well:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...eviews/?page=2

[Olivon]

Confirmed by PCGH as well:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...eviews/?page=2

Huge fail for a 1200€ card ...

[cowie]

its the same tune as this just a few years later
http://www.hartware.de/review_532_14.html
doh in anglish
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3654
they wanted almost 1000 usd then but they made 2000 cards lol

[onethreehill]

ASUS MARS GTX295 Review
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-mars-review-test/

[Baron_Davis]

News flash!

This card sucks !

[onethreehill]

ASUS MARS/2DI/4GD3 Dual GeForce GTX 285 4096 MB
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A..._GTX_285_MARS/

[Clairvoyant129]

Useless, problems with overheating, not to mention a single HD5870 will be just as fast as this card if not faster.