Asus has its latest high-end graphics card announced. The Mars II is equipped with two GTX580 gpu’s from Nvidia. Compared to Nvidia’s own dual-gpu design – the GTX590 has the Mars II is considerably higher clock speed.
While Nvidia has launched its two GTX580-gpu in GTX590 card onderklokt from 772MHz to 607MHz, Asus has chosen to set up the clock speed of the graphics chips just to float. In the Mars II run both gpu’s at 782MHz, while the 3GB of ddr5 memory work at 4008MHz. This memory is a 384bits bus in connection with the gpus. In total the card over 1024 cuda cores. All this makes the Mars II according to Asus 22 percent faster than the GTX590.
To the hardware to keep them cool put Asus have DirectCU-cooling technology that uses copper heat pipes that the heat from the gpu’s drains to two large heat sinks. Two 120mm fans ensure that the heat carried away from the map. On the side of the card, Asus has a Turbo Fan button is placed with which the fans immediately at full power can be put.
For improved air circulation has Asus Mars II three slots high, making the map into smaller cabinets may not fit. In total, there are three achtpins-power cables needed for the card with sufficient power. A 21-phase power supply provides for the distribution of energy to the gpu and the memory; the GTX 590 shot here deficient and could therefore not handle a higher voltage. The back of the card houses two dvi, a hdmi and two displayport connections.
Asus will the Mars II in a limited edition of 1000 pieces produce. To the exclusivity of the map to emphasize each card is an aluminium-plate supplied with the number of the map engraved. Asus Benelux expect a small number of cards to deliver in the Netherlands and Belgium. When that will happen, and what the map is going to cost is not yet known.
