ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 - The God of War Returns

Meet the ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990

Note:  The first page of this article is mostly similar to the the preview we've published on the 21st January 2013. If you've read our preview, you may want to jump straight into our performance portion which starts from the following page.
 

Meet the ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990

When it comes to graphics cards, you have entry-level, mid-level and enthusiast-level options. Then you have ROG-level. Having built a reputation for extreme high-end performance with the original MARS, MARS II and ARES cards, ASUS' ROG series returns with the ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 which, at a whopping S$2499, is definitely in a class of its own. The dual-GPU card utilizes two Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition GPUs overclocked from 1050MHz to 1100MHz, with memory speeds bumped up from 6000MHz to 6600MHz DDR, and costs twice as much as its nearest competitor, Powercolor's Devil 13 Radeon HD 7990, which also uses dual Radeon HD 7970 GPUs - albeit non-GHz edition ones - but can be had for S$1358.

So what do you get if you're prepared to spend as much money on a graphics card as most people spend on an entire gaming rig? Let's find out:

The ARES II is quite slim, measuring 300 x 145 x 45mm and taking up just two PCIe slots - don't be fooled by its slim size though, it weighs a hefty 2.2kg!

The card itself houses just a single 80mm fan, primarily to keep the cooling block and power delivery components at sane operating temperatures. The majority of the ARES II's cooling comes from its closed-cycle liquid cooling system which comprises of the huge cooling block that is connected to the radiator via two tubes running to the card; the radiator has twin 120mm fans to help expel the heat. One fan comes pre-installed, while the other needs to be attached and screwed down together with your chassis (screws are provided). Be warned that the tubing is a little bit on the short side, measuring just 300mm in length, so you'll need to mount the liquid cooling system somewhere close to the card.

Combined with the liquid cooling system, the total weight of the ARES II comes in at a massive 2.84kg. That's as heavy as two Ultrabooks!

Finally, let's take a look at how the ARES II compares against its competition:

ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 and competitive SKUs compared

Core Code	Tahiti XT	Tahiti XT	GK104	Tahiti XT	GK104
GPU Transistor Count	8.6 billion	8.6 billion	7080 million	4300 million	3.54 billion
Manufacturing Process	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm
Core Clock	1050MHz (Standard BIOS) 1100MHz (Boost BIOS)	925MHz (Standard BIOS) 1000MHz (OC BIOS)	915MHz	1050MHz	1006MHz
Stream Processors	4096	4096	3072	2048 Stream processing units	1536 CUDA cores
Stream Processor Clock	1050MHz (Standard BIOS) 1100MHz (Boost BIOS)	925MHz (Standard BIOS) 1000MHz (OC BIOS)	915MHz	1050MHz	1006MHz
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs)	256	256	256	128	128
Raster Operator units (ROP)	64	64	256	32	32
Memory Clock (DDR)	6600MHz DDR (GDDR5)	5500MHz DDR (GDDR5)	6008MHz DDR	6000MHz DDR (GDDR5)	6008MHz
Memory Bus width	768-bit (2 x 384-bit)	384-bit	256-bit	384-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	264 GB/s	264 GB/s	384.4 GB/s (192.2 GB/s per GPU)	273.6GB/s	192.3GB/s
PCI Express Interface	PCIe ver 3.0 x16	PCIe ver 3.0 x16	PCIe v3.0 x16	PCIe ver 3.0 x16	PCIe ver 3.0 x16
Power Connectors	3 x 8-pin	3 x 8-pin	2 x 8-pin	1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin	2 x 6-pin
Multi GPU Technology	CrossFireX	CrossFireX	SLI	CrossFireX	SLI
DVI Outputs	1 x DVI-D 1 x DVI-I	1 x DVI-D 1 x DVI-I	3 x Dual-Link	1 x Dual-Link	2
HDMI Outputs	0 (1 via included adapter)	1	—	1	1
DisplayPort Outputs	4	2	1 x Mini-DisplayPort	2 (version 1.2 HBR2)	1
HDCP Output Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Without question, ASUS' ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 is a very impressive card but is it S$2499 impressive? As always, the bottom line with high-end graphics cards is performance, performance, performance. Is this where the ARES II will justify its enormous price tag? Let's find out.