ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 - The God of War Returns
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, a monster dual-GPU card utilizing two Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition GPUs and a hybrid liquid/air cooling system. We put this juggernaut through its paces.
By HardwareZone Team -
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 packaging for the ROG ARES II is huge! Here it is next to an ASUS ROG MAXIMUS V GENE Micro ATX motherboard
Inside the box, the ROG ARES II is packed in an impressive silver briefcase, which looks a bit like something a hitman might carry his guns around in.
No guns in here; plenty of power though.
Each card comes with an aluminum card with a laser-etched serial number.
Display the ARES II as a work of art in your house! Its value may one day appreciate!
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!
The ARES II uses a hybrid liquid/air cooling system with two 120mm fans connected to the radiator of the closed-cycle liquid cooling system and a single 80mm present on the card casing itself.
The single case fan is positioned between the dual GPUs and is mainly used as additional cooling and ensuring the power delivery components on the card are somewhat cooled.
With both 120mm fans attached, the radiator portion of the liquid cooling system is expectedly a bit bulky - furthermore, the tubing is just 300mm in length, so you will need to mount it close to the card.
A backplate protects the custom PCB and acts as a heat spreader.
A look at the ARES II's custom PCB - as you can see, the power delivery elements are positioned between the GPUs, directly under the 80mm housing fan.
The card requires three 8-pin power connectors.
The ARES II boasts two DVI ports and four DisplayPort ports, making it ideal for six-monitor Eyefinity setups. A DVI to HDMI adapter is also included with the card.
Like all Radeon HD 7970 based cards, the ARES II has a BIOS switch located next to the CrossFireX bridge connection that lets you toggle between standard (1050MHz) and OC BIOS (1100MHz).
ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 GPU-Z
Finally, let's take a look at how the ARES II compares against its competition:
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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.
Test Setup
We've finally replaced our old test rig with a brand new one for 2013. Here are the new specs we'll be running with:
- Intel Core i7-3960X (3.3GHz)
- ASUS P9X79 Pro (Intel X79 chipset) Motherboard
- 4 x 2GB DDR3-1600 G.Skill Ripjaws Memory
- Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive (OS)
- Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM 1TB SATA hard drive (Benchmarks + Games)
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Here's the list of cards we'll be testing. Obviously we'll be testing all cards using their OC/Boost BIOS settings:
- ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 6GB GDDR5 (AMD Catalyst 13.1)
- PowerColor Devil 13 Radeon HD 7990 6GB GDDR5 (AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta)
- AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 6GB GDDR5 CrossFireX (2-way) (AMD Catalyst 13.1)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB GDDR5 (ForceWare 310.90)
- AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB GDDR5 (AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta)
We've also updated our benchmark list, adding Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3 and Hitman: Absolution. We've also updated Unigine from version 2.1 to 3.0.
- Futuremark 3DMark 11
- Unigine 3.0 "Heaven"
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Crysis Warhead
- Crysis 2
- Dirt 3
- Assassin's Creed 3
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
- Hitman: Absolution
- Far Cry 3
3DMark 11 Results
As always, we start with 3DMark 11, our trusty synthetic benchmark designed to test a GPU's performance at various aspects of DirectX 11 such as tessellation and DirectCompute.
We were immediately impressed by how much better the ARES II performed compared to the Devil 13, outscoring it by 13% on the Performance Preset and by 16% on the Extreme Preset. It also outscored our HD 7970 CrossFireX setup by 6% on Performance and an impressive 10% at Extreme - bear in mind that this is considering the speedier GHz edition cards in CrossFire. NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 was the ARES II's closest competitor, but still trailed by about 5% on Performance and 7% on Extreme. All in all, the ARES II is looking really good right from the start, but will it sustain this lead?
Unigine 3.0 "Heaven" Results
On the synthetic Unigine 3.0 benchmark, the ARES II again scored well, out performing the Devil 13 by between 12-15% across all settings and the HD Radeon 7970 GHz Edition CrossFireX setup by about 7-10%. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 did not fare as well on this benchmark, possibly due to the heavy skew towards tessellation performance. Also note that the ARES II is well over twice the performance of a single Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition card, which is quite a tall order considering the scaling of dual GPU cards at times.
Crysis Warhead
For our first gaming benchmark we'll be using the DX10 game Crysis Warhead. While it's getting a bit old, it does feature a fairly heavy amount of tessellation, making it a good starting point for our cards.
The ARES II continued to dominate, outscoring its competition by at least 8% on all settings.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Results
While Battlefield: Bad Company 2's DX11 Frostbite 1.5 engine is usually a fair test of a GPU’s geometry shading power, it was just no match for our dual-GPU setups, even at 2560 x 1600 resolution and max settings. Only the Devil 13 trailed slightly behind, scoring about 10% less than our other dual-GPU setups, although it still scored well over 100FPS. It's probably time for us to set up a multi-monitor setup, but we'll get to that in the months ahead.
Crysis 2 Results
Moving on to our first truly challenging benchmark, Crysis 2's Ultra setting puts GPUs through their paces with a grueling test of tessellation, Parallax Occlusion Mapping, water rendering, and particle motion blur and shadowing.
Despite this, the ARES II handled the game perfectly, and holds the distinction of being the first card we've tested to score above 100FPS on the 1920 x 1200 resolution. It outscored both the Devil 13 and 7970 CrossFireX setups by a massive 17% and 19% respectively at 1920 x 1200 and by 10% at the 2560 x 1600 resolution.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 put in a surprisingly weak performance, trailing the ARES II by as much as 35% on 1920 x 1200.
Dirt 3 Results
Dirt 3 again proved no challenge for the ARES II, scoring 200FPS at 1920 x 1200 and over 150FPs at 2560 x 1600.
Assassin's Creed 3
Assassin's Creed 3 uses Ubisoft's AnvilNext Engine which features improved lighting, reflection and cloth rendering, as well as support for some DX11 features such as DirectCompute. Having said that, Assassin's Creed 3 notably does not support DX11 Ambient Occlusion and Tessellation.
The lack of DirectX 11's more taxing features, mainly tessellation, meant that the ARES II was unable to shine in this game, and as a consequence, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 was able to catch up, scoring within 2% of it. Nevertheless, it still outscored both the Devil 13 and 7970 CrossFireX setups by about 13-15%.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Black Ops 2 is running an updated version of Black Ops' IW 3.0 engine and now features reveal mapping (improved texture blending), improved water effects, improved lighting effects, lens flare effects, HDR lighting, bounce lighting, self-shadowing and intersecting shadows.
The ARES II absolutely crushed this game, scoring 219FPS at 1920 x 1200 resolution and 156.7FPS at 2560 x 1600. Unfortunately the Devil 13 was no longer available for testing on this game, but the comparison results are adequate enough to paint the picture.
Far Cry 3
Gamers that remember Far Cry 2 will recall how intensive that game was for its time; Far Cry 3 is no different as it is running on the Dunia 2 Engine, a modified version of Crytek's CryEngine. As such, this benchmark features heavy tessellation, high amounts of volumetric lighting, and deferred radiance transfer volumes (global illumination).
This was the first game that actually challenged the ARES II, and for the first time, it failed to score near to 60FPS on the highest settings, although it still maintained a 6-10% lead on the competition.
Hitman: Absolution
Hitman: Absolution runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier2 engine, a very hardware intensive engine which is able to render up to 1200 NPCs at the same time. The benchmark tool used to test this game is extremely intensive and features a massive crowd of NPCs, Reflective Shadow Mapping (RSM), Direct Compute accelerated Bokeh Depth of Field, extreme tessellation and Ambient Occlusion.
The ARES II was slightly less impressive here, although it still maintained a 2-5% lead on the other cards and was the only card able to score over 30FPS on the 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution with 8x MSAA setting.
Do note that in-game performance should be higher on most levels, as very few game levels actually feature as many NPCs and lighting effects as seen on the benchmark tool level.
Temperature Results
The ARES II's hybrid liquid/air cooling system is one of its big draws and it certainly proved itself an effective cooling system, scoring a full 20 degrees cooler than our Radeon HD 7970 CrossFireX setup and 7 degrees cooler than the triple-fan Devil 13. And of course since the card is mostly liquid cooled, operational noise is hardly anything to be concerned about.
Power Consumption Results
Unsurprisingly, power consumption on the ARES II was very high. As an overclocked dual-GPU card, it already has fairly demanding power needs, and once you throw in Its liquid cooling system, it's easy to see how it can reach 620W of power. If you're thinking about buying an ARES II, ensure that your PSU has enough juice to support it. We reckon most enthusiasts contemplating such a powerful graphics card subsystem would likely have a lot of other devices to power up as well. As such, a 1KW PSU is easily recommended to go with the ARES II.
Overclocking Results
The ARES II was quite easy to overclock and showed notable performance gains, improving 9% on 3DMark 11's Performance preset and 8.5% on Extreme.
It's Good; But Is It S$2499 Good?
There's no denying that the ASUS ROG ARES II Radeon HD 7990 is the most powerful graphics card available on the market right now, but is it worth its astronomical S$2499 price tag? Probably not.
From a pure performance perspective, looking at the numbers, the ARES II managed to outscore PowerColor's Devil 13 by about 10-15% on average, while it outscored a reference card AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition 2-way CrossFireX setup by around 8-10%. Impressive yes, but now consider that the ARES II costs around 85% more than the Devil 13 (S$1358), and 115% more than two HD 7970 cards (S$1160 if you consider the non GHz Edition models since we discovered you can easily overclock them to GHz Edition specs). This puts it an entirely new price bracket - effectively, you're paying about S$134 extra for every 1% increase in performance!
Just how much is liquid cooling and 10% extra performance worth?
But pure performance isn't everything you might say, the ARES II also boasts that kickass liquid cooling system. While it's true that the ARES II hybrid liquid/air cooling system does work very well, liquid cooling is not a new concept, and it is possible to augment your existing GPU with a liquid cooler. Looking again at the price-per-performance increase, the ARES II runs 20 degrees cooler than our 2-way CrossFireX setup. This works out to an average of S$67 for every 1 degree of temperature drop.
Combine those two figures together and you're paying S$100 extra for every combined 1 degree drop in temperature and 1% gain in performance. That's a lot to pay for a fairly small gain.
Let's not forget aesthetics and other intangibles too. While it might just be this reviewer, for S$2499, I expect a graphics card to look really cool. So while the ARES II isn't ugly, it's doesn't exactly impress and honestly it doesn't look that much different from ASUS' other high-end graphics cards such as the DirectCU II TOP Radeon HD 7970.
Finally, remember that we are nearing the end of this GPU cycle and both AMD and NVIDIA are expected to unveil their next series of graphics cards within the next few months (AMD's next generation mobile graphics chips have already been unveiled). As such, you might want to think carefully before you drop S$2499 on a card that, while it won't be obsolete, might get superseded by a more powerful card in a fairly short time.
For a different point of view, consider this: based on the cheapest price we've seen for the AMD Radeon HD 7970 ($580) you can buy four of them and do a 4-way CrossFireX setup and still have S$179 leftover to put towards a liquid cooling system.
But all things considered, as an off-the-shelf solution that's ready to be plugged in your rig, the ARES II certainly delivers the chops and is the ultimate in graphics card for pure performance at the point of publishing this review. There is no other card that's faster, cooler nor quieter at its level of competition. For an elite card dedicated to hardware collectors and those who settle for nothing but the best, the ARES II is just the tech gadget you may have been looking for - even with its crazy price tag. There are some things that probably cannot be quantified by its cost and with product excellence on its side, we're also bestowing the ARES II with our Gaming Rig component award.
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