What we make of it
The lack of GPU evolution on the part of NVIDIA and AMD has caused larger partners to look at retailing special-edition models that have an intrinsic wow factor. ASUS has chosen to go for the extreme end of the market by releasing a limited-edition - 1,000 units - Republic of Gamers MARS card that's ostensibly two GeForce GTX 285 2GB cards stuck together on one PCB and internally run in multi-GPU SLI mode.Ostentatiously impressive and with vital specifications higher than any single graphics card we've seen before, the ASUS ROG MARS is the fastest graphics card that money can buy, but that's a statement tempered with more than a few provisos, if we're being pragmatic. The bundling of two GTX 285s means that the card runs hot, power-hungry and loud. Performance, whilst admittedly better than GTX 295, isn't streets ahead, and NVIDIA's next-generation card, GT300, is just around the corner, should the rumour-mill is to be believed. Hell, you can purchase two GeForce GTX 295s for less money...probably.
We can think of ten reasons not to buy one, easily, but also one immutable rationale for throwing down a lot of cash for the MARS. It's fundamentally outlandish enough to be cool - a sheer brute-force approach to graphics. If you win the lottery or are lucky enough to work for Goldmine Sachs and it's bonus time, buy a bit of history.... and a 5GHz Core i7 to get the most out of it. Everyone else wistfully laugh at the exuberance of ASUS' R+D department.
We'd usually finish off a p(review) with a rating. That doesn't seem fit on a card that's limited by design. What we can say, at the end of August 2009, is that the ASUS ROG is the fastest graphics card this side of NVIDIA and ATI's R+D labs.
HEXUS Rating
It is helluva fast, right?
ASUS
ROG MARS 4,096MB (and SLI)
HEXUS Where2Buy
TBC. Call for price (SCAN).
HEXUS Right2Reply
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