ASUS ARES2-6GD5 Pro Reviews

Make no mistake, Asus' Ares II is the fastest graphics card around. But it really only performs on the GeForce GTX 690's level once you use frame limiting to get stuttering under control. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 690 is less expensive and consumes a lot less power under full load. If you missed out on your chance to own an Ares II, let that be your consolation. Asus' board is bigger, badder, and commands more attention, but almost a year after its launch, the GeForce GTX 690 remains the most elegant high-end card we've ever used.

The ASUS ROG ARES II natively supports up to 6-way Eyefinity off of one video card. You can configure to run 3-displays, 5-displays, or 6-displays with the flick of a BIOS switch. ASUS has also provided four full-sized display port connectors, instead of mini-display port so that no adapters are needed. This video card is the perfect setup to get into Eyefinity, it has the performance to push it, and the flexibility in multi-display setup. The one drawback, we know you all are gawking at, is the price. At $1500 this is definitely not for anyone on anything resembling a budget. You will by now have realized that this price is way overpriced for a CrossFire 7970 GHz Edition setup. You can purchase two separate Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video cards for less than $850. That makes the ASUS ROG ARES II a $650 premium, over the cost of Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition CrossFire configuration.

The AMD Radeon HD 7990 never came to market, but who cares now that the ASUS ARES II is out!

The ASUS ROG ARES II is the pinnacle of this generation of graphics cards. It is based on two AMD "Tahiti" GPUs that are, each, overclocked out of the box - to clock speeds beyond those of the HD 7970 GHz Edition. Thanks to an on-board Gen3 PCI-Express bridge, it also maximizes available bus bandwidth. In games where CrossFire is working properly, we see amazing scaling that often reaches twice the performance of the HD 7970 GHz Edition. We see the ARES II beat the GTX 690 by around 15-20% in these games. However, scaling does not work all the time. Six out of our nineteen titles show lower performance than expected: Assassin's Creed 3, Batman Arkham City, F1 2012, StarCraft II, Skyrim, and World of Warcraft. These are not insignificant games but AAA titles. Especially Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed were basically unplayable due to the massive stuttering that we experienced. Our gaming experience with CrossFire turned off actually ended up being smoother. Generally, AMD seems to be lagging behind in driver support for the latest games. You often have to wait for proper driver support when a game has been released, while your NVIDIA friends are, in the meantime, gaming happily. We, of course, can't blame ASUS for this, but such shortcomings have to be considered when looking at the ARES II.