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The packaging for the ASUS ARES HD 5970 is large, very large and if I wasn't expecting it in the first place I would have thought a high-end motherboard just entered the lab. The dimensions for the box are actually 22 x 18 x 8 in, which is larger than the standard packaging most PC components.
Once the packaging is opened it is easy to see why the box containing the ARES is so large, as you are presented with a full sized security brief case. The case has dual combination locks on each side and with brief cases like this being a staple in many spy movies, it makes you feel as if the contents are top secret and very important.
The brief case opens after both security knobs are pushed out to release the latch. The graphics card and accessories are found sitting in the bottom compartment, surrounded by foam padding. The included accessories are an SLI Bridge, two PCIe power adapters, an HDMI to DVI converter and a R.O.G case badge. ASUS has also included a R.O.G gaming mouse with the graphics card.
Overclocking:
Since the ASUS ARES is already clocked higher than the standard HD 5970, I started raising the frequency in small increments until MSI Kombuster started showing errors or freezing. Once I reached the max threshold of the card I started raising the voltage and tested again. In the end I was able to overclock the core to 988MHz while the memory was friendly up to 5204MHz. In order for the core to remain stable at this speed, the voltage had to be set at 1.287V. After this mark I could reach higher clocks, though beyond this point it was freezing after just a few short minutes. Additionally, adjusting the voltage beyond 1.3V didn't seem to yield any additional clock increases. The fan speed was set at 70% rotation to keep the core nice and cool. ASUS states the core shouldn't exceed 75°C for maximum overclocking headroom.
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That is an insane video card though.
No it is still just 2 HD 5870's combined. The on-board memory and clock speeds are increased though, which will yield better performance.
By the way, I may be wrong, but isn't the 5970 simply two 5870's in one card, making the Ares, in effect, 4 5870's in the card with, reflective of the 4GB's of video ram?
I have to wonder if they're splitting the names between the brands;
ATI = Greek
NVIDIA = Roman
Would make since, seeing as how the ARES is an HD 5970, while the MARS was a GTX 295.
But hey, don't forget that these R.O.G. brand cards have a second purpose; they also serve as space heaters.
If anybody has this card, I'm sure they have 3 high res monitors.
I imagine it's mainly for outputting to 2 (can it handle more?) video outputs at high resolution each?
Also, it doesn't have a VGA port. It has an HDMI,DisplayPort and DVI-D port. The picture did have a blue cover over the DVI-D port though.
grav, regarding the comparison between this and two 5870s, i think they might have similar performance, but either way, id still get that over this 5970 any day. hell, id get a third 5870 too. apparently they scale well.
Interesting to see how one would compare to 2 separate 5970's in crossfire too.
Still nice review and wow that card is huge.
At least for 1200$ you don't just get a flimsy box.