ARES II & RAIDR Express News Round-Up

The new ARES II graphics card and RAIDR Express SSD have caused quite a stir since their unveiling at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, and we’ve been rounding up the news and videos published so far. If we’ve missed any, drop us a note in the forums!

PC Perspective

PC Perspective take a look at the RAIDR Express SSD and ARES II graphics card, and came by our display at CES to talk about them. They also recorded a video with JJ of ASUS North America, discussing both.

ASUS has just announced it’s Limited Edition ROG ARES II Graphics card, and boy is it a doozy! Dual AMD Radeon 7970 GPU’s clocked at 1100 MHz are paired with 6 GB of DDR5 running at a speedy 1650 MHz memory clock.  This monster needs 3 8 Pin power connectors from the minimum recommended 850 watt power supply that can push at least 42 Amps on the 12V rail.

Kitguru

Kitguru say they can’t wait to get their hands on the world fastest graphics card and see how it performs.

Speed and heat go hand-in-hand when it comes to graphics cards. Ramp up the speed and you suddenly have a lot of thermal issues to deal with. By using a solution on the ARES II which makes a pair of AMD Radeon 7970 chips cooler than a GeForce GTX 690 by around 31 degrees, Asus hopes to have a world-beating solution.

Legit Reviews

Legit reviews came by our CES 2013 Display Suite to see both the ARES II and RAIDR in the flesh

One of the other displays at the ASUS Suite that caught our eyes was packed into the Cooler Master Cosmos II case pictured above. Little did we know that it was much more that just a cool looking desktop. Packed inside the Cosmos II was a previously unseen graphics card, the ARES II! The ARES II is part of the ROG (Republic of Gamers) series of products.That wasn’t the only thing that ASUS had stuffed into the case, the RAIDR Express was hiding in plain sight just below the ARES II. This is ASUS’s first entry into the storage wars.

Image courtesy of PCPerspective

Hexus

Hexus discuss the ARES II, describing it as the fastest graphics card on the planet.

ASUS is proud of the construction of its ASUS ROG ARES II and believes that the superior cooling and the higher quality components used will enable this graphics card to enjoy a long and fruitful life. Although, out of the box, you have the fastest graphics card on the market, you can still push this card further using the bundled ROG Edition GPU Tweak utility. The utility allows users to modify card parameters including core and memory speeds, fan performance, and voltages. Settings can be saved as profiles and applied to fit your application and game usage.

Videocardz.com

Videocardz.com have a number of  pictures, including one of the naked ARES II PCB

The ARES2 is dual GPU graphics accelerator based on two Radeon HD 7970 GHz Editions on a very complex single-PCB dual-GPU board, with perhaps the strongest VRM to drive the CrossFire-on-board setup. The ROG Ares uses two AMD Tahiti XT2 GPUs that run at high clock speeds, with even more overclocking potential on offer. Card is clocked at 1050/1100 MHz for base and boost clock respectively. 

Engadget

Engadget were also at CES to look at the new ROG ARES II

The original ROG ARES graphics card was a head spinner, and the just announced sequel seems to follow suit. ASUS’ ARES II features two AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition GPUs, and has a slimline two-slot design. If this sounds like something you just gotta have, then you’d better keep them eyes peeled, as upon release it’ll be a limited edition. 

Linus at CES

Linus spent some time with both the ARES II and the RAIDR Express at CES 2013, and made videos about both of them.