Widescreen Gaming Forum

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=245988&highlight=asus%20ati

AMD will be offering new board spec to AIBs including Dual Cypress XT ultra low leakage GPU’s. One of the first models will be Asus ROG ARES which will feature 850MHz core clock, 1200MHz memory clock and 4GB of GDDR5. Asus ROG ARES thermal specification includes 100mm wide fan, 32mm thick, 600% higher air-flow, 100% pure copper and 8 ultra-wide heat-pipes. Also the noise level should be significantly lower @ 4200rpm; ARES 37dB; ref hemlock; 44,5dB.

Asus says performance in 3DMark Vantage Extreme-preset is ~28% better than ATI Radeon HD 5970 reference design.

Asus ROG ARES will be Limited Edition and on display at Cebit.

More information on the link.

simply, holy crap.

I'll believe it when I see the benchmarks at EF resolutions.

Yeah that card looks so over the top lol

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/14350/asus_rog_ares_specs_and_image_show_up_hd_5970_on_steroids/index.html

"I'll take 2 with water blocks plz"...is what I'd say if I won the Lotto Max today! Of course there doesn't appear to be an xfire bridge on it, so I'd use one as a paperweight.

"I'll take 2 with water blocks plz"...is what I'd say if I won the Lotto Max today! Of course there doesn't appear to be an xfire bridge on it, so I'd use one as a paperweight.

how can you tell from looking at the bottom of the card?

Sapphire also announced at CeBit

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,705608/Cebit-Sapphire-announces-4-GB-HD-5970-and-Eyefinity-6-Edition/News/

I've only seen renders of that Ares card, so they probably just haven't rendered the CrossFire finger on it... ;)

I have put the word in to my fave supplier, as soon as a 5970 4GB is in their channels, I want one. I will be able to sell my current 5970 for almost as much as a got it for and I can finally crank up that AA!

EDIT: just checked my price list, the 5970 has actually gone up by a couple of hundred. WIN!

Can someone clue me in? What practical benefits will there be from having twice as much video RAM besides feeling good about having more video RAM?

The major advantage is in EyeFinity scenarios, where with 1GB of VRAM you're going to be heavily framebuffer limited with respect to performance. A 1GB card can do 1920x1200 with no worries (although with some of the texture mods for some games, even 1GB isn't always enough) but in a 5760x1200 situation, each frame is constituently larger and more complex.

Right now, we don't know how much the extra memory will help... but it certainly can't hurt.

Not true, it can hurt your wallet :lol:

Now if this card can just show some kind of release date :)

Can someone clue me in? What practical benefits will there be from having twice as much video RAM besides feeling good about having more video RAM?

The larger frame buffer means less swapping for textures in larger resolutions, especially in ultra-wide aspect ratios with more objects on the screen. And, especially with AA turned up. I showed this in my benchmark of the GTX 275 896MB and 1792MB cards. The overall average FPS in the Far Cry 2 benchmark didn't change, but there were far fewer hiccups and stuffers. This resulted in a smoother gameplay experience.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/WS_and_WTH_Benchmarking_(GTX_275)

These graphs in particular. Notice all the little dips with the 896MB card as it swaps out for new textures? That is a stutter.



Once I get my Eyefinity6 card to test, I will be able to do the same comparisons between the HD 5870 (which has 1GB) and the Eyefinity6 edition (which as 2GB). This should provide a good baseline for how the basically "HD 5870 CrossFireX on a card" HD 5970 will perform with increases in the frame buffer.

That graph doesn't have enough information, what resolution and settings was it at (and yes I went to the wiki url you linked first). It also says it only has a .7 fps benefit.

Anyway I was more thinking of the 5970 4GB that we are talking about in this thread (not a 5870 1GB vs 2GB), I somehow doubt 2GB vs 4GB will be a significant difference.

As Ibrin said, look at the dips. I notice frame rate dips a lot. They really annoy me (to put it politely), having a bigger frame buffer reduces those dips. I will pay for that, it makes a much better gaming experience.. If you cannot see the difference in those graphs then you have nothing to worry about with your standard 1x1GB 5970 :)

The rest of this discussion which isn't specifically about the Asus ROG can be found at : SLI, Crossfire and VRAM

Some posts have been duplicated which are relevant to both discussions.

The Asus Ares 5970 4GB will require two 8-pin and one 6-pin power connector. In addition to the power from the PCI bus, this is a total of 450W. :shock:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,705735/Asus-Ares-HD-5970-done-right-first-benchmarks/News/

450w?

8-pin PCI-E connector = 100w.

6-pin = 75w.

PCI-E slot = 75w.

100+100+75+75... that's 350w total, surely...?

Isn't the 5970 similar to dual 5850s? Not dual 5870s? I wonder if 4 Gb can really make a difference from 2 Gb. It should still be worth it if the price difference isn't much.