ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5
Category : AMD
Published by Marc Voser on 07.11.10
We were privileged to test one of the worlds rarest graphics card: the ASUS ARES of which only 1'000 pieces haven been manufactured. The ARES weighs an absolutely mindblowing 2.2 kilograms and this all is pure graphics power. ASUS really built a card without doing any compromises at all. The mission statement must have been something like: faster than any other card on the market no mater what it costs. We'd like to thank ASUS for providing us with the testsample.
As with all the HD5870s this one is also being empowered by a RV870 chip (codename "Cypress"). Furthermore the GPU measures 334 square millimeters and carries an astonishing 2.15 billion transistors. MSIs R5870 Lighning supports ATI Eyefinity which allows a user to connect three displays simultaneously.
On the following pages we will show you the strenghts and weaknesses of the ASUS ARES.
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[pagebreak]
Technical data / specifications
Regarding the raw technical specs the ARES looks quite similar to a standard HD 5870 except there are two of these cores and you get an astonishing four Gigabyte of memory. A smootly manufactured back- and front plane keeps all the current converters and the memory on adequate temperatures. Furthermore you find two compact but powerful copper heatsinks placed on the GPUs which are equipped with four eight millimeter heatpipes. Additionally an also powerful fan is going to provide the cooling block with plenty of fresh air.| GTX 480 | ASUS ARES 5870X2 | ASUS EAH5870 | |
| Chip | GF100 | 2 x RV870 | RV870 |
| Process | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| Transistors | 3.2 billion | 2 x 2.15 billion | 2.15 billion |
| GPU clock | 700 MHz | 2 x 850 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Shader clock | 1'401 MHz | 2 x 850 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Memory | 1'536 MB GDDR5 | 2 x 2'048 MB GDDR5 | 1'024 MB GDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 1'848 MHz | 2 x 1'200 MHz | 1'200 MHz |
| Memory interface | 384 Bit | 2 x 256 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 177'408 MB/s | 2 x 153'600 MB/s | 153'600 MB/s |
| TMUs | 60 | 2 x 80 | 80 |
| TAUs | 60 | 2 x 80 | 80 |
| Shader Cores | 480 (1D) | 2 x 320 (5D) | 320 (5D) |
| ROPs | 48 ROP | 2 x 32 ROP | 32 ROP |
| Shader model | SM 5 | SM 5 | SM 5 |
| Maximum board power | 250 Watt | 352 Watt | 188 Watt |
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[pagebreak]
Preview / Delivery
ASUS created a really unique delivery package for the ARES. What you get is a suitcase which not only includes the graphics card. You also get an ASUS GX800 gaming mouse which actuallay is quite good. Furthermore there also is the standard equipment you might expect, such as a manual, a driver CD, two power adaptor cables and an HDMI-to-DVI-adaptor. Having all this hardware in a suitecase gives a bit of James Bond flair. Or in other words. When did you walk out of a hardware shop after you bought some crazy hardware and people weren't staring and pointing the finger at you and think: holy cow, that guy's a nerd.
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[pagebreak]
Overclocking
To conduct our overclocking tests we only use software which is in the delivery, such as ASUS Smartdoctor. This little tool allows you to adjust GPU voltage, GPU clock and memory clock. The GPU voltage can be increased all the way up to 1.5 Volt which really is quite high and the only users who'll ever give the GPU that much voltage are extreme Overclockers when they're cooling the card with liquid nitrogen. In our case we got the best results providing the GPU with 1.31 Volt. Therefore we were able to run Aquamark03 stably at 1'038 MHz GPU- and 1'271 MHz memory-clock. Normally only a very good single GPU card can be overclocked that high, but with the ARES you can do that with two cores. This once again outlines the class of this product.
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[pagebreak]
Test conditions
Hardware
| Betriebssystem und Treiber |
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| Mainboard |
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| CPUs |
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| Speicher |
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| Grafikkarten |
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| Festplatte |
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| Netzteil |
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Software
Futuremark
- 3DMark 06 @ 3.33Ghz
- Standard
- 3DMark Vantage
- Performance
Furmark
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Benchmarking | yes | yes | yes |
| Fullscreen | yes | yes | yes |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| MSAA | 8x | 4x | none |
| Time based (ms) | 60'000 | 60'000 | 60'000 |
PT Boats DX10
| High | Medium | Low | |
| DirectX Version | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Image Quality | High | Medium | Low |
| Antialiasing | 8x | 4x | none |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x | 8x | none |
X3 Terran Conflict
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Fullscree | yes | yes | yes |
| Texture Quality | High | Medium | Low |
| Shader Quality | high | Medium | Low |
| More Dynamic Ligh Sources | yes | no | no |
| Ship Colour Variations | yes | no | no |
| Automatic Quality Control | yes | yes | yes |
| Antialiasing | 8x | 4x | none |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x | 8x | none |
| Glow enabled | yes | no | no |
Streetfighter 4
| High | Medium | Low | |
| FPS-Anzeige | Aus | Aus | Aus |
| Antialiasing | 8x | 4x | none |
| Vollbild | Aus | Aus | Aus |
| Bildschirmauflösung | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Bildwiederholfrequenz | 60 | 60 | 60 |
| Bildschirm-Vsync | Aus | Aus | Aus |
| Bildwiederholrate | viariabel | variabel | variabel |
| Seitenkorrektur | Auto | Auto | Auto |
| Helligkeit | Standard | Standard | Standard |
| Parallel Rendering | An | An | An |
| Textur Filtering | 16x | 8x | Aus |
| Modellqualität | Hoch | Mittel | Niedrig |
| Hintergrundqualität | Hoch | Hoch | Hoch |
| Soft Shadow | Maximum | Niedrig | Niedrig |
| Self Shadow | Hoch | Niedrig | Aus |
| Motion Blur | Hoch | Niedrig | Aus |
| Particle Rendering | Hoch | Mittel | Niedrig |
| Besondere Effekte | Aus | Aus | Aus |
World in Conflict
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Graphic Detail | very high | medium | low |
| Antialiasing | 8x | 4x | none |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x | 8x | none |
Resident Evil 5 DX10
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Anzeigen-Modus | Vollbild | Vollbild | Vollbild |
| Vertikalfrequenz | 60 Hz | 60 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Vertikal Sync | Nein | Nein | Nein |
| Bildwiederholrate | Variabel | Variabel | Variabel |
| Antialiasing | 8x | 4x | none |
| Anisotropic Texture Filtering | 16x | 8x | none |
| Motion Blur | Ja | Ja | Nein |
| Schatten Details | Hoch | Mittel | Niedrig |
| Textur Details | Hoch | Mittel | Niedrig |
| Gesamtqualität | Hoch | Mittel | Niedrig |
Crysis DX10
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Quality Settings | very high | medium | low |
| Antialiasing | 16xQ | 8x | no AA |
| Demo Loops | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Time of day | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Timedemo | benchmark_gpu | benchmark_gpu | benchmark_gpu |
| 64 bit | yes | yes | yes |
| DX10 | yes | yes | yes |
Call of Juarez
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Fullscreen | yes | yes | yes |
| Details | High | Balanced | Low |
| Shadowmap size | 2048x2048 | 2048x2048 | 2048x2048 |
| Shadows quality | High | Low | Low |
| Antialiasing | 4x SSAA | 2x MSAA | none |
| Audio | disabled | disabled | disabled |
Far Cry 2 DX10
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1680 x 1050 | 1280 x 1024 |
| Antialiasing | 8x | 4x | none |
| Direct3D | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Fire | very high | high | low |
| Physics | very high | high | low |
| Real Trees | very high | high | low |
| Overall Quality | custom | high | custom |
| Vegetation | very high | high | high |
| Shading | ultra high | high | high |
| Terrain | ultra high | high | high |
| Geometry | ultra high | high | high |
| Post FX | high | high | high |
| Texture | ultra high | high | high |
| Ambient | high | high | high |
| HDR | yes | yes | yes |
| Shadow | ultra high | high | high |
| Bloom | yes | yes | yes |
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[pagebreak]
3DMark 06 @ 3.33Ghz
3DMark 06 is getting older these days. Therefore if you are using really powerful graphic cards you will hit CPU limitation which means that the graphic card isn't the bottleneck in the system. This is also the reason why in recent high-end desktop systems 3DMark 06 scales nicely with the CPU and the graphic card has much less influence on the scores.| 3DMark06 Total | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 23'112 | 122.33% |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 22'840 | 120.84 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 22'213 | 117.52 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 21'640 | 113.51 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 21401 | 113.22 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 21'229 | 112.31 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 20'596 | 108.04 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 19'445 | 102.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 18'901 | 100.87 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 18'369 | 97.18 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark06 Grafik SM 2.0 Score | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 8'216 | 122.99 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 7'954 | 119.06 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 8'267 | 123.75 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 8'159 | 122.14 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 8'145 | 121.93 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 8'079 | 120.94 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 7'934 | 118.77 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 7'956 | 118.70 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 7'749 | 116.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 6'680 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark06 Grafik HDR/SM 3.0 Score | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 12'125 | 144.27 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 11'920 | 141.83 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 11'297 | 134.42 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 10'800 | 128.51 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 10'457 | 124.42 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 9'975 | 118.61 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 9'959 | 118.50 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 8'567 | 101.10 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 8'404 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 7'901 | 90.04 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is able to squeeze nearly everything out of a recent system. Therefore the feature liste is also pretty long: DirectX10, FP16-HDR, motion blur, parallax occlusion mapping, GPU-physics simulation and different shader effects are being used to even make recent high-end systems struggle.| 3DMark Vantage | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 22'496 | 161.86 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 19'441 | 139.88 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 18'895 | 135.95 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 18'244 | 131.27% |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 17'732 | 127.58% |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 16'730 | 120.37 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 16'056 | 115.52 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13'898 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 13'047 | 93.87 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 12'323 | 88.09 % |
| more is better | ||
| 3DMark06 Vantage Grafik | Score | Percent |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 25'544 | 194.44 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 20'715 | 157.68 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 19'789 | 150.63 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 18'745 | 142.68 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 18'095 | 137.74 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 15'858 | 120.71 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 13'753 | 104.68 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13'137 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 12'156 | 92.53 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 11'337 | 86.29 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
Furmark
| Furmark, 1920 x 1080, MSAA 8X | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 68.00 fps | 211.04 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 54.21 fps | 166.47 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 49.00 fps | 152.07 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 44.00 fps | 135.13 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 42.00 fps | 128.99 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 34.00 fps | 105.52 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 33.00 fps | 100.60 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 32.80 fps | 100.07 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 32.22 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| Furmark, 1650 x 1080, 8x AA 8xAF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 118.00 fps | 218.51 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 103.00 fps | 206.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 95.91 fps | 191.89 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 89.00 fps | 178.07 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 59.00 fps | 118.00 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 58.00 fps | 100.85 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 57.51 fps | 115.07 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 54.00 fps | 108.00 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 50.00 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 49.98 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| Furmark, 1280 x 1024, no AA/AF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 277.00 fps | 190.27 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 237.28 fps | 162.98 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 162.00 fps | 111.27 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 154.00 fps | 105.78 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 154.00 fps | 105.78 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 153.78 fps | 105.63 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 145.58 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 112.00 fps | 79.93 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 84.00 fps | 57.70 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 79.00 fps | 54.26 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
PT Boats
PT Boats Knights of Seas is based on the Direct-3D-10 API, supports multicore CPUs and comes with a physics engine. Also at this point we see a good scaling of the CPU at low resolutions and nearly no influence when applying high resolutions.| PT Boats, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 57.4 fps | 436.84 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 54.9 fps | 417.80 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 45.3 fps | 344.74 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 38.9 fps | 296.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 30.8 fps | 234.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 20.45 fps | 155.57 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 17.90 fps | 136.22 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 15.80 fps | 120.24 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 13.20 fps | 100.04 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 13.14 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| PT Boats, 1650 x 1080, medium details, 4xAA 8xAF | Percent | |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 66.00 fps | 112.35 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 63.40 fps | 107.93 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 59.85 fps | 101.89 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 59.30 fps | 100.95 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 59.08 fps | 100.62 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 59.01 fps | 100.45 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 58.74 fps | 100.00 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 58.60 fps | 99.76 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 58.4 fps | 99.42 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 46.61 fps | 79.33 % |
| more is better | ||
| PT Boats, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA/AF | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 72.72 fps | 109.55 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 72.10 fps | 108.64 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 71.00 fps | 106.99 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 69.08 fps | 104.12 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 68.66 fps | 103.46 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 68.60 fps | 103.37% |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 67.53 fps | 101.76 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 66.36 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 65.10 fps | 98.10 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 64.81 fps | 97.65 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
X3 Terran Conflict
| X3 Terran Conflict, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF, | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 79.93 fps | 102.91 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 79.38 fps | 102.20 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 78.52 fps | 101.09 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 78.40 fps | 100.93 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 77.67 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 77.67 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 77.38 fps | 99.62 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 77.52 fps | 99.46 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 56.54 fps | 72.79 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 57.94 fps | 74.59 % |
| more is better | ||
Auch beim X3 Terran Conflict bemerkt man mittlerweile dass der Benchmark CPU-limitierend ist, was heissen will, dass die CPU den Flaschenhals bezüglich der Leistung darstellt.
| X3 Terran Conflict, 1650 x 1080, medium details, 4xAA 8xAF, | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 91.37 fps | 117.63 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 90.76 fps | 116.85 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 89.79 fps | 115.60 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 89.82 fps | 114.57 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 88.98 fps | 114.56 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 88.39 fps | 113.80 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 81.12 fps | 104.43 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 77.67 fps | 100.00 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 65.54 fps | 84.38 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 64.69 fps | 83.28 % |
| more is better | ||
| X3 Terran Conflict, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA/AF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 104.44 fps | 106.78 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 103.28 fps | 105.60 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 103.06 fps | 105.37 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 101.88 fps | 104.17 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 101.44 fps | 103.72 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 101.27 fps | 103.55 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 100.69 fps | 102.95 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 98.22 fps | 100.42 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 97.99 fps | 100.19 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 97.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
Streetfighter 4
Street Fighter 4 comes with an extra benchmark version which makes testing you system childrens play. At low resolutions the system requirements are pretty low and we can see CPU-scaling in the results. At high resolution the graphic card becomes more important and the CPUs clock speed has less influence on the fps.| Streetfighter 4, 1920 x 1080, high details, C16xQ | Percent | |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 147.72 fps | 190.75 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 142.89 fps | 184.51 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 142.19 fps | 183.61 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 139.48 fps | 180.11 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 99.95 fps | 129.06 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 97.49 fps | 125.89 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 95.33 fps | 123.10 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 94.07 fps | 121.47 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 92.74 fps | 119.75 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 77.44 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| Streetfighter 4, 1650 x 1080, medium details, 8x AA, | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 215.54 fps | 173.22 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 183.71 fps | 147.64 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 180.00 fps | 144.65 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 173.63 fps | 139.54 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 166.22 fps | 133.58 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 161.96 fps | 130.16 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 156.21 fps | 125.54 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 152.02 fps | 122.17 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 145.78 fps | 117.15 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 124.43 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| Streetfighter 4, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA/AF | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 432.17 fps | 109.96 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 410.12 fps | 104.35 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 411.54 fps | 104.71 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 408.20 fps | 103.86 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 407.66 fps | 103.72 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 407.63 fps | 103.71 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 406.01 fps | 103.30 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 400.27 fps | 101.31 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 395.08 fps | 100.52 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 393.02 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
World in Conflict
| World in Conflict, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 106 fps | 179.66 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 77 fps | 130.50 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 76 fps | 128.80 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 72 fps | 122.03 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 69 fps | 116.94 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 69 fps | 116.94 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 59 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 56 fps | 94.91 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 50 fps | 84.74 % |
| more is better | ||
| World in Conflict, 1650 x 1080, medium details, 4xAA 8xAF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 105 fps | 154.41 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 81 fps | 119.10 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 77 fps | 113.23 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 72 fps | 102.94 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 70 fps | 113.23 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 69 fps | 101.47 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 68 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 68 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 57 fps | 83.82 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 50 fps | 73.52 % |
| more is better | ||
| World in Conflict, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA/AF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 106 fps | 155.88 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 82 fps | 120.58 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 76 fps | 111.76% |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 69 fps | 101.47 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 69 fps | 101.47 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 68 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 68 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 68 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 56 fps | 82.35 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 51 fps | 75.00 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil uses nearly every modern rendering technology: HDR, Hemisphere Lighting, Soft Shadows, Soft Particles, Field- und Motion-Blur oder auch Alpha to Coverage and static Ambient Occlusion. Furthermore Resident Evil 5 has been optimized for multicore architectures and already comes DirectX11 ready. By using the DirectX9 as well as the DirectX10 benchmark we can again show you CPU-scaling with low resolutions and the compared to the CPU overproportional influence of the graphics card at high resolutions.| Resident Evil 5, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA 16xAF | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 123.20 fps | 128.60 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 119.50 fps | 124.73 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 108.60 fps | 113.36 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 105.00 fps | 109.60 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 104.30 fps | 108.87 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 97.20 fps | 101.46 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 95.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 90.30 fps | 94.25 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 75.00 fps | 78.28 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 62.40 fps | 65.13 % |
| more is better | ||
| Resident Evil 5, 1650 x 1080, medium details, 4xAA 8xAF | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 144.10 fps | 104.72 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 138.80 fps | 100.08 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 138.60 fps | 100.72 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 138.10 fps | 100.36 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 137.80 fps | 100.14 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 137.60 fps | 100.00 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 137.70 fps | 99.92 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 130.46 fps | 94.76 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 129.33 fps | 93.96 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 115.20 fps | 83.72 % |
| more is better | ||
| Resident Evil 5, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA/AF | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 160.80 fps | 106.70 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 151.30 fps | 100.39 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 151.00 fps | 100.19 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 150.90 fps | 100.13 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 150.80 fps | 100.06% |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 150.70 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 150.60 fps | 99.93 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 150.80 fps | 99.86 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 150.30 fps | 99.73 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 149.80 fps | 99.40 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
Call of Juarez
| Call of Juarez, 1920 x 1080, high details, 4xSSAA | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 72.80 fps | 182.91 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 53.60 fps | 134.67 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 43.20 fps | 108.54 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 42.50 fps | 106.784 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 41.90 fps | 105.27 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 39.80 fps | 100.00 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 38.80 fps | 97.48 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 34.60 fps | 86.93 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 34.20 fps | 85.92 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 28.50 fps | 71.60 % |
| more is better | ||
| Call of Juarez, 1680 x 1050, medium details, 4xMSAA | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 134.30 fps | 165.39 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 130.90 fps | 161.20 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 87.30 fps | 107.51 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 86.70 fps | 106.77 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 84.60 fps | 104.21 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 83.00 fps | 102.21 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 81.20 fps | 100.00 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 66.80 fps | 82.26 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 43.80 fps | 53.94 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 42.20 fps | 51.97 % |
| more is better | ||
| Call of Juarez, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA | Percent | |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 235.90 fps | 142.02 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 234.5fps | 141.18 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 184.30 fps | 110.95 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 181.30 fps | 109.15 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 176.30 fps | 106.14 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 166.10 fps | 100.00 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 166.10 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 162.20 fps | 97.65 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 160.80 fps | 96.80 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 157.30 fps | 94.70 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
Far Cry 2
| Far Cry 2, 1920 x 1080, high details, 8xAA | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 91.87 fps | 173.60 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 84.49 fps | 159.65 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 80.35 fps | 153.48 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 64.51 fps | 121.90 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 59.21 fps | 111.88 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 54.99 fps | 103.91 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 54.14 fps | 102.30 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 52.92 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 49.69 fps | 93.89 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 42.31 fps | 79.95 % |
| more is better | ||
| Far Cry 2, 1680 x 1050, medium details, 4xAA | Percent | |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 132.06 fps | 152.09 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 130.88 fps | 150.73 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 115.99 fps | 133.58 % |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 101.94 fps | 117.40 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 95.31 fps | 109.76 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 97.65 fps | 112.46 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 89.36 fps | 102.91 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 86.83 fps | 100.00 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 70.61 fps | 81.31 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 67.58 fps | 77.83 % |
| more is better | ||
| Far Cry 2, 1280 x 1024, low details, no AA | Percent | |
| ASUS GTX 470 | 138.82 fps | 262.32 % |
| ZOTAC GTX 285 SLI | 131.24 fps | 247.99 % |
| ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 | 124.21 fps | 234.71 % |
| ASUS GTX285 Matrix | 89.75 fps | 169.59 % |
| MSI GTX 275 Lightning | 89.27 fps | 168.68 % |
| ASUS EAH5970 | 80.35 fps | 151.83 % |
| MSI HD 5870 Lightning | 60.92 fps | 113.22 % |
| ASUS EAH5870 | 54.14 fps | 102.30 % |
| Gigabyte HD5870 Super Overclock | 63.89 fps | 115.11 % |
| ASUS EAH5850 | 52.92 fps | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
To the comments
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| The ASUS ARES truely deserves the title "Fastest graphics card in the world". Even more astonishing than the raw performance is the fact that in 2D mode the card is really silent. Up to today many manufacturers have tried to build an absolute high-end garphics card but most of them messed it all up with a very noisy cooling system. But as soon as you start a 3D application that card becomes really loud and the noise in this case might be compared to a sabre rattling. |
2D-Very silent |
- 3D-Very loud | |
| Delivery | + | - | |
| We've never before seen a delivery as exciting as the one the ARES comes with. The suitcase the ARES comes in, is absolutely fabulous and it gives the thing a certain James Bond flair. |
- HDMI cable - Extensive delivery |
||
| Performance | + | - | |
| The ARES absolutely had no problems to achieve 1st place in our benchmark tables. The high GPU- and memory clock might help but we also saw very good scaling in most of the gaming benchmarks which means the the graphics load has been distribuited nicely to both GPUs. | - Performance | ||
| Overclocking | + | - | |
| If your not satisfied with 900 MHz on the GPU you'll enjoy MSIs Afterburner tool. With the new cooler and the unique board design clock speeds way above 1'000 MHz are very easy to reach. The maximum we reached in Aquamark 3 was a staggering 1'048 MHz. |
- Overclocking 1'000 MHz + |
||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| That the ASUS ARES only targets overclocking- and gaming-enthusiasts who do not wont to make even a single compromise, is just a logical conclusion of the performance this thing delivers and the fact that it costs CHF 999.- (est. EUR 730.-). But never the less, this card is definitely worth it also seen from the perspective that the card is a very limited edition. |
- - PC-Enthusiast - Overcklocking-Enthusiasten |
- High Price | |
The ASUS ARES 5870X2 2DIS 4GD5 can be bought at Digitec to a price of CHF 999.- (est. EUR 730.-).
Author: Marc Voser, m.voser@ocaholic.ch Copy edited by: Marc Büchel, m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
To the comments