14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS has just introduced its latest high-end graphics adapter, a variation of AMD's Radeon R9 295 X2 adapter, only with higher clocks and water cooling module, plus special PCB components and the distinctive ROG color theme.
The video card is dubbed ROG Ares III, where ROG is the abbreviated form of Republic of Gamers, ASUS' special logo for top-grade gaming PC gear.
Equipped with a pair of Hawaii XT graphics processing units, the board is said to be the fastest water-cooled gaming graphics card. ASUS even gives a short performance comparison between it and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan Z (which costs twice as much as the R9 295 X2).
Overclocking and comparison to NVIDIA's Titan Z
According to the company's official announcement, the ROG Ares III does 15% better in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme testing and runs Battlefield 4 at 33% greater FPS (frame rate, frames per second as it were).
We're not sure about the benchmark test and the hardware used, but the Battlefield 4 is one you can probably disregard, since it uses AMD's Mantle API, so it's not exactly a fair comparison. Then again, some may argue that just supporting Mantle is a plus, AMD-developed or not.
Anyway, as irrelevant as they sometimes are in real-world scenarios, 3DMark benchmarks are used as guidelines pretty often, so we can accept that the new card may, indeed, be the fastest on the market.
After all, it runs the two GPUs at 1,030 MHz instead of 1,018 MHz, all the while generating 25% less heat than the reference adapter. That hand-carved EK Water block is really something. It means you can further overclock the board through the GPU Tweak utility and still be mostly safe.
The relevant specs
ASUS Super Alloy Power components are always good to have. They enhance booth cooling and durability. You get Digi+ voltage-regulator module (VRM) technology, with 16-phase core power design.
10K black metallic capacitors reduce power noise by 30%, while energy efficiency is boosted by 15% as well. Stability and OC potential goes up because of all these things, although the board is overpowered as it is.
Other features include 8 GB GDDR5 (5 GHz clock), 2 x 512-bit memory interface, one native HDMI, two dual-link DVI-D ports, one DisplayPort, and three power inputs. Sales will start this month, for a fair bit more than the usual $1,500 / €1,500. Only about 500 will be made, so you might want to save up and keep an eye out if you're in the market.
