14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since its introduction at the Computex 2011 fair, overclockers and hardware enthusiasts alike have been keenly waiting the launch of Asus' Mars II graphics card, and while the company still hasn't provided us with any release date, it has recently unveiled a new series of pictures depicting this dual GTX 580 monster.
The Mars II is a completely custom built Asus card and it relies on a massive cooler that occupies no less than three slots inside the system case as well as on a redesigned PCB which includes a pair of GTX 580 graphics cores connected to work in an internal SLI mode.
All the heat produced by the card while running is dissipated by two high-performance 120mm fans which sit on top of a full length aluminum heatsink and these cool both the GF110 GPUs and the 20-phase VRM installed.
According to Asus, the setup is capable of delivering 15% better performance, 35 degrees Celsius cooler operation and 2.5 times longer lifespan than the reference GTX 590 design and enables the company to clock the two GPUs at 816MHz.
This makes the Mars II the fastest dual-GPU GF110 graphics card around, as it beats Nvidia's own implementation of a dual GTX 580 solution by 209MHz (34.4%).
To deliver the massive amount of power required, Asus' Mars II has been fitted with three 8-pin PCI Express connectors which are placed right near a special button that is used to adjust the voltage and the fan speed to 100%.
The rest of the overclocking-oriented features are placed on the back of the PCB, in a so-called Zone MOD area, which can be used to turn off Nvidia's OCP, to enable a special LN2 mode or to tweak the board's PLL VMEM voltages.
Just as its predecessor, the Mars II will only be manufactured in 1000 units and its price tag is expected to be set at $1000 US. Sadly, Asus hasn't provided us with any information regarding the release date of the Mars II. (via HardwareLuxx)
