A PCB shot of the upcoming ASUS ROG Ares dual GPU graphics accelerator made it to the media this day. The picture reveals what could be 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 Cypress GPUs that run at high clock speeds, with even more overclocking potential on offer. The picture reveals that ASUS has made extensive use of digital PWM circuitry, giving each GPU a 4-phase vGPU, 2-phase vMem, and uncore phases. Each zone has its own voltage controller. Power is drawn in from three inputs: two 8-pin and a 6-pin, though the tracks show that the PCB is capable of using three 8-pin inputs. At source, the inputs are fused as a surge-protective measure.

Each GPU is wired to 16 GDDR5 memory chips, 8 on each side of the PCB. The PCB itself is roughly an inch taller than full-height addon-cards. Display connectivity includes one each of DVI-D, DisplayPort, and HDMI connectors. The lone CrossFire finger provides CrossFireX support with another Ares card - or probably other Radeon HD 5800 series products. ASUS in a statement says that all heat-producing components other than the GPU - VRM chips and memory - will be cooled by a copper heatspreader that covers almost all such components. Each VRM chip gets its own copper heatsink. These parts will be anodized in red for the black+red livery characteristic to the ROG series. Earlier, a CAD drawing of the cooling assembly made news.


Source: NordicHardware