ASUS ARESIII !

[Darksoviet]

ENGINEERING CRAFTMANSHIP
Limited edition with customized EK water block and hand-carved details.

SLIM, SINGLE SLOT FORM FACTOR
Hand-picked dual R9 290X GPUs 25% cooler than reference.

 

[GhostRyder]

OMG mmmmmmmmmmmmmm those are some sweet GPU's. Man I love that look but find the lack on monitor hookups to be a bit of a disappointment.

Man I could really dig a pair of these babys!!!

 

[WalterHughes1986]

look decent!

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Two of those at the same price as a Titan Z is a much better deal. IF you call spending that much on gaming graphics a "deal" at all.

This looks like an actual shot of the first production model.

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-...OG-Ares-III-Water-Cooled-Gaming-Graphics-Card

 

[Lopez0101]

Damn, single slot. Nice. Still wouldn't pay that much for one.

 

[Keullo-e]

Well, that isn't the casual gamer's card, but still... Why it needs to be with waterblock....

Waiting still for TPU's review.

 

[Lopez0101]

Well, the reference 295x2 has two universal blocks. This looks much nicer and its' single slot. I think I'd go for it, if I wanted a 4K monitor, if it was closer to 1,000.

 

[Keullo-e]

Well, the reference 295x2 has two universal blocks. This looks much nicer and its' single slot. I think I'd go for it, if I wanted a 4K monitor, if it was closer to 1,000.

Yes, I know, but those typical Asetek aren't pretty powerful. :/

 

[The Von Matrices]

Two of those at the same price as a Titan Z is a much better deal. IF you call spending that much on gaming graphics a "deal" at all.

You're implying that ASUS will sell the card the same price as the standard R9 295X2?

I think you're a bit optimistic for one of these "limited edition" cards.

ARES I was $1000 compared to $630 for a HD 5970 (60% more expensive)
ARES II was $1600 compared to $1000 for a HD 7990 (60% more expensive)

Based on past prices, the ARES III's price should be 60% more than that of the R9 295X2 or $2400. Hardly a good deal if you ask me. At that price you you can buy three or four 290X's with water blocks.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

You're implying that ASUS will sell the card the same price as the standard R9 295X2?

I think you're a bit optimistic for one of these "limited edition" cards.

ARES I was $1000 compared to $630 for a HD 5970 (60% more expensive)
ARES II was $1600 compared to $1000 for a HD 7990 (60% more expensive)

Based on past prices, the ARES III's price should be 60% more than that of the R9 295X2 or $2400. Hardly a good deal if you ask me. At that price you you can buy three or four 290X's with water blocks.

LOL, not implying anything, just read the info in the link I posted wrong where it has $1500 in parenthesis.

This forum really has strayed irredeemably down the path of elitism you know. It's getting about as annoying as xtremesystems.org.

 

[THE_EGG]

You're implying that ASUS will sell the card the same price as the standard R9 295X2?

I think you're a bit optimistic for one of these "limited edition" cards.

ARES I was $1000 compared to $630 for a HD 5970 (60% more expensive)
ARES II was $1600 compared to $1000 for a HD 7990 (60% more expensive)

Based on past prices, the ARES III's price should be 60% more than that of the R9 295X2 or $2400. Hardly a good deal if you ask me. At that price you you can buy three or four 290X's with water blocks.

I agree. Although that being said, people might be swayed to buying this over a Titan Z because of being a limited edition card - that is if anyone is rich *cough* silly *cough* enough to actually consider a Titan Z.

 

[Lopez0101]

I don't think even people that could actually use DP performance would go for it. They'd probably rather have two single GPU cards, or, more likely, go with a workstation class card because of the driver support.

 

[Trompochi]

It looks very nice, good to see they didn't go with just 2x8 pin connectors. When I saw the powercolor air cooled one with 4x8 pin I was like . Now I wonder how good will be the temps on this and the powercolor one, maybe Asus will sell this beast for $2000+

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I quite like the single slot profile of it ,above all its just tidier , probably too expensive for me though damn it.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

You know, given that an ASUS R9 290x costs $550 ($1100 for 2), and how much an upcharge there usually is for custom WB GPUs, I think $1500 is a lot closer to what it should cost than $2400.

An EK WB for an ASUS 290x on Frozen CPU is $123, or $246 for two. That's still only $1346 total. Yeah sure it's specially picked chips that are supposedly cooler running blah, blah, blah, but how much of an upcharge do you typically see on cards that have high binned chips and factory OCs? Not much really. About $50 on average.

That brings us to roughly $1446. Throw in another $54 for the ASUS logo, which is advertising anyway, and we're at $1500 so far. I'll go ahead and add another $200 just because dual GPU cards always cost more than two separate ones using the same chip, esp considering these aren't under clocked like most.

So the final tally is $1700, and yeah it's a custom WB and all, but don't forget the Crossfire scenario I painted involves buying two ASUS compatible EK WBs. The $2400 price, IF that's what it will be, is really only due to the 500 unit limited quantity, and the elitism of saying you got all that in one card with an ASUS logo cut into it. Whoo hoo, you just wasted $700!

 

[Lopez0101]

Whoo hoo, you just wasted $700!

People like to waste money on the "rule of cool". How else are they going to feel validated by how much they spent?

 

[Frag_Maniac]

People like to waste money on the "rule of cool". How else are they going to feel validated by how much they spent?

Yes I know, it's elitism like I said, but for discussion's sake, how do any of you feel this vs two ASUS R9 290x cards, water cooled or not, would compare performance wise?

I know some of it is chalked up to Crossfire issues limiting results in some games, but still, $2400 just seems unrealistic, esp when the 295x with complete WC, albeit sealed vs custom, is only $1500.

We're really only talking a slimmer custom loop package that may or may not be clocked higher than the 295x. I've also seen Guru3D speculating $1500 on the ARES III, which is a pretty respectable site, so where this $2400 is coming from I don't know.

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/asus_ares_iii_8_gb_dual_gpu_hawaii_graphics_card.html

 

[Lopez0101]

He was merely speculating based on the markup on the previous ARES cards. Benchmarks have shown that the 295x2 scales pretty much as good as two 290Xs. So really, the 295x2 is for someone who wants a tiny case that wouldn't fit two seperate cards.

 

[The Von Matrices]

but still, $2400 just seems unrealistic, esp when the 295x with complete WC, albeit sealed vs custom, is only $1500.

We're really only talking a slimmer custom loop package that may or may not be clocked higher than the 295x. I've also seen Guru3D speculating $1500 on the ARES III, which is a pretty respectable site, so where this $2400 is coming from I don't know.

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/asus_ares_iii_8_gb_dual_gpu_hawaii_graphics_card.html

This article you cited is old. It's from early March - before the R9 295X2 was even leaked let alone announced. If you read the article carefully it implies that ARES III is the AMD "Vesuvius" card, even though "Vesuvius" was actually a different card, the R9 295X2. If Guru3D knew the R9 295X2 was going to cost $1500 then their price projections for the ARES III likely would be different.

I don't dispute that ASUS could make the ARES III a mass market product for the same price or even less than the R9 295X2. My argument is that the company has already demonstrated it has no plans to make ARES III a price competitive card because they chose to limit production to 500 units. This is even less than the ARES II, which had 999 units.

Plainly and simply, the ARES cards are status symbols, the Titan-Z of the AMD world. I won't be buying one, but I'm sure ASUS will sell every one of their 500 cards at a huge markup because it's a "limited edition".

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Actually Guru didn't only estimate $1500 exactly, they gave a range of up to $2000, which is still quite a bit less than the aforementioned $2400.

Clearly this is a card most if not all raving about it here are just drooling at though. So the elitist attitudes like we know our expensive cards and you don't is kinda silly.

I get the same attitude for just mentioning the obvious that AMD FX CPUs are fine for mainstream gamers, but I'm lynched as if I'm saying they're better than Intels.

Then a mod jumps in and locks the thread admitting he's biased toward the Intel biased gamers being called trolls by some.

I swear TPU has reached an all time low due to this elitism. And the funny thing is, much of it comes from people that can't really even come close to affording top notch gear.

I have a clue for you, credibility is more about giving credit where it's due than in knowing just what gear you'd buy IF you had the money.

 

[Lopez0101]

Guess I don't see where you're seeing the elitism.

ARES I was $1000 compared to $630 for a HD 5970 (60% more expensive) ARES II was $1600 compared to $1000 for a HD 7990 (60% more expensive)

He was only using simple speculation to guess at the price of the card that you keep seeming to take everybody to believe is fact.

 

[The Von Matrices]

Actually Guru didn't only estimate $1500 exactly, they gave a range of up to $2000, which is still quite a bit less than the aforementioned $2400.

Clearly this is a card most if not all raving about it here are just drooling at though. So the elitist attitudes like we know our expensive cards and you don't is kinda silly.

I get the same attitude for just mentioning the obvious that AMD FX CPUs are fine for mainstream gamers, but I'm lynched as if I'm saying they're better than Intels.

Then a mod jumps in and locks the thread admitting he's biased toward the Intel biased gamers being called trolls by some.

I swear TPU has reached an all time low due to this elitism. And the funny thing is, much of it comes from people that can't really even come close to affording top notch gear.

I have a clue for you, credibility is more about giving credit where it's due than in knowing just what gear you'd buy IF you had the money.

I think you're assuming that I want the card to be priced at $2400 so that it can be some sort of status symbol. That couldn't be farther from the truth; I never have argued that, and I don't think you would find many people on TPU who take that attitude either.

Your posts have stated that the card should be priced lower, based on its component choices. I, like you and most other people, would want the card to be priced cheaper, but what I've been arguing is that the ARES card is not targeted towards the people who care about value. Instead, it fits the exact definition of a Veblen good. It is intended as a status symbol (whether I want it to be or not), and therefore you can't determine its price solely by analyzing its components. I know that no matter what you or I argue, nor what the price is, there will still be 500 people eagerly waiting to buy one.

 

[Devon68]

I'm guessing It will be 1699$. The 2400$ is totally impossible.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I'm not indulging in "simple speculation" or "assuming" anything. All I've done is merely point out Guru's estimation, my own cost comparison analysis of existing product, and concluded that as Devon agrees, $2400 sounds too lofty.

Status symbol or not, people that buy high end gaming product still want fairly reasonable cost to performance ratio. I'm not saying there won't be a markup, as I know it's a specialty, limited production item, but seriously, $2000 is plenty markup.

 

[URBAN303]

$2400 !! 1 765.95€ too expensive! but this winter we'll see