ASUS only made 999 of these cards and it’s a darn shame. This has to be one of the most desirable pieces of gaming kit I have ever seen and I envy those 998 people that got one all to themselves. Oh yes, I am positively green with it.
The ASUS Ares II HD 7970 GPU was voted the fastest GPU ever tested by Maximum PC. The feature (which you can read here) is one of those utterly brilliant ones that will keep your peepers glued to the page right until the end. They were on a call with AMD, AMD claimed that the Ares II would be the fastest hardware and then, when the card arrived at the Maximum PC offices, they tested it and found the claim to be true. It is incredibly fast and cool and quiet.
The quiet can be explained by the DirectCU II design. It has been tested to 20% cooler and three times quieter against reference and boasts all copper heatpipes for efficient heat removal. The airflow is superb, almost six times greater than reference, and the dual 100mm sound-dampening fans are perfect for keeping noise down to a minimum. That’s why this GPU is quiet and cool.
These design features only scratch the surface of the Ares II 7970. This card caters to the overclocker with a TOP-selected GPU factory set to 1100MHz and VGA Hotwire and the TweakIT interface. You also get one-press fan settings so you can boost them to 100% at the tap of a button, regardless of your settings.
The DIGI+ VRM digital controllers, Super Allow Power components and added GPU loadline capability and PWM tuning are even more bits of tasty icing on the cake. You can modify the voltages by connecting wires from dedicated headers on compatible RoG motherboards to the VGA Hotwire connectors on the 7970. Ha! You can now use your soldering iron as an ornament. Or something.
Take a peek at the ASUS website to see all the features of this awesome GPU and weep that it is not in your happy overclocker paws. Have you got one? Is it amazing? TELL!
Tamsin