ASUS aims for Mars

Peter G. 28 May, 2009 at 1:07pm ET Article published in Tech

nvidia It’s refreshing to see companies push the limits, and today ASUS has done just that with the debut of the ASUS MARS 295 Limited Edition. Despite NVIDIA’s stance poo-pooing on board partners from developing their own derivative parts, ASUS has taken two 2GB GeForce GTX 285s and tossed them together on custom boards with a secret third party SLI bridge, wrapped them in a sexy package and created a limited edition uber-video card.

What makes this different from the existing GTX 295s is the massive amount of RAM and, more importantly, the use of two GTX 285 cores that retain their full clock speeds. Right now the MARS Limited Edition looks to be the fastest GPU on the planet.

If the rumors are true, only 1,000 of these MARS 295s will be produced. We expect more news and the official announcement as Computex rolls on in Taipei. Be sure to follow the links for photos.

Comments

28 May 2009 ~ 1:37pm Thrax Well isn't that some hot shit. I want one bad.
28 May 2009 ~ 1:54pm Cliff_Forster What a marketing stunt. There will be excitement about the worlds fastest consumer graphics card, a select couple of benchmark sites will post the results, then nobody else will be able to obtain it. Its an amazing looking design, and I am sure it will shatter all previous records, but does it mater if I can't get one for myself?
28 May 2009 ~ 2:17pm BuddyJ I wouldn't call it a marketing stunt just yet. We don't know the full details. But, at least it appears they aren't simply paper launching it two weeks ahead of schedule, pretending it's a mainstream product, and then leaving everyone wondering why it's sold out.

Come on Cliff. If AMD released a 3.7 GHz Black Edition Limited Phenom II X4 999 you'd be high-fiving them
28 May 2009 ~ 2:24pm Thrax

Buddy J wrote:

If AMD released a 3.7 GHz Black Edition Limited Phenom II X4 999 you'd be high-fiving them

Sick burn.

My opinion on this part will depend on how Asus markets it. If they sell it as a limited edition, cool. If they don't, and it's rarer than liquid xenon on my front lawn, then I'll be a little irritated.
28 May 2009 ~ 2:30pm Cliff_Forster

Buddy J wrote:

I wouldn't call it a marketing stunt just yet. We don't know the full details. But, at least it appears they aren't simply paper launching it two weeks ahead of schedule, pretending it's a mainstream product, and then leaving everyone wondering why it's sold out.

Come on Cliff. If AMD released a 3.7 GHz Black Edition Limited Phenom II X4 999 you'd be high-fiving them

If its availability was such that I could obtain it sure.

A limited edition of 1000 is not a real product launch. Its a marketing stunt. That is fine, I don't blame them, and I do admit it looks cool as hell, and is going to be the fastest thing available for sure. Two cards to quad SLI, your going to see 3D mark records pressed for sure.

You and I will never have a realistic chance at owning one of these, and that's a shame. And to me, any product "launch" designed for the mere purpose of generating press and bragging rights, is a marketing stunt no mater who is doing it. Now, is there some value to an occasional marketing stunt, sure, we will have fun watching the lucky jerks that get to test one in quad SLI, but lets not confuse it as a real product offering, its not.

One has to wonder too, if its so wonderful, why not make it available at a heavy premium, that pre orders. What would you consider paying for a card like that, less two of them? Its going to make someones 30" monitor and copy of Crysis very, very happy, just not ours.
29 May 2009 ~ 7:15am Zuntar

Cliff_Forster wrote:

If its availability was such that I could obtain it sure.

......................

You and I will never have a realistic chance at owning one of these, and that's a shame.................

If they made 1,000,000 of them would you by one?
29 May 2009 ~ 7:32am Cliff_Forster

Zuntar wrote:

If they made 1,000,000 of them would you by one?

Less than likely, but, but, thats not the point!
29 May 2009 ~ 9:23am Zuntar True enough, it will be a hot commodity.

Nonetheless the mass market will never buy such a beast, even though the beast is SHWEET!
11 Jun 2009 ~ 11:03am BuddyJ Video of MARS in action:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/12376/asus_mars_gtx_295_sli_with_8gb_ram_far_cry_2160p/index.html