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Review of ASUS MARS II 3GB: the fastest AIB in the history of the world

Posted by Robert Dow on October 27th 2011 | Discuss
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Tags: gpu aib gaming pmark

Visually striking, the Mars II 3GB dual GTX 580 is an impressive piece of technology in both performance and size. The Mars II checks in at 13”x 6”x 2.5” and at a stunning 5.2 lbs. Consider: two EVGA GTX 590s together weigh in at a mere 5lbs.

Aside from its staggering size the first thing one notices are the dual 12 cm fans capable of 220CFM which Asus says gives the Mars II a 600% greater air flow than a standard AIB. The fans come with a Turbo fan button that when enabled keeps the 12cms fans buzzing at top speed regardless of the software settings, and goes over 50 dB on the sound meter.

Along with the 12 cm fans the Mars is outfitted with extensive heat sinks measuring an inch in height and running along 9 inches of the 13” board. In addition to the sinks, the board is equipped with copper piping. Asus is not going overboard with these precautions. The Mars II is not a souped-up GTX 590 but rather it is a fully clocked GF110 running at 782 MHz, the standard GTX 590 runs the GF110 GPU at 630 MHz. And with the Asus over-clocking utility you can ramp it up even further.

Asus has also come up with a an exclusive SAP alloy (Super Alloy Power) that they say ensures stable wattage and keeps the AIB 35 degrees cooler than a standard card. The alloy also provides a much needed rigidness to the card. The alloy combined with specially designed PCIe anti-shock sustainer helps keeps the card locked in the slot when the tower is upright.

The Mars II is priced at $1,500. With that price tag in mind, it did not seem fair to test it against a $700 GTX 590. Instead we configured a GTX 590 SLi system to challenge the Mars II. We built the test bed based on an Intel DX58SO2 motherboard, with a 3.20 Ghz Intel core i7 970, an Intel solid state drive, and an EVGA (Antec) 1200W Classified SR-2 power supply. The case is a Corsair CC600TWM-WHT Special Edition Graphite Series 600 T Mid Tower Gaming case.

Now we never thought we could ever stress the spaciousness of our beautiful white Corsair 6O0T case but then again the Mars II is one big board, but with a little fidgeting, the Mars II snapped in and there was actually plenty of room to spare.

We put up the MARS II against the best boards we have, and we can confirm that it is the faster card in the world.

Now the P-Mark and common sense will tell you that could get better performance for the same price if you went ahead and set-up your system in a GTX 590SLi configuration. But then you wouldn’t have the cachet of owning the fastest AIB is the history of the world. Asus expects the Mars II to appeal to a very specific type of customer. It is more like a collector’s item if you will, which is why they are only making 1,000 and offering a Limited Edition laser engraved plate with each card, ours happens to be lucky no. 015.

Maybe it's just because it is such an impressive looking board and such a substantial piece of hardwae but gameplay did seem a little more special using this board. It was snappy and the screen images were vivid.

The Mars II is an impressive piece of technology and we are very glad to have been able to play and test the world’s fastest AIB.