Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

ASUS Designs Monster Dual-GTX285 4GB Graphics Card

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the nvidia-get-back-in-the-kitchen-and-bake-me-a-gpu dept.

suraj.sun writes to mention that ASUS has just designed their own monster graphics card based on the GeForce GTX 295. While the card retains the GeForce GTX 295 name, same device ID, and remains compatible with existing NVIDIA drivers, ASUS has made a couple of modifications to call its own. "the company used two G200-350-B3 graphics processors, the same ones that make the GeForce GTX 285. The GPUs have all the 240 shader processors enabled, and also have the complete 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface enabled. This dual-PCB monstrosity holds 32 memory chips, and 4 GB of total memory (each GPU accesses 2 GB of it). Apart from these, each GPU system uses the same exact clock speeds as the GeForce GTX 285: 648/1476/2400 MHz (core/shader/memory)."

60 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. I surrender. by Oricalchos · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does it run Linux?

    1. Re:I surrender. by geminidomino · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe, but it will work better on Windows. Just ask Asus... :P

    2. Re:I surrender. by Volanin · · Score: 5, Funny

      I really miss a "Well Played Sarcarm" mod option.

      --
      If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
      If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
    3. Re:I surrender. by EdZ · · Score: 2, Funny

      I wonder how long until a BIOS is added on-board modern GPU cards. It'd be like budding an extra little computer off inside your existing computer.

    4. Re:I surrender. by Alzheimers · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, the kind they use at Jurassic Park.

    5. Re:I surrender. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Graphics cards have their dedicated BIOS on-board.

    6. Re:I surrender. by Abreu · · Score: 5, Funny

      Aren't we supposed to hate Asus this week?

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    7. Re:I surrender. by Chabo · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's a Unix system! I know this!

      --
      Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
    8. Re:I surrender. by pyrrhonist · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, but look on the bright side: It almost runs Crysis!

      --
      Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
    9. Re:I surrender. by FingerSoup · · Score: 2, Funny

      Will it blend?

  2. So, when will be be getting dual-PSU cases... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...so we can dedicate a full 2nd 1KW Power Supply Unit for the graphics card alone?

    1. Re:So, when will be be getting dual-PSU cases... by ifrag · · Score: 5, Informative

      Take a look at Mountain-Mods. They already have several dual-PSU cases.

      --
      Fear is the mind killer.
    2. Re:So, when will be be getting dual-PSU cases... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well even as hungry as this card is, a 1kw PSU would still do fine. Computers don't use as much power as people seem to think. However, there are actually larger PSUs for sale. For example E-Power sells a 2000 watt PSU. It is an external enclosure that houses the actually PSU components, and then a bunch of wires connecting to an internal patchbay that you hook your cables in to. Completely overkill, but then hey so is this GPU.

    3. Re:So, when will be be getting dual-PSU cases... by LUH+3418 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Back in the day, just before 3DFX went down, the Voodoo5 graphics card had its own power brick: http://regmedia.co.uk/2006/08/10/3dfx_voodoo5_6k_2.jpg

      I recently had to upgrade from a 2 year old 500W power supply because it didn't have enough (6 pin?) power cables for my GeForce 9800GTX. I was honestly disappointed, but went ahead and bought a new one. I now have a 700W power supply from rocketfish, and I think that's quite insane.

      In the end, I think graphics card manufacturers might just go back to external power bricks. Either that, or people will get tired of ever-increasing power and cooling requirements... I think that console manufacturers, for one, would not be so happy with the idea of having to design a console that can supply 400W+ to a GPU. This might pressure GPU manufacturers into limiting the power requirements of their future chips.

    4. Re:So, when will be be getting dual-PSU cases... by meringuoid · · Score: 2, Informative
      You jest, but the last great work of 3dfx before they gave up was a beast of a card called the Voodoo5 6000. Ludicrous design. It was nothing but two Voodoo5 5500s on one card - and the 5500 was nothing but two 4500s on one card! The idea was to outdo the high end GeForce cards, and indeed the 6000 compares fairly with the GeForce 3, but the cost would have been astronomical.

      This monster demanded vast amounts of power. So they designed an external power supply that plugged into the back of it.

      Never saw the light of day; 3dfx collapsed after only a small number had been manufactured, and now they change hands for a small fortune from time to time on the collectors' market.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    5. Re:So, when will be be getting dual-PSU cases... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2, Informative

      Except you can't do that. A 4870x2 is already crossfired on the card itself. Quad crossfire involves two of those cards. Four of them would need 8 way crossfire, which ATi does not have support for.

      Nor, for that matter, would such a thing be useful. You do not get linear scaling with multiple SLI/crossfire cards. As you start tacking more on, your gains rapidly decrease. About the only case where it would be useful is for extremely high resolution displays, but we are talking beyond 2560x1600.

      You are also misreading their benchmarking. They are measuring the system power draw. So that means the power figure is for the total consumption of all hardware, including CPU and such, not the GPUs alone. Also, this is wall power draw. PSUs are not 100% efficient, they are about 80-85% efficient when you have a good one. So for every 100 watts they draw from the socket, they output only 80-85 watts to the PC. However the ratings they give are output ratings, not input ratings. So a 1000 watt PSU would, under full load, would draw around 1250 watts, perhaps more (PSUs are less efficient at full load than half load).

      Thus their system in that example is asking the PSU to supply about 600 watts with 2 4870s.

      A 1kw PSU really will do the trick for any system you are likely to build, even high end ones. Yes you can find hardware that if put all together would need more. No you aren't going to put that in your desktop. 1000 watts will do you fine for an OC'd quad core, two high end video cards, a bunch of disks, and so on.

  3. I feel nerd-emasculated by Toe,+The · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh dear. My primary computer has half as much RAM as a graphics card.

    (Hangs head in shame.)

    1. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Daniel_Staal · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A true nerd looks at this card the way an off-roader looks at an H2: It's bigger than it needs to be, costs more than it should, and is at best no better at what it's supposed to be good at then something a third the price. Oh, and only rich posers actually own one.

      It's not tech for the sake of tech. It's tech because you can do something cool with it that makes you a nerd. And there's not really much you can do with this that you can't do just as well while spending less money.

      A nerd can get his computer, with half as much RAM and less processor power, to do everything this card can do. And do it better.

      --
      'Sensible' is a curse word.
    2. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can you compare something that costs $80,000 (plus running costs) to something that costs $800?

      The other big difference is that this thing will be "normal" in a couple of years and only cost $100. Mid-range PCs will have this as standard.

      A Hummer, OTOH, will still be just as expensive and just as stupid.

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by nsayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      How can you compare something that costs $80,000 (plus running costs) to something that costs $800?

      You're on /. and you're questioning a car analogy?!

    4. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was told by a NVidia scientist that the memory that these video cards comes with actually is more a result of the kinds of parts available at the speeds needed for the amount of address lines they need to connect rather than a requirement for an application.

    5. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Says the nerd who can't afford it. I think it would have been awesome to put this in a liquid cooled quad SLI setup, even though it'd require it's own power circuit, AC unit and noise-isolated room in the basement. You can't say that's NOT nerdy...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    6. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Spatial · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How can you compare something that costs $80,000 (plus running costs) to something that costs $800?

      He didn't compare them, he used their few similar traits to illustrate a point. A common use of analogies.

    7. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Ephemeriis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A true nerd looks at this card the way an off-roader looks at an H2: It's bigger than it needs to be, costs more than it should, and is at best no better at what it's supposed to be good at then something a third the price. Oh, and only rich posers actually own one.

      It's not tech for the sake of tech. It's tech because you can do something cool with it that makes you a nerd. And there's not really much you can do with this that you can't do just as well while spending less money.

      A nerd can get his computer, with half as much RAM and less processor power, to do everything this card can do. And do it better.

      Sort of... But not really.

      I mean, I understand where you're going with this, and I generally agree. I usually buy a $100 video card and put the extra money into RAM and CPU. Generally that works out pretty well for me. But my needs are relatively low...

      I play things like WoW and EVE on at 1280x1024. I don't have a ginormous monitor, and I don't play a whole lot of visually-impressive high-speed games. If I had a big ol' monitor and wanted to play something like Crysis at 2560x1600 it just wouldn't happen. I'd get a slideshow at best. And that's without even pondering whether I'd turn on anything fancy like HDR or whatever.

      No, you probably don't need a card like this. And you can probably get away with something less expensive. But it isn't like they just stuck a bunch of gold and diamonds on the card to jack up the price... It does actually do more than my budget card.

      --
      "Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
    8. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by director_mr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not trying to be offensive, but you are wrong. A GTX285 card is the most powerful single-GPU processor for gaming out there right now. 2 GTX 285 processors in SLI are the only thing that can play some games in 2560x1600 resolution at the highest quality settings. So to make your analogy more appropriate, its like the way an off-roader looks at a car designed to win the Baja 1000. Here is a benchmark that makes my point: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3501&p=6

      The article doesn't mention the price, but I suppose it would cost more than the GTX 295, so this card would be expensive. The advantage of it though, is you can stick enough graphics power in a single slot to power a 30 inch monitor at the highest settings with playable framerates in almost any game. So while I can not speak for every nerd, this is surely not tech purely for the sake of tech. No one could get something with half the RAM, less processor power to do everything this card can do that I know of. Perhaps you could prove me wrong on that point?

      So while some think your post is insightful, I think you have no idea what you are talking about. This card was made to fill a niche in the high end gamers market, pure and simple.

    9. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Mr.+Flibble · · Score: 2, Informative

      How can you compare something that costs $80,000 (plus running costs) to something that costs $800?

      The other big difference is that this thing will be "normal" in a couple of years and only cost $100. Mid-range PCs will have this as standard.

      A Hummer, OTOH, will still be just as expensive and just as stupid.

      His analogy with the offroad makes sense... If you are familiar with off roading. My old First Generation 1989 4Runner will destroy a Hummer H2 offroad, and I am in the process of buying another rolling chassis for it today. Total cost? $500.00 off of Craigslist.

      A H2 is something that APPEARS to do well off road, but in reality it does not. Plus, when parts come flying off of your offroading vehicle (and if you are doing real off roading, THEY WILL FLY OFF) replacing those parts on a old 4Runner is cheaper than a H2.

      So, his analogy is valid. A offroad nerd can get much more out of a 1st gen 4Runner than an H2, in the same way an IT nerd can get more out of a non-4GB card than the twit that likes to drop $800/month on his gaming system.

      --
      Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
    10. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not nerdy, it's poser. it is no different than those supercharger ricers you see doctor's kids driving, that they have tricked all to hell on daddy's credit card, and then wrap around a telephone pole. Anybody with the bucks to buy this thing has more bucks than brains and probably won't know what to do with it, other than brag about his FPS in Crysis.

      Nerdy is like my former boss, when he found it would take 2 PSUs to power all the SCSI drives he had. He stripped two towers down to the frames, put the mobo and SCSI cards in one along with half the drives, mounted the other half along with a second PSU in the second skeleton, picked them both up and went to the auto body shop down the street and had them spot weld those bitches together. It was fugly as hell but gave him an insane(at the time) 500Gb of nice fast SCSI storage on the LAN. He had the drivers for pretty much every piece of hardware built for over a decade at his fingertips. Now THAT was nerdy!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    11. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by jandrese · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If your liquid cooled rig needs sound proofing you've done it wrong.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    12. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by tnk1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      True enough, but think of what a nerd could do with this?

      I have a GTX 295. It is by far the most monstrous card I have ever put into a machine since the early PC days. I can't begin to imagine what its big brother looks like or how much power it will suck down.

      As to the point about getting the most out of your equipment, there are people who have the skills to do things like modify and fix cheap or old cars and equipment. Personally, I find that neat. However, I never do that. The closest I get is buying all my computer parts and assembling them myself. But that's mostly to get the specific options I want without having to pay some integrator extra money to get something that don't want to stock. It also avoids labor costs, but I find that I'd almost rather pay someone rather than have to screw around with cable/wire management in my tower cases. Almost.

      I pay a premium to have top quality and never have to screw with my shit. I could buy a used car and modify it to be like my new car, but I know people who do that and I find that I'm the guy who takes them to the shop all the time or picks them up when their car breaks down.

      I never want to break down on the side of the road, and I want my top end card to be top end without ever causing me to lose a second of time due to the potential of problems due to my fiddling. My computer is my primary tool, as well as source of enjoyment, and I insist that it be both fast and reliable. No professional or serious amateur should compromise on the quality of their primary tools. I'll save the duct tape for my software creations.

    13. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by Lord+Ender · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, since numerical prefixes are by definition quantitative...

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    14. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But unless you set up a rediculous(sp) scenario, a high end video card is almost always going to beat a low end or old one.

      Unless you pick a rediculous scenario (e.g who can get the highest FPS on crysis with full detail on everything, 32x antialiases, etc) a medium and high end card will always give you the same key features (being able to play most modern games in high detail), while the high end card will draw more power and make more noise. The end result is a true geek will never guy this monstrosity but a poser will, Hummer analogy win!

      --
      IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
    15. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by sourICE · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not trying to be offensive, but you are wrong.

      ...I think you have no idea what you are talking about.

      Actually, he's correct in most aspects and has at least some idea what he is talking about. The cheaper machine and cards can do everything this card can do, just smaller.

    16. Re:I feel nerd-emasculated by KillerBob · · Score: 2, Informative

      Build this cheap PC you allude to, then compare it to some real world tests using this new Asus beast.

      That wasn't his point. The point was that for somebody who actually knows what the heck he's doing, it's overkill. By a wide margin. On a par with the Killer NIC. Yes, it will perfrom a little better. But for a real world application, it's really not worth the added cost.

      Case in point, my laptop has a Core 2 Duo @ 1.66GHz, 2GB of RAM, and a 256MB GeForce 8600M GT. It's driving a 1680x1050 LCD. The lappy is getting a little long in the tooth... it'll be 2 years old in September. But it's still plenty powerful enough for every game I play. There's not a game on the market that won't run on the laptop, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when I say that the game mechanics and fun factor are what keeps me playing a game, not the poly count or photo realism.

      You can play any game out there on a $100 video card. Why on earth would you spend $1000 on one, if not for bragging rights?

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
  4. GDDR3 by LanMan04 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Bleh on the GDDR3. Radeon HD 4870 I just picked up for $200 has GDDR5, just smoking fast memory.

    --
    With the first link, the chain is forged.
    1. Re:GDDR3 by ifrag · · Score: 4, Informative

      You do realize the bus width on the Nvidia cards is wider?

      --
      Fear is the mind killer.
    2. Re:GDDR3 by LanMan04 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ah, 448-bit vs 256-bit on the 4870. Didn't catch that, thanks for the correction.

      --
      With the first link, the chain is forged.
  5. Batteries not included by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Customers who bought this also bought:
    Delonghi PAC C100 Portable Air Conditioner 10,000 BTU

  6. Does this mean I can run Solitaire in FULL RES? by smackenzie · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...I love that game. All the cards and the colors and stuff.

    Someone had to say it. I bet a Minefield comment will beat me to the punch...

    1. Re:Does this mean I can run Solitaire in FULL RES? by DCstewieG · · Score: 2, Funny

      Minefield? No, this thing still doesn't have enough memory for Firefox.

  7. Re:Dual GPU card by Alzheimers · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So what happens when you SLI two of these badboys together?

  8. Re:It's really not enough. by pak9rabid · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm working on my game, called Titanographic, and it requires a 16GB graphics card.

    Coincidentally, so will directX 12 *ducks*

  9. Re:Dual GPU card by Kugala · · Score: 5, Funny

    The circuit breaker trips.

  10. I wonder... by DaMP12000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    what would happen if you try to plug that on a 32bits vista system... Since the operating memory for the OS is something like RAM - GRAPHICS RAM - (a little bit of other stuff...), that should leave about a negative amount of RAM for the OS. Good luck with that...

    1. Re:I wonder... by EkriirkE · · Score: 2, Funny

      You create a singularity

      --
      from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
      to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
    2. Re:I wonder... by mkaushik · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No graphics card maps the entire framebuffer into the physical address space, even on 64-bit OSs. I'll just use up a few 10s of MBs for BAR0, a few more for BAR1, and so on. The driver will manage all the framebuffer memory for you, all the client has to do is call the equivalent of malloc().

    3. Re:I wonder... by mkaushik · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, Windows can only access 3.5GB of system memory, the remaining 0.5GB will be mapped above 4GB in the physical address space. When you have lots of PCI devices in the system, they take up some space in the physical address space. So if your PCI(E) devices take up 1GB of space, the BIOS will fit less of that 4GB of RAM into the 4GB physcial address space. Your PCI devices would would already be allocating BARs like I said earlier. Like AC said, you can enable PAE to reclaim some of that lost space. I know there is a flag in XP (Run:msconfig, Advanced:) to enable PAE, but I don't know if that has any effect.

  11. BitchinFast3D by amoeba1911 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This reminds me of the BitchinFast3D card I've seen in the late 90's.

    http://www.russdraper.com/images/fullsize/bitchin_fast_3d.jpg

  12. Oblig Lowtax Quote by pak9rabid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not only will [this card] smooth out the jaggies on your screen, but it will anti-alias everybody elses's computer games within the surrounding five miles.

  13. It was inevitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think this may actually support a higher resolution and framerate than real life.

  14. Re:Dual GPU card by Jamamala · · Score: 2, Informative

    So what happens when you SLI two of these badboys together?

    The card supports quad-SLI, so I guess you just end up with 4 285s in SLI.

  15. Re:Dual GPU card by DarrenBaker · · Score: 2, Funny

    The government opens up the taps on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as lights dim from Key West to Keokuk.

  16. All we need now... by plut4rch · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... is an ASCII version! That old ATi Radeon 9500 ASC has been king of the market for too long. It's beginning to look dated. Imagine playing NetHack on this ASUS! Never will an @ look more realistic...

    --
    An intriguing solution to a problem that should never have existed in the first place...
    1. Re:All we need now... by GenP · · Score: 2, Informative

      In case you didn't see it back in the day...

  17. Hmmmmm.... by Overfiend1976 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sorry, but I see the point of purchasing something like this as sensible as spending $12,000 out of pocket for the Adobe True Type font package. It's great and all that you can make things run at a barely perceptible higher speed, but at the cost of not only the card itself, but cooling, PSU, etc., I'd rather just stay with a more affordable card.

    --
    This sig will self destruct in 5 seconds.
  18. Will they price it right this time? by Terranex · · Score: 2, Funny

    The last time I recall ASUS doing this was with a Dual 7800GT Like this one, and it did not sell very well due to being prohibitively expensive.

  19. YES!! Just In Time For Duke Nukem Forever!!!! by CyberSlammer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait...Ah CRAP.

  20. Re:Overcompensate much? by RoboRay · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's a VHS tape?

  21. Re:Overcompensate much? by pwfffff · · Score: 3, Funny

    Never thought I'd feel old at 20, but there it is...

  22. What about Crysis by hofmny · · Score: 3, Funny

    So I buy this card with the hope my dream will finally come true...

    Two G200-350-B3 graphics processors... (AWESOME)

    240 shader processors enabled... (HELLS YEAH!)

    512-bit GDDR3 and 4 GB of total memory... (I JUST WET MYSELF)

    I put in Crysis , max out the settings, and play the game...

    *Ahh just a bit Choppy*...
    *Oh no, not the "Lag o' Death"*...
    *Shit, now it's Freezing*...
    ***C R A S H!!*** (SON OF A F*CKING B*TCH)

    Yes, even the best graphics card mankind has ever made can't compete to the horrible coding of Crysis!

  23. Re:It's really not enough. by James+Skarzinskas · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh. Always bet on Duke?