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Asus Mars 760 Review: Two GPUs In SLI; One £480 Graphics Card

Asus Mars 760 Review: Two GPUs In SLI; One £480 Graphics Card
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We like the idea of two GK104 GPUs in SLI on one graphics card. Sounds like a GeForce GTX 690, right? Except that board costs £800 and Asus' Mars 760 sells for £480. In a world with sub-£600 GeForce GTX 780 Tis, can this dual-GPU stunner still impress?

Every single day, your favourite vendors send in requests to have their products reviewed by Tom's Hardware. We typically try to maximize the number of components presented to you, our readers, by organizing round-ups. There's a lot more to be learned, we think, by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of many competing offerings. But occasionally, a unique specimen surfaces so unlike everything else that we devote an entire story to it. Today we're looking at Asus' Mars 760, a graphics card with no peer. To test it, we have to reach into our collection of cards for relevant data points.

This isn't the first board in Asus' Mars family, and if you're familiar with the brand, then you already know the ROG MARS760-4GD5 boasts two Nvidia GPUs (Asus reserves the Ares brand for its dual-Radeon creations). All semblance of suspense is relieved by the model number: 760 gives away the fact that we're looking at a couple of GK104 processors. And incidentally, they're overclocked, too.


2 x Radeon HD 7950 Boost
Radeon HD 7990Radeon R9 290X
Asus Mars 760GeForce GTX Titan
GeForce GTX 780 Ti
GeForce GTX 690
Shaders
3584
(2 x 1792)
4096
(2 x 2048)
2816
2304
(2 x 1152)
2688
2880
3072
(2 x 1536)
Texture Units
224
(2 x 112)
256
(2 x 128)
176
192
(2 x 96)
224
240
256
(2 x 128)
ROPs
64
(2 x 32)
64
(2 x 32)
64
64
(2 x 32)
48
48
64
(2 x 32)
Fab Process
28 nm
28 nm28 nm
28 nm28 nm28 nm28 nm
Core (Boost) Clock
850 (925) MHz
950 (1000) MHz(1000) MHz
1006 (1072) MHz837 (876) MHz875 (928) MHz915 MHz
Memory Clock
1250 MHz GDDR51500 MHz GDDR51250 MHz GDDR51501 MHz GDDR5
1502 MHz GDDR51750 MHz GDDR51502 MHz GDDR5
Memory Bus
384-bit
384-bit512-bit256-bit384-bit
384-bit256-bit
Memory Bandwidth
240 GB/s
288 GB/s320 GB/s192.2 GB/s 288.4 GB/s
336 GB/s192.2 GB/s
TDP
400 W
(2 x 200 W)
375 W250 W
300 W (per Asus)250 W
250 W300 W
Typical Price
~£500
-
~£400
~£480
£800
£550
£900

Asus' packaging claims that the Mars 760 is about 7% faster than a GeForce GTX Titan, though at its £480 price point, it's really competing against the Radeon R9 290X and GeForce GTX 780 Ti. I didn't have a 780 Ti on-hand, so I'm tuning my Titan to approximate the more gaming-oriented card's performance.

Speaking of operating frequencies, the Mars 760 sports a 1006 MHz base and 1072 MHz typical GPU Boost clock rate, which is a little higher than the 980 MHz Nvidia guarantees its GeForce GTX 760 for. Asus uses 4 GB (2 GB per GPU on independent 256-bit buses) of GDDR5 memory at the same 1500 MHz as the reference 760.

The Mars, Ares, and Matrix graphics cards exist under Asus' Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand. Naturally, the first thing you'll notice about the Mars 760 is its distinct red metal-on-black shroud. It weighs 2.1 lbs (970 grams) and measures 11" x 5" x 1.5" (28 x 12 x 4 cm), making it large, but no bigger than single-GPU products like the Radeon HD 290X and GeForce GTX 780.

Plugged in and powered up, the word Mars slowly "breathes" thanks to red LEDs behind the name plate.

There is one SLI connector; Asus says it worked closely with Nvidia to enable four-way operation with a second card (since GeForce GTX 760s typically don't scale to four-way configurations).

Also, you'll need two eight-pin auxiliary power connectors. Nvidia cites a 170 W graphics card power figure for one GeForce GTX 760. Meanwhile, Asus says its card should fall closer to 300 W, with spikes higher if you run more taxing apps like FurMark. A PCIe slot is rated for up to 75 W; an eight-pin lead should be good for up to 150 W; a six-pin connector officially serves up 75 W as well. Although we've seen plenty of cards pull more power than their inputs were officially rated for, it's pretty clear why Asus felt two eight-pin connectors were necessary in this case.

A side view gives you a peek into Asus' DirectCU II cooler, which employs eight copper heat pipes (four per GPU). Two low-profile 85 mm fans blow through the sink's fins to keep the GPUs running efficiently. The company claims these are dust-proof, but we'll believe that after a year or two of real-world use.

Hidden under the cooler is a 12-phase VRM, which may play a role in overclocking. This will get tested later in today's story.

As part of its marketing message, Asus says the Mars 760 only uses Japanese Nichicon GT-series capacitors and other high-quality components like super alloy power chokes, MOFSETS, and POSCAPs.

The Mars 760 is equipped with two dual-link DVI-I, one dual-link DVI-D, and one mini-DisplayPort output. HDMI is also covered by a bundled adapter.

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    houldendub , 31 January 2014 09:53
    I'm curious as to why higher resolutions are the target here, as a dual 760 owner myself, I've essentially tailored my build towards high end 1080p gaming and it works fantastic. While it may be in the same kinda price league as the 780Ti and 290X, those are targeting higher resolutions as it is with their higher memory, whereas I think the Mars 760 is essentially the ultimate 1080p card.
  • 2 Hide
    dogie , 31 January 2014 11:43
    This article is a joke. You're testing a dual 760, yet you never one think to compare it to a single 760? TH getting worse and worse, actually removing from my favourites now.