Gamescom 2009: How a 1099EUR graphics card looks like

ASUS was showcasing its R.O.G. MARS graphics card at the ESL Intel ASUS gamezone booth at Gamescom in Cologne. This graphics card is limited to only 1,000 units and at 1,099EUR (approx. $1,575) it's not only the fastest but also the most expensive consumer graphics card in the world.

The ASUS MARS graphics card uses a custom design with two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 GPUs, 4GB GDDR3 memory, 1024-bit memory bus, 648MHz core and 1476MHz shaders and 2304MHz memory. For comparison, the GTX 295 has 576MHz cores, 1242MHz shaders, 896-bit memory bus and 1792MB GDDR3 clocked at 1998MHz. The company claims this card is 23 percent faster than cards based on the reference design, while featuring 20 percent better heat dissipation due to a better cooling solution.

All MARS graphics cards are numbered, the one shown off at Gamescom was number 2 of 1,000.



The ASUS MARS is expected to be available before the end of August, together with the 349EUR R.O.G. MATRIX GTX 285. This overclocked card features a 662MHz core (669MHz in Gamer Mode), 1476MHz shaders (1512MHz in Gamer Mode) and 1GB GDDR3 memory at 2484MHz. ASUS says this card is 15 percent less noisy than standard GeForce GTX 285 cards and 12 percent more efficient at heat dissipation.