Asus claims the Sapphire crown with ARES II launch

While the claim has yet to be proven in the KitGuru Labs, we have been told by Asus that its new Republic of Gamers ARES II is the fastest card ever. That means ROG wants Sapphire's 6GB 7970 Toxic, KitGuru's Product of the Year 2012, to move over. Is there a new king? KitGuru investigates the possibility.

Speed and heat go hand-in-hand when it comes to graphics cards. Ramp up the speed and you suddenly have a lot of thermal issues to deal with.

By using a solution on the ARES II which makes a pair of AMD Radeon 7970 chips cooler than a GeForce GTX 690 by around 31 degrees, Asus hopes to have a world-beating solution.

Stephanie Liao, spokesperson for the leading graphics manufacturer, claims that its DIGI+ VRM and 20-phase Super Alloy Power ensure better stability and longevity, while GPU Tweak gives customers easy graphics card tuning. Which is all well and good, but how far will it need to go in order to claim top spot?

The ARES II will be a 1,000 unit run only – so expect to see them sell out fast.

If it is going to beat the Sapphire 6GB Toxic, then here's the review to check and this is the kind of chart that it will need to top:-

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KitGuru says: While the majority of us will spend less than £100/$150 on a graphics card, we still love to dream. For us enthusiasts, seeing a new graphic card crowned ‘Fastest Ever' is like a petrol head watching  F1 cars knocking each other out at Silverstone. It's an elite sport – but we can't stop watching it!

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