The Radeon R9 295X2, or any graphics card that comes pre-liquid cooled, comes up against a barrier.  There will be a market segment that cares more about the card than the cooling, and would rather not have to spend the extra on the cooling because they want to apply their own, or a waterblock.  Aside from the leaked images on the web showing a triple-slot air cooled version of the 295X2 from Powercolor, ASUS is going to address this issue with the Ares III for users building their own water cooling loops.

The new card will come pre-fitted with a custom designed EK water block, and only 500 units will be made so expect this thing to be pricy.  The two Hawaii XT GPUs are said to be ‘hand-chosen’ for the cards, and one would assume that the card comes with a decent overclock pre-installed.  If not, the main purpose of the card would be for the user to overclock, or for the system to run as cool and quiet as possible.  Based on internal testing, ASUS states that a 120x3 water cooling loop is recommended as a minimum.

The GPU is single slot, meaning that the top of the card seems taller than the standard height of  GPU.  Pricing is not yet set but expect a release in Q3.

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  • AJdaBoss - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    I need to win some sort of lottery, urgent need of pc, 1st comment! Ne way, I work as hardware specialist local in town where I live and I sacrificed my last rig to upgrade then problem after problem especially when dope part after dope part releases, not dwelling on it, ill be bak n the pc gaming world at home soon enough even though its my bday and im on a tablet... a sin I say!! :P
  • Dovahkin - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    Woot?
    I need that lottery win more than you do..
    Pentium 4 @ 3.4 GHz,Zotac 9500 GT
    can't wait to finish this semester and get a job
  • Antronman - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    >Doesn't even have a working PC.
  • Antronman - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    I use a school computer :P
  • kiddo94 - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link

    I have a Q6600 stock speeds cause it gets really hot(50-60 idle), 2gb ram ddr2 667mhz and a 8600 GT(DDR3)...Can`t wait either to get a job...same feels...
  • bassportout - Saturday, July 19, 2014 - link

    I have the 8800 GT. I understand you.
  • bassportout - Saturday, July 19, 2014 - link

    Lol, well I have a Pentium 4 with a 8800gt albeit with a $200 sound card because I'm a musician. I built it in 2005 or 2006. I can't remember.
  • MartinT - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    Looking at the bracket and the height of the water block above the PCB, this is most definitely not a single-slot card.
  • nathanddrews - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    Does height disqualify it? As far as width goes it doesn't appear wider than the slot cover, which screams "single slot" to me.
  • ShieTar - Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - link

    I think the slot itself is slightly technically slightly larger than the bracket, as there is a distance between two brackets in the hardware. The way it looks, it would probably not be possible to stack several cards of this width, but you might just fit a lot simpler cards (e.g. sound-card, controller) into the slot next to it. So I guess it's not meeting single-slot specification, but is likely to work as a single-slot in reality.

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