Tom's Hardware's AMA With Asus, In Its Entirety

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Pronouncing Asus, Graphics, And Thunderbolt

After being live for a full 24 hours, the Asus “Ask Me Anything” has officially concluded!

A big, huge thanks to Asus representatives who took the time out of their schedules to come and answer the awesome questions our community had for them. We know this was a lot of work on their end, and we're greatly appreciative of the time taken to engage with the community here at Tom's Hardware.

For answering questions, an epic thanks goes out to Raja Gill, JJ Guerrero, Nick Mijuskovic, and last but not least, to Erik Joiner at Asus for helping put this together on their end and securing the time and info required to feed our ravenous fanbase all this juicy info about what Asus is up to. Check out the massive thread here!

Tom’s Hardware Ask Me Anything: Asus

A digest of all responses:

Q. Hello, I bought a 7970 DCU2 Top and I'm disappointed because the vcore is intentionally locked; do you have plans to unlock it?

A. The voltage is not actually locked. The vbios for the card does allow for overclocking, but a correct version of GPU Tweak must be used to allow for the voltage to be adjusted. Asus has led the industry with extensive overvoltage technologies and performance features for GPUs and we will continue to do so. With that noted, it is important to remember that the vbios is co-developed and validated with our partners whether it be AMD and Nvidia.

Q. 3 questions. First, when will you make a version of the Radeon HD 7990? Second, will you ever make a slimmer version of the Radeon HD 7970? Third, will you ever hop into the PSU market?

A. Currently for the US market we do not have plans to release a 7990. As you may be aware we produced our own solution which was faster and quieter, the ARES II was a ultra-high end performance-oriented SKU that due to the complex design and yield was limited in production quantity. With that in mind you can rest assured our team is always looking at pushing the envelope in designs on the GPU front. Currently there are no plans to refresh the designs of our 7970 DCII or our 7970 Matrix. The cooling and acoustics are very important for this GPU and we want to ensure a consistent cool and quiet experience. We have no plans to manufacture or produce power supplies. We have extensive partnerships with leading PSU vendors and feel they offer outstanding solutions currently.

Q. I have a Z77 Sabertooth, and I'm really hoping to make use of the Thunderbolt expansion header. Can you tell me what the ETA on the Thunderbolt card is? It seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.

A. Currently the add-in card has been supplied to Intel's validation labs. We have completed our internal validation and testing but there are requirements by Intel to ensure interoperability and compatibility. Until they complete the validation the card cannot be sold.

Q. On the ROG 1150 socket do the power phases interfere with a LAN connection in gaming to the point where I might want to use a standalone LAN card?

A. A bit vague, but there should be no issue at all.

Q. When will ITX/DTX FF will start getting love in their road maps?

A. Soon :)

Q. After looking at your new Maximus VI Impact (which is awesome), I was wondering if there'd be any chance we'd be seeing any sort of x79-based mini-ITX motherboard.

A. It would present considerable design challenges. Power being one of them. Given what would need to be cut out, it would make more sense to stick with Z87 - as least as it stands today.

Q. What's the correct way to pronounce Asus? I say 'ace-us' but when my girlfriend phoned, the guy answered with 'ah-zoos'. I know the name is derived from 'Pegasus', but that would suggest an 'uh-sus' pronunciation, which wouldn't sound right. Is there concensus at Asus over pronunciation or does it vary?

A. The correct pronunciation of Asus is ey-soos. Basically a long A and the last part is like Dr. Seuss.

Q. When is the Formula VI and Impact coming out?

A. Sometime next month :)

Bestofmedia Team
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Aoyagi
    So I take it Asus is, in fact, not planning to broaden its AMD laptop selection since they didn't respond to the question about that. Unfortunate, I really liked the brand.
    Reply
  • kennai
    On page 8, the first answer is to the second question, and the second question is to the first answer. Was staring at that second answer for like 2 minutes being like, whaaaaat.
    Reply
  • kennai
    On page 8, the first answer is to the second question, and the second question is to the first answer. Was staring at that second answer for like 2 minutes being like, whaaaaat.
    Reply
  • bim27142
    They didn't answer my question. :( :( :(
    Reply
  • Madn3ss795
    I was excited so see any sights of an ITX AMD board from Asus. Sadly all answers led to a big "NO".
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    Sadly, Asus is too Intel focused to concern themselves with any innovating anything on their AMD lineup.
    Reply
  • vmem
    11057585 said:
    Sadly, Asus is too Intel focused to concern themselves with any innovating anything on their AMD lineup.

    ASUS is a business, and like any good business they're only concerned with MAKING MONEY. this is actually a GOOD THING, they have a clear goal and they know how to go about doing it: make good products that consumers want to buy.

    a huge part of making money and running a business is getting brand recognition, something AMD has been TERRIBLE at until recently. and ASUS made their point clear, they're not favoring Intel, their marketing research simply says there is insufficient demand. this is because when you walk into best-buy or even microcenter, at least 90% of the people shopping there still equate Intel with CPU. when that changes, ASUS will focus on AMD more. it's really that simple
    Reply
  • vmem
    11055330 said:
    Awesome info here... though I'm kinda bummed they had no info about pricing on that 39" 4k monitor. I'm drooling at the thought of acquiring one of those since it's using a cheap VA panel, assuming ASUS doesn't get greedy and charge a ton for it.

    Can't wait to be rid of this 1080p plague.

    I don't think it's a simple matter of greed. they can't price it TOO cheaply, or else their 31" 4K monitor with the nice Sharp panel won't sell. They have to price it appropriately for the quality and the market. if I were to venture a guess I'd say it'll be around $2-2.5K when it comes out.
    Reply
  • lp231
    11057635 said:
    11055330 said:
    Awesome info here... though I'm kinda bummed they had no info about pricing on that 39" 4k monitor. I'm drooling at the thought of acquiring one of those since it's using a cheap VA panel, assuming ASUS doesn't get greedy and charge a ton for it.

    Can't wait to be rid of this 1080p plague.

    I don't think it's a simple matter of greed. they can't price it TOO cheaply, or else their 31" 4K monitor with the nice Sharp panel won't sell. They have to price it appropriately for the quality and the market. if I were to venture a guess I'd say it'll be around $2-2.5K when it comes out.

    From the web, the 31.5" will cost around $3799 to $4000. I expect the 39" to be close to $10,000.

    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    11057620 said:
    ASUS is a business, and like any good business they're only concerned with MAKING MONEY. this is actually a GOOD THING, they have a clear goal and they know how to go about doing it: make good products that consumers want to buy.

    a huge part of making money and running a business is getting brand recognition, something AMD has been TERRIBLE at until recently. and ASUS made their point clear, they're not favoring Intel, their marketing research simply says there is insufficient demand. this is because when you walk into best-buy or even microcenter, at least 90% of the people shopping there still equate Intel with CPU. when that changes, ASUS will focus on AMD more. it's really that simple

    AMD had nearly 50% market share in 2006 which has gradually dwindled to the current ~16-17% which is around a 10% drop from a year ago. The overreaching bias on tech sites over the years have fortified Intel's position as a monopoly over the CPU market and the lack of features such as PCIe 3.0 and Thunderbolt on AMD exemplifies the perception that AMD is inferior to Intel.

    The reality is that AMD has a clear advantage in integrated GPU solutions that would be optimal for small form factors but the lack of hardware and absence of media coverage perpetuates a fallacy that Intel provides the best solution for all computer needs.

    I, for one, will not be supporting Asus since ASRock and MSI continue to provide a much more balanced solutions on both platforms.
    Reply