WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.720 Like any reasonable person, I found myself thinking, you know, the GeForce RTX 5090 is just too darn 00:00:06.720 --> 00:00:13.120 affordable. Won't somebody please find a way to make it more expensive without adding any performance? 00:00:13.760 --> 00:00:24.160 Oh, praise me! ASUS has answered my call! The ROG Astral 5090 Dehab Edition is exactly what it says 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:31.200 on the tin. A top-of-the-line RTX 5090 GPU, which is already going to run you $3,000 to $4,000 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:40.880 after scalper markup, but with 6.5 grams of .999 fineness gold and Arab-inspired motifs embedded 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:47.920 on its giant four-fan cooler. Well, you might say, maybe it's not that ridiculous. I mean, 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:52.960 gold seems like a perfectly cromulent investment in these turbulent times. How much more could it 00:00:52.960 --> 00:01:01.360 cost, Michael? $10? Oh no, my friends, for the approximately 675 US dollars worth of gold on 00:01:01.360 --> 00:01:10.080 this thing, you will pay, or rather I should say, I have paid anywhere from about four to five 00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:16.960 thousand dollars more for this hyper-exclusive piece of gaming bling. This thing better knock 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:22.240 my socks off. After a word from the sucker who helped me pay for it. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:39.200 The aptly named 5090 Dehab or Gold Edition is exclusive to the Middle Eastern North Africa region 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:45.280 and is meant to pay homage to the growing ROG customer base there. So how did I get my hands 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:52.000 on it? I'm in Canada. Well, okay, normally I am, but today I'm in Taiwan and after sending 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:57.200 a message to my incredulous ASUS contact saying that I wanted to buy one, they put me in touch 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:03.840 with a contact who hand-carried this from Saudi Arabia to the show floor for me to purchase. 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:10.960 The only question was, how do I get it safely off the show floor to unbox it? The retail prices 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:16.480 we've seen for this monster are anywhere from seven thousand to ten thousand US dollars. 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:23.680 I paid about eight thousand for mine, which feels completely unhinged, like surely this card is just 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:30.960 some kind of bizarre publicity stunt, right? Well, shockingly, it's not. While ASUS has never 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:36.640 publicly stated how many of these limited edition cards were made, they told me that it is apparently 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:43.520 five hundred, which turns this science fair project into four million dollars of potential 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:49.520 revenue. That is a lot more than I expected. I guess in the first draft of the script before I 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:55.520 heard back from ASUS was anywhere from five to fifty, but I don't know, maybe I shouldn't be 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:01.760 that surprised. It's not like this is that new. ASUS has done extreme limited run GPUs in the past. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:07.760 The Mars 2, for instance, was a dual GPU overclocked card that had no power limit, 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:13.200 and they did about a thousand of those at fifteen hundred US dollars over ten years ago, 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:19.680 you know, before regular GPUs were fifteen hundred dollars. And the Middle Eastern market, 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:25.120 where this GPU is apparently selling quite well, is much bigger than it used to be. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:30.080 Surely they can find five hundred rich gamers, then, to shell out for one. 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:34.800 Or four hundred and ninety-nine, since I've got one of them. Let's take a look. 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:39.120 Gotta give ASUS credit. They know how to present. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:44.320 Ah, yes. Thank you. 00:03:46.480 --> 00:03:49.920 How about thank you very much for this one, all right? 00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:59.920 How to install. I dropped the one thing that mattered. Certificate of authenticity. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:14.160 What is it? It's a fridge magnet. I don't know what I was expecting, but fridge magnet wasn't it? 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:21.040 Quad PCIe 2 12 volt 2 by 6 adapter and gold themed GPU support. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:29.760 Oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, it's magnetic. And it's got a little screwdriver on the end. 00:04:29.760 --> 00:04:36.960 Finally, a thick boy cable tie and one of those adorable little PCB rulers. Gold themed, of course. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:44.640 At this point, this probably feels like five play though. Let's hurry up and oh, oh, oh, oh, my. 00:04:50.320 --> 00:05:00.320 Oh, it stinks. What the heck? James, come here. Oh, whoa. You see? Got that good manufacturing 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:12.480 stank. Everything is gold! The attention to detail is like I don't think I've ever 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:18.620 seen from these guys before. Even the IO plate is painted gold. There are a few 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:23.040 details that ASUS points out in their product story for this card that I have 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:30.440 to confess now that I have it in my hands I'm finding a little bit confusing. First of all they say that they chose the color gold to symbolize 00:05:30.440 --> 00:05:37.000 its rarity, it's limited edition, and also because it's the color of sand which 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:45.320 is where the Middle East started in the desert. And then so that's the idea 00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:49.400 behind this etched graphic that they have on the back where you've got buddy 00:05:49.400 --> 00:05:55.800 with his camels and then something and then giant skyscrapers to show the 00:05:55.800 --> 00:06:01.160 progress in the region from the desert to the sky. The fan hubs are apparently 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:06.540 covered in ancient Arabic characters and apparently there's handwritten Arabic 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:11.560 calligraphy somewhere that says unity courage and strength but I'm not sure 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:18.760 where it is. I don't read Arabic. One little detail they don't point out in the 00:06:18.760 --> 00:06:23.360 product story is that there's coordinates on here. Hey James it's the 00:06:23.400 --> 00:06:31.880 ASUS building in Taipei. As for why ASUS chose their astral design for the 00:06:31.880 --> 00:06:36.440 Dehab Edition, well I think that's pretty obvious. It has their sick new vapor 00:06:36.440 --> 00:06:40.640 chamber that has those recesses for heat pipes. It's got their dual fan blow-through 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:45.040 design on the back here, total of four fans, enhanced power delivery that made 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:49.920 it Slave's card of choice for extreme overclocking, and of course it looks sick. 00:06:49.960 --> 00:06:55.440 All I need to do now is build a PC that is worthy of my new GPU. But wait a 00:06:55.440 --> 00:07:00.480 tick, it looks cool but we don't actually know if it works and I should 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:04.080 probably find a test bench before I leave the country with it. I have no idea 00:07:04.080 --> 00:07:07.800 what my warranty coverage is gonna look like for some card that I obtained in 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:11.080 Asia but was intended for sale in the Middle East and I'm taking to North 00:07:11.080 --> 00:07:15.920 America. Where am I gonna get a computer? Where better to find a system than the 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:24.640 G-Skill booth? I need to hook up way. Actually that's very nice but no not 00:07:24.640 --> 00:07:31.080 that. I have a GPU. Can you get me a test bench where I can stress test it? 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:36.200 Of course. Okay where do you want to put it on? Where are you going with that? 00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:44.560 Where are you going with that? Yeah why not that one? Why not? I mean this clearly 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:49.160 needs an upgrade. Yeah of course of course. I don't ask for much right? This is 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:56.080 sick. DDR5, Cam2. Nice! Nice! We found a new power supply from our friends over 00:07:56.080 --> 00:08:03.280 it. Don't worry it's fine it's all good. This is their Prime 1300 watt. 00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:13.560 Here we go boys. Wait wait this is all wrong. Well I don't have any crystal 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:21.560 golden memory on there. Oh right yes. I love bugging these guys but I got to admit 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:27.360 it kind of gets me thinking. What kind of PC do you put a GPU like this in? Like 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:36.080 look it looks completely out of place in here. Hey there it is. That's more like 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:40.520 it. Try it in Z5 Royal Neo. Get this get this non-gold stuff out of here. 00:08:40.520 --> 00:08:47.560 Disgusting. Okay there we go. I'll put it. I'm gonna put it there. Yeah! Oh yeah I 00:08:47.560 --> 00:08:53.680 never mentioned the IO. It has five ports. Two HDMI, three display ports. Neat. Hey it 00:08:53.680 --> 00:09:01.280 works! So far. Realistically G-skills favorite game is make RAM number go up 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:05.040 really high so I didn't expect them to have any actual game files but what they 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:12.960 do have is Furmark so we can go ahead and make sure this bad boy works. Hey fans 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:20.760 are spinning. 100% usage power 600 watts. It can't be 600 watts exactly can it? 00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:26.040 They got to have hardware info on here. Oh yeah they do. According to 8 of 64 we 00:09:26.040 --> 00:09:37.400 are at 598.67 watts 52.91 amps. Doesn't smell like burning. Definitely feels like 00:09:37.400 --> 00:09:42.440 600 watts so it works which means the only question now is what do I do with 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:49.520 it? I could do an all-gold PC maybe. I could scalp it. Oh guys I'm kidding I'm 00:09:49.520 --> 00:09:55.160 kidding but what I never cared about is our sponsor. If you guys enjoyed this 00:09:55.160 --> 00:09:59.360 video why don't we throw back to that time I unboxed the Mars 2 one of their 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:03.800 previous weirdo limited edition GPUs.