ASUS EN8800GTX Graphics Card Even with the advent of the GeForce 8800 Ultra, the ASUS EN8800GTX is still a top-dog. As our test results in this review and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra review have shown, it is just 7-13% slower than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, and yet costs 28% less. This gives the ASUS EN8800GTX far better price-performance value than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. Frankly, the card is so fast, you can run all DirectX 9 games in the market at 1920x1200 (the highest resolution we tested) at 8x AA and 16x AF without worrying about frame rates. Just set everything to the highest resolution and rendering quality and enjoy the game! Anything less than that would be sacrilege. Do note that we have been testing it in Windows Vista. As you know, none of the graphics drivers for Windows Vista (for either NVIDIA or ATI) are really up to par just yet. So, you can count on better performance as newer drivers for Windows Vista are released in the future. We are really counting on that to really improve the card's DirectX 10 performance, as we saw a 35-44% drop in frame rate just switching from a DirectX 9 renderer to a DirectX 10 renderer in Company Of Heroes. As things stand, even a powerful (and expensive card) like the ASUS EN8800GTX can only provide okay frame rates in the 30-40 fps region. With the G80 GPU undergoing a silicon refresh for faster clock speeds and improved timings, it is possible that current ASUS EN8800GTX cards will also be using the same, improved GPUs. That would mean that these cards would have really interesting overclocking potential. Although the ASUS EN8800GTX is a really powerful card and one would be a fool to deny its appeal, it is still one of the most expensive desktop graphics cards you can buy. Only the advent of the incredibly expensive GeForce 8800 Ultra relegated it to second place. If you are looking to buy a top-of-the line card, you should certainly consider the ASUS EN8800GTX. While it is no longer the king of the hill, it's a very close second-in-command and far cheaper. It would certainly offer you much better value for your money at this moment, compared to the GeForce 8800 Ultra. In addition, ASUS packs a really nice bundle, consisting of two games and 3DMark 06, together with a faux leather CD case. As such, we have no qualms in giving it our Editor's Choice Award. We would love to have ASUS drop the price on the EN8800GTX, but still, it was a very nice GeForce 8800 GTX bundle. Great job on the EN8800GTX, ASUS! For more details, read our Comprehensive Review ! MSRP  $599 Lowest PriceGrabber Price Review  Comprehensive Review Architecture  G80 Process Technology  90 nm Number of Transistors  681 Million Die Size  Est. 484 mm2 Stream Processors  128 ROPs  24 ROPs Core Clock  575 MHz Shader Clock  1350 MHz Fillrate  36.8 Gigapixels / sec. Memory Interface  384-bits memory interface Memory Buffer  768 MB GDDR3 Memory Clock  900 MHz

 1.8 GHz DDR Memory Bandwidth  86.4 GB/s Power Consumption  145.5 W Graphics Bus  PCI Express Shader Model Version  SM 4.0 NVIDIA IntelliSample Technology  4.0 NVIDIA SLI Technology  Yes (Two SLI connectors) NVIDIA Quad SLI Technology  NA NVIDIA TurboCache Technology  No 64-bit Texture Filtering and Blending  Yes DVI Support  Two dual-linked DVI, both integrated into the GPU Software Bundle • Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

• GTI Racing

• 3DMark06 Package Contents  One ASUS EN8800GTX Graphics Card

 One DVI-to-VGA Adapter

 One S-Video-to-RGB Cable

 One Molex-to-PCIE Cable

 One Faux Leather CD Wallet

 One ASUS Speed SetUP Manual

 One ASUS Manual CD

 One ASUS Driver CD

 One 3DMark06 Full Edition CD

 One Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter CD

 One GTI Racing CD Warranty • 3 Years Manufacturer's Warranty Our Review System Tech ARP is committed to developing new ways to improve your experience with us. As part of our continuous efforts to improve the value of our reviews to you, we are implementing a multi-tier review system. This review system is designed to allow you to quickly receive information on the latest hardware or software. This new system also allows you to quickly get the gist of the review without reading through it. This can be very useful, especially in situations where you need to make a quick purchase decision. In this new system, we start with a Product Overview whenever a company sends us a press release about their latest product. We shift through extraneous PR-talk to create a straightforward summary of the product's features as well as specifications. This allows you to quickly find out all the pertinent details about the product, without reading through official press releases. When we receive the product for review, we will quickly take photos of it and create a Pictorial Review. The purpose of a pictorial review is to allow you, the reader, to quickly examine the product visually. It may help you make better purchase decisions, especially if you cannot wait for the full review. After thorough testing, we will post a Comprehensive Review of the product. This adds on to the pictorial review with comprehensive test results and our final conclusion on the product. But no matter whether you are reading a Pictorial Review or a Comprehensive Review, you can always read the summary of the review as well as examine the product's specifications right on the first page. In all our new reviews, we will maintain the first page as a Product Overview page. If the product is listed in PriceGrabber, you can also check out the lowest price online. We hope this new review system will make your experience a lot more enjoyable and informative!

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