14 DAY TRIAL // In the unlikely event that you haven't already gotten a video card, and were looking for one, ASUS has just released the EN8600GTS/HTDP/256M. The card is based on the NVIDIA's 8600GTS chipset and is among the first models to be released on the market. This model in particular comes in with two different bundles. Apparently, ASUS has the EN8600GTS/HTDP/256M and the EN8600GTS/G/HTDP/256M, the first comes with DVI to VGA adapter, HDTV-Out cable, the drivers and utilities software bundle, and the second also has a game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Both cards rely on the GeForce 8600GTS graphics engine, the core clock frequency runs at 675MHz, they have 256MB of GDDR3 memory running at 2000MHz over a 128-bit memory interface, thus allowing for a maximum bandwidth of 32GB/s. The maximum resolution these models support is of 3840x2400 pixels, provided you get a monitor that can also sustain the same resolution. The EN8600GTS cards use NVIDIA's unified shader architecture with GigaThread technology support, along side NVIDIA SLI support for running two cards for improved performance.
Featuring 128-bit floating point high dynamic range (HDR) lighting and NVIDIA's Quantum Effects technologies, the user gets "the best parts of the gritty and atmospheric portions of the game." One other main advantage of these models is the ability to offer full HDCP compliancy, allowing the user to watch HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies at HD resolution. Of course that they missed out the need of a HD compliant monitor, which usually translates into a "must have an LCD-TV with 1080p support" requirement. Anyway, the video card offers a good performance/price ratio for the mainstream segment of the market and, with the aid of an SLI-ready motherboard, it can expand in the future to a SLI system, without requiring any extraordinary financial efforts.