14 DAY TRIAL // Asus has introduced today the newest thermal solution that allegedly keeps GPU temperatures up to 7 degrees C cooler than older solutions. The cooler has already been implemented in the EN8800GT series. Asus has been offering factory-overclocked graphics cards but it never broke any records until the EN8800GT arrived.
The first model to adopt the Glaciator Fansink was EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M, as it is designed to allow overclocking of the stream processors. The performance upgrade boosts the stream processor clock from the average 1500MHz up to 1750MHz, while the 3DMark results range from 10112 points in normal conditions to 11119 when overclocked. The 10 percent gain ensures superior gaming performance and experience. The low GPU temperature allowed ASUS to beat Zotac's AMP version and match the suicidal level of Evga's Super Super Clocked Edition.
The SmartDoctor software allows the user to overclock the Shader Clock and Engine Clock independently to achieve amazing performance boosts without having to re-flash their BIOS. Asus EN8800GT Series feature the ASUS GamerOSD, to allow GPU overclocking directly from the on-screen display - even during games - in order to real-time adjust the desired performance level. The same software gives the gamer the opportunity of recording their games or broadcast it over the Internet in real-time.
While the overall performance is impressive for a mid-level video card, the 7 degrees Celsius drop promised by Asus is hardly news and really no performance improvement. What would be a real achievement for an enthusiast overclocker would be taking a dedicated cooling solution such as Thermalright or Zalman and mount it instead of the Glaciator Fansink. That would allow temperature drops up to 25 degrees Celsius and a true boost in performance. And even though the Asus team promotes low temperatures, the RAM chips on the video cards have neither passive, nor active cooling elements to chill them down.