14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS announced on July 3, 2007 that new overclocking gear for graphics cards is now available. This new gear works in real-time and the best part is that it is hardware-based, which gives users more security.
The ASUS OC gear will be shipped together with an upgraded EN8600GT. Let's see more about this card and the additional overclocking gear.
First of all, the videocard is now considered to be a middle-level one. The fact that ASUS chose to upgrade it with faster memory modules should give users a performance bonus. The graphics engine is powered by a GeForce 8600GT running at 540MHz and requires an active cooling solution.
256MB of video memory will run at 1.4GHz( 700MHz real speed), the memory is DDR3 based and while its interface with the graphics engine is only 128 bits wide this should not cause too many bottlenecks.
The bus standard is, of course, PCI-Ex, another step forward from the old AGP, and using PCI-Ex, the 128 bits of the interface don't slow down the entire card. Supporting up to 3840 by 2400 resolutions and the latest DVI and HDTV standards, this video card could be perfect for the occasional gamers and wide-screens users. Another plus is that dual DVI is supported, so two DVI-compliant monitors can be used at the same time, without the need of adapters.
Unfortunately, the software bundle is poor, only the ASUS driver and utilities are present.
Let's see now what the OC gear offers. Maybe the most important thing for the average user is that the OC gear is really user-friendly. It comes with an easy-to-read display that shows real-time information including GPU temperature and the current FPS (frames per second). By pressing a knob, the user can jump from one menu to another, including sound volume, GPU clock and fan speed.
Installing the OC gear should be a piece of cake for most PC users, as only one 4-pin USB connector is required in order to transfer information and power from the motherboard. The OC gear itself fits into a 5-inch bay and it only draws 5 W of power.
Because of a new and improved fansink, with 25% more surface area, users should be able to achieve up to 30% enhanced overclocking performance. Fully supporting DirectX 10 will allow users to play the latest games at their full potential.
As a conclusion, I would say that this OC gear is certainly a step forward in the video overclocking trend and, paired with the 8600GT based card, it should be able to give the graphics performance a much needed boost.