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ASUS Extreme N6800Ultra/2DT
[Abstract]
ThoughtsAdvertismentGiven the lack of clock discrepancies between GeForce 6800 Ultra cards, NVIDIA's board partners need to differentiate themselves from the rest by offering something in their...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
ThoughtsAdvertisment
Given the lack of clock discrepancies between GeForce 6800 Ultra cards, NVIDIA's board partners need to differentiate themselves from the rest by offering something in their respective packages that others don't. In the case of ASUS, this difference is manifested by having a larger-than-normal card bundle. However good ASUS is at presenting this EN6800 Ultra graphics card, there's a couple of cracks that are hard to gloss over. Firstly, the use of a completely reference card and fan setup has stopped an ASUS-specific feature, SmartFan, from being adopted here. The ability to control the fan noise of a GeForce 6800 Ultra going at full chat shouldn't be underestimated. ASUS will undoubtedly contend that a 425MHz-clocked Ultra needs a large cooler and fan running at full speed, but I'd at least have liked ASUS to try a different approach.
ASUS' brand name and bundle pushes up the price of this PCI-Express model to around ?80 at most retailers, which is in line with other GeForce 6800 Ultra PCIe packages. The problem is, ATI's RADEON X850 XT PCIe offers similar performance for up to ?0 less, albeit sans multi-GPU ability. 'XT PEs tend to be quieter, and GeCube's Uniwise model has the added benefit of running with a single-slot cooler, perfect for gamers that want superlative performance in a small form-factor PC.
ASUS hasn't done anything really wrong with the EN6800 Ultra card, but it's let an opportunity go begging to design the ultimate GeForce 6800 Ultra, one that would use a custom heatsink, SmartFan, and, perhaps, a cooler that takes up only a single slot. As it is, it's a case of a reference card dropped into a regular, feature-rich ASUS card package. Lamentations of possibilities missed aside, ASUS' GeForce 6800 Ultra is still a good a bet as any out there, and it's backed up by a 3-year warranty from a firm that's likely to be going strong in 2008.
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ASUS Serious About Dual-GPU Graphics Cards (2005-05-13)