ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK
(GeForce 8800 GTX) 768MB PCI-E
As the GeForce 8800 GTX has no competitors (RADEON HD 2900 XT is a step lower), we continue to examine the fastest production-line graphics cards for games.
Today we'll examine the card from ASUS. But it's not just a reference card in the ASUS box, this card is significantly modified. The highlight of this product is its liquid cooling system from ThermalTake. That is a water cooler.
Operating frequencies of the card were raised owing to this highly efficient cooling system, so this product bears the TOP title. It's one of the fastest graphics cards to date but for the 8800 Ultra (performance difference between them is not very big).
Graphics card
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800 GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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- GPU: GeForce 8800 GTX (G80)
- Interface: PCI-Express x16
- GPU frequencies (ROPs/Shaders): 621/1450 MHz (nominal - 575/1350 MHz)
- Memory frequencies (physical (effective)): 1025 (2050) MHz (nominal - 900 (1800) MHz)
- Memory bus width: 384bit
- Vertex processors: -
- Pixel processors: -
- Unified processors: 128
- Texture processors: 32
- ROPs: 24
- Dimensions: 270x100x33 mm (the last figure is the maximum thickness of a video card).
- PCB color: green
- RAMDACs/TDMS: in a separate chip.
- Output connectors: 2xDVI (Dual-Link), TV-Out.
- VIVO: not available
- TV-out: integrated into GPU.
- Multi-GPU operation: SLI (Hardware).
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800 GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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The video card has 768 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM allocated in twelve chips on the front side of the PCB.
Samsung memory chips (GDDR3). 1.0 ns memory access time, which corresponds to 1000 (2000) MHz.
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| Comparison with the reference design,
front view |
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800
GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
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| Comparison with the reference design,
back view |
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800
GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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Reference card NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
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We can see well that the graphics card itself is of the reference design. That is the card is still manufactured at the third-party plant by NVIDIA's orders. ASUS has nothing to do with its manufacturing.
But the cooling system is another matter. We'll write about it below.
The card has TV-Out with a unique jack. You will need special bundled adapters to output video to a TV-set via S-Video or RCA. You can read about the TV-Out in more detail
here.
Analog monitors with d-Sub (VGA) are connected either via a VGA connector, or special DVI-to-d-Sub adapters (included into the bundle). Maximum resolutions and frequencies:
- 240 Hz Max Refresh Rate
- 2048 x 1536 x 32bit x85Hz Max - analog interface
- 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz Max - digital interface
What concerns MPEG2 playback features (DVD-Video), we analyzed this issue in 2002. Little has changed since that time. CPU load during video playback on all modern video cards does not exceed 25%. What concerns HDTV and other trendy video features, you can read the first of our reviews here.
Now what concerns the cooling system.
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800 GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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The device consists of two main parts: an internal unit mounted on the graphics card and an external unit that does the cooling.
The units are connected with flexible rubber pipes and form a common coolant loop with special liquid flowing inside. It's not water, but special viscous liquid (for more efficient heat exchange) with various fillers to spare metal parts. All pipes are connected with special bridles. But you should still check them up from time to time. Vibrations may weaken the bridles, and the liquid may leak out. This is very dangerous for conducting elements that abound inside a system unit.
An additional unit that can be installed into any slot under a graphics card (it has a makeshift plastic PCI connector) and screwed to a PC case like a usual expansion card. It contains an expansion unit that accumulates the liquid and a fan to cool the heatsink that takes the heat from the water coolant. Fan speed can be controlled with a switch on top of the unit.
The internal unit, installed on the graphics card, is reinforced with a heatsink and a low-speed turbine (noiseless). They should help the main cooling device, because the heatsink on the graphics card is very large and covers not only the core, but also memory chips and the NV IO chip.
In conclusion, we'd like to note that the cooler is made by ThermalTake.
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If you set the turbine on the additional unit to full speed, the noise it generates becomes noticeable. So we monitored operating temperatures with RivaTuner (written by A.Nikolaychuk AKA Unwinder) and got the following results:
Standard fan speed
Full fan speed
As we can see, there is no need in setting the fan to full speed, because we can get decent temperatures of the core (below 75°) even without noise. Which is great for such a card operating at increased frequencies!
Bundle
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800 GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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It's a standard bundle: User's Manual, CD with drivers, a couple of old games, 3Dmark06, adapters. This super card might have had a better bundle :-) |
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Package
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ASUS EN8800GTX TOP AQUATANK (GeForce 8800 GTX) 768MB PCI-E
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The poor bundle is compensated by a luxurious box. The box is really impressive - laser engraving to deepen the image, a new design with an eastern beauty.
The box itself is huge and has a handle.
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