ASUS EAH3870 TOP 512MB Graphics Card Review
April 13, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Manufacturer Product Page: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Product Number: EAH3870TOP/G/HTDI/512M/A
Availability: Now
Warranty: 3-Year
Price: Compare Prices
As time goes on, we have all been seeing quite an interesting battle develop in the mid-priced graphics card market between the offerings from Nvidia and ATI. Believe it or not, it has been almost half a year since the release of the venerable 8800GT 512MB and five months since ATI’s answering HD3870 and HD3850 were released. Since then, there have been both comings and goings in the world of graphics cards but both the HD3870 and the 8800GT are still around and still competing for the same budget-minded gamers. What six months has accomplished is to lower the prices of these competing products to the point where the HD3870 is now retailing for around $200 here in Canada which represents a drop of about twenty percent. This card has not only proven itself able to play games quite well but it also offers up numerous multimedia options as well. These things have led many consumers to believe that the HD3870 is a better all round graphics card option than the competing product from Nvidia. Whether or not this is true is very much up to the individual and their needs but ATI’s $200 offering makes a pretty convincing argument for itself.
New developments in the last few days have contributed to make the HD-series graphics cards all that more appealing with the addition of a Folding@home GPU client. This is something many people have been waiting for since it has the potential to turn their ATI graphics cards into number-crunching powerhouses…all for a good cause. At this time, Nvidia’s cards aren’t able to add their weight to a Stanford’s Folding@home initiative so this is just one more benefit of having an ATI graphics card.
If you haven’t guessed already (hopefully you read the title), this review will be concentrating on a rather unique graphics card: the ASUS HD3870 TOP. We can talk all day and night about ASUS and their experience regarding anything computer-related but let’s just keep it at this: they know what they are doing. In ASUS lingo, TOP stands for Top Overclocking Performance which also means that this particular HD3870 512MB card is overclocked right out of the box. Out of all the ATI board partners, ASUS is one of the few which offers pre-overclocked ATI cards which puts them a step ahead of the competition right off the bat. Other manufacturers which offer ATI cards also have a rather annoying habit of offering absolutely pathetic warranties with their products. Where one year warranties are the norm, the three years ASUS offers stands out like a shining light in a world of mediocrity.
At face value, everything looks great but for some reason finding stock of this overclocked HD3870 is next to impossible here in Canada. That being said, it should be interesting to see how well this card can compete against the competition.
ASUS EN8800GT TOP 512MB Graphics Card Review
April 7, 2008 by Cabro · Leave a Comment
Manufacturer Product Page: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Product Number: EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M
Availability: Now
Warranty: 3-Year
Price: Compare Prices
ASUS is a company which has been catering to the enthusiast computer component market for longer than most of us can remember but at the same time they have a presence in nearly every other area of the computer market as well. From laptops to monitors and from barebones units to high-performance motherboards, they have it all and from our experience, every one of their products sticks to the same ideals of quality and performance. While in the past we have reviewed mundane (a DVD drive) and innovative (their ASUS Xonar D2 sound card) gear from them, today we will be looking at a product which is aimed squarely at the high-performance gamer: the ASUS 8800GT 512MB TOP Edition with the optional Glaciator cooler.
While Nvidia and ATI have been battling it out in the trenches with their new graphics cards, their board partners have been forced to come up with innovative ways to distinguish their products from the competition. Some of them forego the reference cooler and add an aftermarket heatsink while others pre-overclock their cards for increased performance over the competition. This is especially true with the 8800GT series since this card is the best selling graphics card in Nvidia’s history and board partners are chomping at the bit to get a piece of the action. Enter ASUS’ 8800GT TOP Edition, and as we will see with this card ASUS has actually gone with the best of both worlds by installing their custom Glaciator cooler while overclocking both the core and memory. As is usual for ASUS graphics cards, the TOP is considered a full retail package-type product and in this case it comes with the game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts along with quite a few other extras. With the market full of 8800GT cards, it looks like ASUS is putting tons of effort in order to get their card recognized.
As is normal in the graphics card industry, all of these extra features contribute to make the ASUS 8800GT TOP more expensive than most competing reference-based cards. Thus, expect to pay a $30-$40 premium for this card over a standard 8800GT which puts the TOP Edition’s price at around $260. Along with this price, another slight problem presented itself for us: there is literally no way of telling if you will get the TOP Edition with the Glaciator cooler. According to ASUS, the product number EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M is valid for both (reference cooler and Glaciator) of their TOP edition cards. Indeed, as you can tell by the product page we linked you to above, even ASUS’ website does not make a distinction between the two cards. Buyer beware; try to get confirmation from store you are buying this card from regarding which version they have in stock. You may also notice that we don’t have a price listed on our price compare engine and this is due to the fact that this particular version seems extremely hard to find here in Canada.
With this card, ASUS is looking to make some waves in the graphics card market and without a doubt the 8800GT TOP looks ready to take on the big boys.
