Product ReviewsGraphics cards
With graphics cards based on nVidia's 7900GS chipset available for as little as £120, you might wonder why on earth you'd want to spend nearly £170 on a card that uses it. Well, the Asus EN7900GS isn't any ordinary 7900GS - instead Asus has taken nVidia's reference design and given it go-faster stripes. A standard 7900GS card has a graphics processing unit (GPU) running at 450MHz and DDR3 memory clocked at 660MHz. The EN7900GS' GPU barrels along at a heady 590MHz - over 30% faster than the reference design - and the memory is overclocked by a more modest 10% to 720MHz. The question is whether all this tweaking of an already
Our Call of Duty 2 benchmark can give most graphics cards something to chew on, but going by its result of 123%, the Asus was untroubled. However, if your monitor is only capable of modest resolutions like 1280 x 1024, you really don't need the extra oomph that the Asus can deliver over and above a standard (and cheaper) 7900GS. The EN7900GS is far better matched to a 20in or larger widescreen TFT with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 - at this resolution it sailed to an effortless 101%. In the benchmarks. A standard 7900GS struggles to reach 87% at the same settings. The EN7900GS is supplied with a copy of the entertaining Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter game, a DVI to VGA adapter for hooking up older monitors, a component cable for connecting to HD televisions and projectors, and most pointless of all, a faux-leather Asus CD wallet. Fortunately, the Asus really does have the performance to match the huge box it comes in and at £166, it isn't bad value. Just remember to bear in mind that unless you'll be plugging it into a 20 or 22in TFT monitor, you're still better off saving your cash and going for the cheapest 7600GT or 7900GS based card you can find. By Sasha Muller SPECIFICATIONS:
Connection PCI-Express Chipset nVidia GeForce 7900GS Memory 256MB DDR3 Outputs DVI, D-SUB, S-Video, component Sponsored Links
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