Asus EN7600GT

Pricing

Even considering the annual $10,000 subscription that manufacturers have to pay for HDMI licensing, we were surprised by the price premium attached to each of these cards. The cheaper of the two 7600 GTs, the Asus, costs £27 more than our A-Listed, non-HDMI card version from Inno3D. But things are likely to change soon, with Asus promising HDMI across its entire range of graphics cards, and other manufacturers sure to follow. Prices are likely to come down sooner rather than later.

Conclusion

As with most areas related to HD video, it's far from clear how the market will go. Even if you're using a media centre PC and an HDMI-equipped TV, buying one of these cards isn't a foregone conclusion: DVI-to-HDMI converters are available for around £15, and these will work in the same way as a plain HDMI cable, with the sole current drawback being that they have no audio capabilities. Neither of the X1600 Pro cards here have a DVI port, and we experienced no problems using the HDMI port and a converter to connect to a DVI-I port on a standard TFT. While it will one day be the norm, the extra cost of an HDMI port seems like an expensive extravagance right now; only very early adopters need apply.

Author: Dave Stevenson