A Definite Contender! Especially with a little Tweak!!
Written: May 25 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Even Faster Graphics! Great Heat Control; Great Overclocking Capability; Hardware Monitoring
Cons: Price; Not-So-Impressive Software Bundle; Other Cards Looming on the Horizon
|
|
|
| Jedi617's Full Review: Asus AGP-7700 |
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.....
Gotcha! You blinked for a second, and it happened again! Graphics for your PC just got faster!! With the introduction of the nVidia GeForce 2 GTS the quality and speed of PC graphics just took another huge step forward. Graphic quality continues to improve, closing in to a level where true motion picture quality from a PC cannot be far off. The graphics thrown at you by your favorite 3D game continue to improve, closing in to the point where it'll seem as though you are watching a movie while you are truly playing a game! The nVidia GeForce 2 GTS is supplying the power, and just about every major graphics card manufacturer is jumping onboard the wagon by utilizing it on their latest releases. The AGP-7700 is the latest offering from Asus, and a definite contender to the throne of fastest graphics card on the retail market!!
A Definite Contender! Especially with a little Tweak!!
The first major change presented by the Asus AGP-7700 from earlier GeForce 256 graphics cards is obvious when you go to buy it, it is available in the store! The seemingly monumental lag that was present between the announcement of the GeForce 256 graphics cards and the actual delivery of those graphics cards is a thing of the past. The new batch of graphics cards based on the newly improved GeForce 2 GTS, from almost every major manufacturer, are arriving in stores mere weeks after the blazingly fast improved chipset was announced. The Else Gladiac reached the shelves first, and is an impressive piece of technology, with the Asus AGP-7700 following close behind it. The Asus AGP-7700 is available now.
The Asus AGP-7700 is a full featured product to say the least. With so many manufacturers rushing to deliver GeForce 2 GTS products to the retail markets, every single one of them is attempting their best to load their individual graphics card with enough features to draw attention their direction. The Asus AGP-7700 carries many features which you will find on just about all of the new GeForce 2 GTS batch of graphics cards.
Such standard features include an integrated 350 MHz RAMDAC core supporting from 640x480 up to 2048x1536 in true color, built-in 32MB DDR RAM with up to 5.3 GB/sec bandwidth, AGP 4x/2x with Fast Writes, true 32-bit colors, Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function support, four new Hypertexel pipelines which process dual-texture pixel-fill capacities up to 1.6 Gtexel fill rate, and a second-generation Transform and Lighting (T&L) Engine capable of 25 Mtriangles/sec.. Other standard video features will be multi-buffering (double, triple, and quad) for smooth animation and video playback, Z/stencil buffering, and multiple video windows with hardware color space conversion and filtering. The new GeForce 2 GTS will also allow these new cards to deliver video acceleration for Direct Show, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and Indeo; as well as optimization for OpenGL, DirectX 7 and Direct3D. The OpenGL support is fully v.1.2 compliant, while the optimization for DirectX 7 allows for all of the DirectX 7 features. DirectX 7 features include bump mapping, multi-texturing, reflection maps, light maps, trilinear and 8-tap anisotropic filtering, and full scene anti-aliasing.I>
The Asus AGP-7700 separates from the pack by including a hardware monitoring system into free space on the back of the card. This hardware monitoring system includes an internal temperature probe, a voltage monitor, as well as a hardware RPM monitoring fan. This hardware monitoring system is absolutely a stand-out feature to any hardcore "tinkerers" or gamers. The GeForce 2 GTS allows even easier overclocking of the core speed and memory speed, which raises the potential for rising heat and hardware strain to reach the point of becoming a very serious threat. The Asus AGP-7700 hardware monitoring system helps guard against a fatal situation. At this point, Asus is the only manufacturer to engineer this feature onto a GeForce 2 GTS, or GeForce 256 card.
The Asus AGP-7700 comes bundled with "Smart Doctor" software. The Asus "Smart Doctor" software takes information fed to it from the GeForce 2 GTS chip and the hardware monitoring system for display on screen, this intuitive interface displays several graphs so that you can see the mechanical condition of your graphics card at a glance. The current fan RPM, core voltage and core temperature are displayed by the graphs. The Asus "Smart Doctor" software also has some great overclocking tools.
The Asus AGP-7700 also features something Asus calls "dynamic overclocking". Asus has engineered the AGP-7700 so that the clock speed changes as is needed; in other words, the clock speed drops far lower while operating in the Windows 2D environment but accelerates appropriately when the card is more in demand, such as while playing a 3D intensive game. Another benefit to this "dynamic overclocking" feature, working with the hardware monitoring system, is protection from overheating. If the internal temperature probe indicates that the GeForce 2 GTS chip is too hot, the "dynamic overclocking" feature immediately drops the clock speed to allow cooling.
Another technical point that goes to the Asus AGP-7700 for the layer of thermal grease used to attach the circular heatsink. The Asus AGP-7700's GeForce 2 GTS chip is cooled via a circular heatsink, which is actually smaller than the typical square heatsinks seen on most graphics cards. This circular heatsink is attached to the GeForce 2 GTS chip with a layer of thermal grease, which has proven to maximize heat reduction far better than the usual thermal glue used by most manufacturers.
Okay, so what's the downside?!?
The first and most striking downside is the bundled software which Asus has chosen to include with the AGP-7700. The software bundle is disappointing at best. Included with the AGP-7700 graphics card is AsusDVD 2000, Darkan, Rollcage, and twelve other game demos. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE BOX, Darkan and Rollcage are the only full-version games included. The other twelve games are demos.
The next major downside is video-out capability, or rather, the lack of video-out capability. The Asus AGP-7700 does not have video-out capability, and it does not seem likely that they will offer an add-on daughter card to give you this capability since the Asus AGP-7700 Deluxe is soon to be released. It is likely that if you want to project your gaming or DVDs to your bigger screen that you will have to wait for the Deluxe version, which is rumored to include video-out.
My last major downside to the Asus AGP-7700 is the price. This price tag is not easy to swallow. However, rarely is a new graphics card which utilizes the newest and fastest graphics chipset going to be bargain priced. IF you like to have cutting edge graphics, you will bleed for the payment. With Asus due to release the AGP-7700 Deluxe reasonably soon, you may see the price come down rather quickly, but for the present it is at a definite premium.
So, what's the bottom line?...
The Asus AGP-7700 strutting nVidia's GeForce 2 GTS is a force to be reckoned with! Overall, performance testing on this card has shown an improvement up to three times the frame rate over a GeForce 256 graphics card.
The Asus AGP-7700 is at a premium, but so isn't it's main competitor (of the moment) the Elsa Gladiac, both retail priced at $349.99.
As opposed to the past GeForce release trauma, these cards are not indefinitely delayed. They are on the shelves of major retailers as you read this.
The bundled software for the Asus AGP-7700 is a bit weaker if you wanted some great 3D games to show off your new acquisition. The AsusDVD 2000 is the same as earlier Asus graphics cards offered. The alluring "12 other games" from the box are demos, not full versions.
Since the card is based on nVidia's GeForce 2 GTS design, as are most of the new graphics cards due for release, the 2D quality is going to be exactly the same from card to card and manufacturer to manufacturer.
Does this leave the Asus AGP-7700 ahead or behind? Before answering that question you must factor in the most important and differentiating feature that the Asus AGP-7700 offers, hardware monitoring.
If you are a power gamer, a speed junkie, or even a serious "tinkerer" then you want to not only experience the highest quality graphics possible at blazing speeds, but you also want the highest level of tweakabilty that you can get your hands on. The tweakabilty, however, should allow you to try new settings without endangering your system. Asus' hardware monitoring system gives you that insurance coupled with the high-end quality from the Asus AGP-7700. With the hardware monitoring system which Asus has engineered onto this card, coupled with the Asus "Smart Doctor" software and "dynamic overclocking" capability, the Asus AGP-7700 really steps forward as a winner!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 365.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Jedi617
|
|
Member: Kenneth Clark
Location: Mansfield, MA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 15 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.