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Published: Nov 04, 2008 Author: Niko Lupala Editor: Amber Lupala Provider: Asus Share this article:

Introduction

Another day another review and today we got Asus latest 9800GT Matrix card on the bench with DirectX 10 support and 512 mb DDR3 video memory so this should be a interesting review as we are going to compare it vs some other high performing cards on the market right now.

About Asus:

Check out their website, http://www.asus.com.tw

Specifications:
Graphics Engine NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT
 
Video & Color Engine ASUS Splendid HD 
Bus Standard PCI Express 2.0 
Video Memory DDR3 512MB
Engine Clock 775 MHz 
Shader Clock 1.95 GHz
 
Memory Clock 2.36 GHz ( 1.18 GHz DDR3 )
 
RAMDAC 400MHz 
Memory Interface 256-bit 
CRT Max Resolution 2048 x 1536 
DVI Max Resolution 2560 x 1600 
D-Sub Output Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 )
 
DVI Output Yes x 2 (DVI-I)
 
HDMI Output Yes x 1 (via DVI to HDMI adaptor x 1 )
 
HDTV Output (YPbPr) Yes 
HDCP Support Yes 
TV Output Yes (YPbPr to S-Video and Composite)
Adapter/Cable Bundled 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor
1 x DVI to HDMI adaptor
1 x HDTV-out cable
1 x Power cable
1 x S/PDIF cable
 
Software Bundled ASUS Utilities & Driver
 
Note The card size is 4.376 inches x 10.5 inches

The product:

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The box as usual is quite big and the card itself is also bigger than the mid end cards. On the back you can read about the main features of the card in various languages.

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Bundled with the card you will find 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor, 1 x DVI to HDMI, 1 x HDTV-out cable, 1 x Power cable and a 1 x S/PDIF cable although I think my box was missing a few of them. You will also get a manul and two cd´s with drivers and a manual cd.

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This card has one of the biggest coolers I have seen for awhile. It has a nice black cooler with a bigger fan to keep the noise down. The card only requires one PCI-E power cable but it does take up one extra spot in the back of the computer.

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If we look close at the cards we can see that there are heatpipes going on the top of it which means that the heatpipes connect heatsinks under the cover and move the heat out to the front of the card.

Something superb with this card is the HDMI connector and you also get a DVI and a S-video output.