LOSTCIRCUITS

ASUS GameFace

ASUS GameFace is a real-time AV communication utility to allow simultaneous video-conferencing and online gaming at the same time. In other words, with the necessary supporting hardware in place it is possible to watch your opponent doing the Rumpestiltzkin while you frag him in the on-line UT arena. The video capture is displayed within a window of the game running in full screen mode.

Quite honestly, I regret not being able to try out this feature but keep in mind that you need two similar setups in order to do this. Beyond the actual game face, I can see a rather big market in the, er, more mature audience for this feature set.

ASUS Digital VCR allows to watch and record TV programs from the TV-tuner. The breakout box will serve as interface in this case. There is, however, no coax input, in other words, it is still necessary to have a separate TV tuner box, a simple antenna will not suffice here.

On the bright side, it is possible to watch 16 different channels in a 4x4 tile pattern simultaneously (that is, if you have them in the first place).

TimeShift

A really neat feature is the so-called time shift to allow recording of video input while watching a different portion of the same movie. That is, unlike traditional VCRs, where it is necessary to wait until the end of the recording until one can watch the beginning, the TimeShift feature allows to watch the beginning of a movie that is in the process of being recorded but already much further along into the action. I certainly can relate to the agony of the traditional method, especially towards the small hours of the morning, where you don't want to wait another hour until you can start watching what you missed or else if you have to start watching in the middle of the movie and then watch the beginning "after the fact".

ASUS SmartDoctor

           

Left to right: the SmartDoctorII GUI showing the frequency and voltage settings of the ASUS RADEON 9800XT for both engine and memory. When we tried the self-test to twain out the capabilities of the 9800XT, the screen went blank during the testing period and then showed the new settings --- that were unchanged from the default values. Clicking on the "setup" button opens up the next pop-up window with a total of three screens: "Settings" to (en)disable the SmartDoctor, "Monitor" to specify the individual parameters to be monitored and "Fan Control" to set the different adaptation values of the fan speed in response to the GPU temperature. Click for larger images.

SmartDoctor2 monitors the load on the GPU and accordingly adjusts the fans as well as the actual workload of the GPU for an optimal balance or else for a forced throttle of the GPU in case of overheating. At the same time, the onboard and interface voltages are monitored and displayed in the SmartDoctor II GUI. In our case, the SmartDoctor increased the engine clock to 478 MHz (in idle) and the memory to 810 MHz, which is quite an achievement. However, whenever any changes occur, the monitor goes blank for a couple of times, which is irritating enough to rather disable the feature altogether. The dynamic fan control complements the throttle / full bore modes of the active cooling.

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