LOSTCIRCUITS

The Bundle

It is a fairly sizeable box that the Extreme n7800GT ships in but it also contains a bunch of the goodies that everybody needs. Included with the Extreme n7800GT as gaming bundle are copies of Joint Operations "Typhoon Rising" (Novalogic), xpand rally (Techland) and Project Snowblind (Eidos). For the video editing community, Asus includes Cyberlink's Medi@Show SE and PowerDirector, along with the ASUS DVD player. Drivers and utilities are found on the respective CD and a multilingual manual on CD complements the software and documentation bundle. The same manual is included as hardcopy, along with a quick-setup guide.

Unfortunately, both the printed and the .pdf version of the manual are essentially a global overview of whatever could be included with the graphics card, regardless of whether it ATI or nVidia-based, in other words, it is a one size fits none solution instead of a specific guide to the hardware and software included. Specifically, even while it may appear redundant, there should be at least a brief mentioning of how to use the break-out cable for hooking up any TV or image capturing device. Instead, the only hint at any documentation is the tiny label on the s-video cable. Most of the infomercial stuff capitalizing on the GF 7800 architecture is on the inside cover of the shipping box.

                           

Bundled hardware further comprises one DVI - analog VGA adapter - which is a must for most users since native VGA output is not supported, the s-video break-out connector with hookup for standard TV as well as for HDTV and Video-In ports, the 6-pin power adapter for auxiliary power to the cards and a CD/DVD hard-case that may come in handy for keeping CDs in the car - if not for anything else like keeping the #1 CD of the favorite games in case of going to LAN parties.

The Card

                                  

ASUS builds the Extreme n7800GT on a blue PCB with a single-slot cooling solution based on a standard copper heatsink for the GPU and a heatpipe design for the memory components. Essentially, the cooling solution is the same as that found elsewhere, with blue fan LEDs providing some ghostly effects for those who are into this kind of stuff. Interestingly, in a world where GDDR3 is dominated by Samsung, the Extreme n7800GT is using Infineon HYB18T256324F-20 chips that are rated at 500 MHz clock rate. Historically, Infineon has usually been somewhat conservative with regards to specking their chips, these components should be able to do 1200 MHz at least.

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