Product Listing

ASUS EN8600GT OC Gear 256MB DDR3

By Vincent Chang - 3 Aug 2007

Conclusion

Conclusion

With its OC Gear module, ASUS has probably taken the next step towards making overclocking graphics cards even more accessible to users. To be fair, it has been anything but challenging for a while now, as manufacturers have been very accommodating when it comes to this, from offering products that are overclocked out of the box to custom cooling solutions to enhance overclocking and numerous novice friendly software tools that ramp up the clock speeds with the click of a button. There have even been instances where vendors have experimented with voltage overclocking and while we doubt that they have been successful in retail, one could almost say that overclocking has been distilled into another marketing tool to attract consumers and not some arcane secrets shared and understood only by the hardcore enthusiasts.

ASUS' OC Gear module now brings the overclocking from the usual software based tweaking to simply turning a knob. It's as easy as adjusting the brightness or volume control, the main advantage is that users no longer need to exit or switch to their software overclocking tool to do this. They can decide to increase the core clock or fan speed and have that applied immediately. As with any new product, there are limitations of course, like the inability to use this module to adjust the memory clock. The graphical representations for the temperature and clock speeds also tell us nothing about the actual values for these settings (although learning the upper limits of this tool first via the SmartDoc interface should quickly give users a feel of how high it can go).

If you have the money and the extra 5.25-inch slot free on your casing, the ASUS EN8600GT OC Gear adds some eye candy to your system. There are some limitations at the moment but that's not surprising considering it's the first version.

As for the GeForce 8600 GT at the heart of this product, ASUS has gone for the safe route of having the standard clocks except for the stream processors, which we found to be slightly higher clocked than usual. Hence, performance should be relatively on par with equivalent cards in the market, but given its default clocks, it may not be as fast as some of its overclocked competitors. The cooler is certainly above average in terms of noise and heat output, though it does have a minor drawback with its size. Overclocking too was very decent and this ASUS card emerged second, behind only the XFX Fatal1ty in the overclocking department.

Finally, like any new 'innovative' feature offered by vendors, expect to pay a premium for this product. At the time of publishing, the card's price is still not known but coming from ASUS, which is known more for its quality than bargains, the final retail price for this OC Gear edition will definitely be more than the usual GeForce 8600 GT. While the actual value the OC Gear module offers to consumers when it comes to tweaks and overclocking may not be significant, especially to experienced users, it does add to the whole modding experience and of course the 'bling' effect. We have no doubt that some enthusiasts will be attracted to this card, just for the fancy flashy lights that scream 'leet' to their peers.

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