What makes the ASUS card different?

It's all about the extras

With all the different GeForce boards on the market, video card manufacturers have try adding value to their own GeForce boards in order to differentiate their boards from the rest. A company like Creative Labs might be able to sell cards on brand name recognition alone, but companies like ASUS or Leadtek will need to put in a lot of work to make their boards stand out.

There are a couple different methods video card manufacturers use to differentiate their products from the competition. Guillemot used price and performance to grab attention with its Xentor 32 TNT2 Ultra card. The Xentor featured a 175/183MHz core/memory clock speed that was significantly higher than the default TNT2 Ultra specifications. In addition to performance, Guillemot also added a nice rebate that put the card under $200, $30-$50 less than other Ultra cards.

Features and Software

ASUS has chosen to add value to its GeForce card through extra features and software. We've already mentioned the 3D VR glasses, but ASUS has also included several other features the average GeForce boards don't have.

First, not many video cards out there have a video input in addition to video outputs. Yes, the Deluxe ASUS card has video capture capabilities. ASUS includes Ulead's Video Studio 3.0 for all your video editing and MPEG-2 encoding needs.

The Deluxe model also has a special VideoSecurity feature that uses a video capture device to detect intrusions into your personal space. It sounds like a good tool for catching those people that try to mess with your Quake 3 settings.

ASUS is also really big on its new SmartDoctor software technologies, going so far as to call it the AGP-V6600's "Secret Weapon." SmartDoctor is basically a set of video card utilities that help keep the card stable. The program includes fan RPM monitoring, AGP power level monitoring, SmartCooling technology, OverHeat protection, and Dynamic Overclocking. SmartDoctor is included in both Deluxe and Pure versions of the card.

SmartDoctor

SmartDoctor Explained

Most of the SmartDoctor features are self-explanatory. Fan RPM monitoring monitors the speed of the card's cooling fan. AGP power level monitoring monitors the power level between the AGP bus and the AGP-V6600 video card to ensure system stability. OverHeat Protection monitors the temperature of the graphics chip, and SmartCooling alerts the user and forcibly cools down the graphics chip if its temperature exceeds warning presets. SmartCooling also uses ASUS's new dynamic overclocking technology to prolong the life of the video card.

Dynamic overclocking lengthens the life of your card by controlling when the card overclocks. The technology detects when you need the performance and clocks your card accordingly. During idle or inactive periods, dynamic overclocking "rests" the card by lowering the clock speed. When you need extra speed for a game of Q3, dynamic overclocking kicks in and ups the clock to increase performance levels. We actually inadvertantly discovered a similar secret feature in a test of another company's TNT2 Ultra product. However, by their request, we kept it under the table. Now, Asus has actually been able to go to market with a product that supports virtually the same thing, with more of an emphasis on stability.