ASUS Extreme AX800XL/2DTV

ASUS Extreme AX800XL card

Back of the card

While ASUS hasn’t been an ATI board partner for as long as some of the other manufacturers in this roundup, they’ve already had a huge impact on the marketplace.

For instance, their first high-end ATI offering, the RADEON 9800 XT-based A9800 XT/TVD was the first non-ALL-IN-WONDER ATI-based card to provide VIVO (video-in/video-out) functionality. Today it’s unheard of for a high-end ATI card to ship without VIVO! In addition, ASUS’ Smart Doctor software offered overclocking capabilities that completely outclassed ATI’s own OVERDRIVE utility, including dynamic and manual clock speed adjustment, and tons of hardware monitoring options.

ATI just recently included many of these same features in their OVERDRIVE 3 release (12+ months after ASUS), which was included with CATALYST 4.12 at the end of last year for X850 XT/X850 XT PE users.

In our X800 XT roundup, ASUS took home the crown with their EAX800XT/2DT/256, earning our Editor’s Choice Award in the process. In a swarm of what were essentially identical ATI X800 XT reference designs, the EAX800XT/2DT/256 stood out, providing dual DVI, Smart Doctor, and a unique heat pipe-based copper cooler. ASUS then rounded the package out with a webcam and a copy of Deus Ex: Invisible War.

With this in mind, we had high hopes for the Extreme AX800XL/2DTV (EAX800XL/2DTV). Fortunately, ASUS didn’t disappoint.

For starters, ASUS ships the board with dual DVI capability. With two DVI connections, the ASUS board can be connected to two LCD flat panel displays, or with the included DVI adapters, two VGA monitors (or a mixed combination of the two). With the traditional DVI/VGA combination most cards ship with, you’re always going to be limited to one DVI-powered display maximum, so if you have two high-end flat panels, one of them would have to rely on the VGA connection, resulting in inferior picture quality.

Copper cooling and two DVIs

You can see the heatpipe on the back of the card

The Extreme AX800XL/2DTV also supports video input. ATI’s Rage Theater chip provides VIVO (video-in/video-out) functionality.

The EAX800XL/2DTVs most striking aspect is arguably ASUS’ unique cooling solution. Rather than rely on ATI’s reference cooler, ASUS has integrated their own custom cooler on all of their X800 cards.

ASUS starts with a large copper plate, which is responsible for cooling the graphics core and its memory. Grafted on top of the plate is a copper heatpipe, which is flanked by copper heatsink fins. Like the other manufacturers, ASUS encloses the heatsink/fan unit inside a duct, channeling air across the R430 VPU and its memory, before the air exits out the side of the enclosure. A large, low-RPM fan is responsible for feeding the enclosed space with cool air. The fan and heatsink are both outfitted with multiple blue LEDs for added flair.

Smart Doctor

Besides these hardware additions, the EAX800XL/2DTV also supports ASUS’ Smart Doctor software. Thanks to Smart Doctor, the EAX800XL/2DTV is the only card in this roundup that ships with hardware monitoring support. Temperatures and voltages of the graphics core and memory can be monitored at all times. If the board begins to overheat (or the fan fails), Smart Doctor can alert the end user. Smart Doctor can also be used to overclock the graphics card. Sliders are provided for adjusting the card’s core clock frequency and memory speed.

Another feature found within the Smart Doctor suite is Smart Cooling. With this feature, the card’s fan will vary its RPMs based on preset temperature boundaries or temperatures you’ve specified (up to five temperature boundaries can be manually set). Or if you’d like to run your card’s fan at full speed (or the lowest setting) 100% of the time, you can do this too, as ASUS provides a slider for the fan’s RPMs. It’s also important to note that the ASUS EAX800XL/2DTV card’s fan won’t run at lower RPMs until Smart Doctor is running.

Finally, with HyperDrive, the EAX800XL/2DTV can dynamically adjust its clock speed for overclocking whenever you boot up a game, board temperature, or CPU usage.

Software and accessories

ASUS rounds the package out with copies of Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, ASUS DVD XP, PowerDirector 3, Media Show, and a free hard plastic CD case, for storing your DVDs/CDs. Hardware accessories bundled include two DVI adapters, and a VIVO adapter box. Unlike the other manufacturers, ASUS doesn’t include a component video cable for outputting to an HDTV.