ASUS EN8800GT TOP Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

Another day and another graphics card review makes its debut here on Hardware Canucks. This time we take a good long, hard look at the ASUS EN8800GT 512MB TOP Edition graphics card which is basically a heavily overclocked 8800GT with a killer heatsink.

You can read the review here: ASUS EN8800GT TOP 512MB Graphics Card Review

Please use this thread to post all your questions, comments, suggestions, rants and raves.

ENJOY!!!

[Supergrover]

Great Review Sky!

I dont think I would be comfortable with a GFX card that has its Temp sensor disabled, granted its not really aimed and me, "whats a warranty?", but still not a plus IMO.

I agree about having a blue lighting the fan, especially with the target purchaser, plus it would look sweet with the blue PCB.

Be interesting to see the temps from the overclock.

[SKYMTL]

Yeah...the problem is that the 8800GT I tested the temperatures on with the cooler maxes out at around 715Mhz on the core. So, we can see that the Glaciator does a good job at cooling off the heat 700Mhz generates.

As for the temp sensor. Don't even get me started...I have two of these cards sitting here and both have the same results. Ntune picks up bupkis, Rivatuner gives me a temperature of ZERO and when the ASUS software actually decides to work in Vista it can't make up its mind what to do. Believe it or not, this review was ready to go a few weeks ago and I have since spent countless hours fiddling with everyting I can think of to get temp readngs from these cards.

At least we know the cooler works well though....

[belgolas]

great review and with the temp sensor disabled it wont matter to much as long as the card is cooled. But if the fan were to die and you left your comp over night pray you still have warranty. Speaking of warranty 3 years should be plenty. If you still have your card 3 years from now and it breaks there will be much better cards out by then.

[SKYMTL]

I know but ASUS has to contend with the likes of BFG, XFX and EVGA who have Lifetime Warranties. Like it or not, a lifetime warranty sells a product all by itself.

[biff]

I have this card and I use Rivatuner to read the temps. Asus has their software to do it but I hate all the junk that goes along with it. Rivatuner won't do it out of the box so to speak, I had to change some settings. I googled it and it was very easy to follow and made sense as to what I was doing at the time but I can't seem to find it now and can't remember what I did... I'll keep looking!

BTW, I have mine on water and did a volt mod but am stable at 815MHz core, 1950MHz shader, and 1010MHz mem.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by biff

I have this card and I use Rivatuner to read the temps. Asus has their software to do it but I hate all the junk that goes along with it. Rivatuner won't do it out of the box so to speak, I had to change some settings. I googled it and it was very easy to follow and made sense as to what I was doing at the time but I can't seem to find it now and can't remember what I did... I'll keep looking!

I am looking forward to your response on this. If needed I will update the thread but I can't seem to find any indication of how to modify Rivatuner to read the temps. ESPECIALLY if Nvidia's own (sometimes buggy) program doesn't pick it up.

Here are a few quotes. The first one from the programmer behind Rivatuner:

If Nvidia won't add support for this sensor in the ForceWare (and I really doubt that they'll bother to do it) then ASUS 8800GT owners are out of luck, sorry. I don't have ASUS 8800GT and I definitively don't plan to purchase this card just ot get this sensor supported and the chances to get such hardware donated by vendor or some third party are really low.

Link: Asus EN8800GT Glaciator Fanskin e Plugin - Guru3D.com Forums

Next from people with these exact same problems

Asus EN8800GT(512mb) with new Glaciator cooling! - XtremeSystems Forums

Unfortunately, it seems the Fintek sensor just isn't playing nice with Forceware. There seems to be a way to configure Rivatuner to read it but I have yet to find it.

The latest version of ASUS SmartDoc seems to works though but I can't seem to find a way to log temperatures so there is no want to knowing the peak temperatures. That being said, SmartDoc DOES work....just not for what I want it to.

[Spaceman-Spiff]

Another great review.

I don't think 3-year warranty is a con though. At least not to me. In 3 years, you're expected to upgrade your computer anyway :P.

And 3 years is still great compared to most other companies: Palit, Diamond, HIS, Sapphire, Galaxy, etc.

Great video card for the price.

[SKYMTL]

FYI, I hear through the grapevine that Palit will be offering lifetime warranties on their graphics cards starting in Q3. May be true or it may not be...

Personally, I am sticking with it as a con compared to some of the other manufacturers on the market.

[Eldonko]

I agree. If everyone has lifetime or double lifetime, then even tho 3 years is alot it is a con compared to others.