NVIDIA's release of their G92 based graphics card has so far been nothing but a total success amongst enthusiasts. The die shrink not only permitted cards to run cooler and thus use less electricity, but also improvements have been made for higher efficiency reflected by its incredible performance. The first card rolled out is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, the card that outperformed the previous generation G80 based GeForce 8800 GTS. Next came the G92 based GeForce 8800 GTS that outperformed once a flagship graphics card from the company. We will take a look at the ASUS version of the GeForce 8800 GT, the TOP edition which is pre-overclocked, straight from the factory. - APH Networks

ASUS Extreme N8800 GT TOP 512MB Version Review

Although factory overclocked cards aren't uncommon nowadays, this one is one of the fastest and most readily available GeForce 8800 GT on the market today, comes with Company of Heroes game, a plethora of cables, and a really big retail box. One of the biggest things about ASUS high-end graphics cards is its absolutely huge retail box. The heart of the new GeForce 8800 GT is NVIDIA's new G92 core. With a funky naming scheme that would instantly confuse users who are not watching this industry closely. The die shrunk unit is quite a bit faster and more power efficient than NVIDIA's 90nm G80 used previously.

Relatively speaking, the G92 based GeForce 8800 GT is designed to outperform the previous generation GeForce 8800 GTS, which is based upon the older G80 core. The package NVIDIA puts forth in the GeForce 8800 GT graphics card is not simply a die shrink that somehow gained quite some performance. Being that, the G92 is really a derivative of the 90nm G80 core. At 65nm, the new core implements a good chunk of complexity in terms of transistors. The ASUS Extreme N8800 GT TOP clocks the core at 700MHz from stock 600MHz, with memory at 2GHz effective the rates speed of the Qimonda memory used.

The ASUS Extreme N8800 GT TOP's heatsink promotes a Company of Heroes design on it. The relatively simple stock heatsink is the same as the rest of the NVIDIA stock GeForce 8800 GT heatsinks with a small fan on the side. All possible unused connectors are capped on the ASUS card, including one DVI port, TV out and the SLI bridge connector. The heatsink mounting method consist of a dozen of spring loaded screws scatter all over the PCB, just as we've seen on other NVIDIA boards. The only difference is the thin cooling design. We really haven't seen a single slot performance video card for quite a while.

We can certainly see why these G92 based NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT cards are so popular among enthusiasts. Its lower power consumption in relative to previous generation cards, as well as offering incredible performance for its price and market segment is certainly impressive. It's also a single slot card, adequately cooled, which is quite a rare thing nowadays, as the majority of video cards in this segment are dual slot. It's also easily modifiable for quiet PC enthusiasts to silence their video card. With the ASUS Extreme E8800 GT TOP 512MB, it's the icing on the cake with excellent features.

So how much would you pay for arguably the most readily available, and one of the fastest GeForce 8800 GT in the market today? You are guaranteed to have a card to run at 700/2000MHz out of the box, which is an overclock that's not always attainable by the user as far as we know. ASUS also included a great game, and, well, we don't know what else you would like. At least in our opinion this is a winning package.