Ive just set up a second computer with the ASUS EN7600GS Silencer 256mb graphics card installed and I dont think there is a better budget upgrade card on the market. I set this graphics card into the following setup.
DESIGN: The 7600GS is designed for motherboards with a PCI Express 16 slot and I would suggest it was placed on a motherboard with 2 PCI express slots as this graphics card is SLI capable. Meaning it can be linked with another ASUS EN7600GS so you can run two graphics cards as one Powerfull graphics card. I found the 7600 GS has a little trouble running games very smoothly with high resolutions, particularly with Anti-aliasing enabled. It still does very well and does manage to get playable framerates in almost all of the games and settings such as Doom 3, Call Of Duty 2 and Splinter Cell. With the card being passivly cooled it means my computer is alot quieter as there is no noisy fan attached.This is good news for those on a budget looking for a silent graphics solution. The card is small, and so is the heat sink which covers a portion of the front of the card, then curls over and onto the back, wrapping around and keeping the card very compact. The card itself was easy to attach and install and comes with DVI, D-Sub and adapter in case you want to attch your computer to a HDTV.
OVERCLOCKING: The one downfall I did find was the overclocking ability.There's not much difference at all between the factory and user overclocked 7600 GS, about 8%.
I didnt try to overclock more than this as the card became extremly hot after severl minutes and anything over this starting making graphical artifacts in the above mentioned games. However, for the more adventurous amongst you, there is probably a bit more. But if you want overclocking then this card isnt really for you, as even when overclocked, there isnt much difference from the factory setting.
Recommendation: For those who want a quiet system on a budget for recording or whatever else, but also to play games every once in a while, a 7600GS graphics card will help keep the noise down while still allowing you to game. It is still a budget/midrange card though, so it won't be able to give you the kind of performance you would need to run the latest games at high settings. I would recommend this card to anyone on a budget as it is alot cheaper than other cards on the market that do the same things.
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good use of information. not sure if i would want a card which is slow on hi res games already out....with the way games are growing atm, how long would it last!?
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Apr 26th, 2007
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