Asus Delivers GTX 275 / HD 4890-Based GPUs
With the introduction of NVIDIA's GTX 275 and ATI's Radeon HD 4890 yesterday, almost everyone in the graphics card business has pushed out a variant of their own. Asus, however, is making sure to make its versions a good bit different than the rest, and we'd argue these two are unique enough to possibly sway you from whatever card you were just about to buy.
Starting on the NVIDIA side, Asus has launched the ENGTX275 Series Graphics Cards, which features Fuse Protection Technology. More specifically, the ENGTX275/HTDI/896MD3 (boy, what a mouthful!) comes equipped with three sets of Fuse Protection devices to guarantee doubled defense against over-current for risk-free computing. Furthermore, there's the inclusion of the EMI Shield, covered chokes and solid capacitors. Oh, and you're into gaming and saving money, you'll be glad to know the card comes bundled with a coupon to obtain up to $25 or 10% off on a total of five games or CUDA applications at the NZONEwebpage. No word on pricing of availability, but the full specifications breakdown is below.
Now, onto the AMD/ATI side, which is where it really gets interesting. The EAH4890 Series -- obviously based on the HD 4890 -- is described as the world's first GPU to utilize Voltage Tweak technology. What's that, you ask? It's a feature that adds up to 15% in performance via tweaks and overclocking, mostly from raising the GPU voltage from 1.312V to 1.4V, allowing GPU and memory clock performances to be boosted from 850MHz to 950MHz and 3900MHz to 4600MHz, respectively. Also of note, the new EAH4890 TOP can exhibit up to an 8% performance boost.
Starting on the NVIDIA side, Asus has launched the ENGTX275 Series Graphics Cards, which features Fuse Protection Technology. More specifically, the ENGTX275/HTDI/896MD3 (boy, what a mouthful!) comes equipped with three sets of Fuse Protection devices to guarantee doubled defense against over-current for risk-free computing. Furthermore, there's the inclusion of the EMI Shield, covered chokes and solid capacitors. Oh, and you're into gaming and saving money, you'll be glad to know the card comes bundled with a coupon to obtain up to $25 or 10% off on a total of five games or CUDA applications at the NZONEwebpage. No word on pricing of availability, but the full specifications breakdown is below.
Specifications
| Model | ENGTX275/HTDI/896MD3 |
| Graphics Engine | GeForce GTX275 |
| Bus Standard | PCI Express 2.0 |
| Video Memory | 896MB DDR3 |
| Engine Clock | 633MHz |
| Shader Clock | 1404MHz |
| Memory Clock | 2.322GHz (1.161GHz DDR3) |
| Memory Interface | 448-bit |
| DVI Max. Resolution | 2560 x 1600 |
| D-Sub Output | Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 ) |
| DVI Output | Yes x 2 (DVI-I) |
| HDTV Output(YPbPr) | Yes, via HDTV Out cable |
| HDCP compliant | Yes |
| HDMI Output | Yes, via DVI to HDMI adaptor |
| Adaptor/Cable Bundled | 1 x DVI-to-D-Sub adapter 1 x HDTV-out cable 1 x DVI-to-HDMI adaptor 1 x Power Cable |
| Software Bundled | ASUS utilities and drivers |
| Note | The card size is 4.376 inches x 10.5 inches |
Now, onto the AMD/ATI side, which is where it really gets interesting. The EAH4890 Series -- obviously based on the HD 4890 -- is described as the world's first GPU to utilize Voltage Tweak technology. What's that, you ask? It's a feature that adds up to 15% in performance via tweaks and overclocking, mostly from raising the GPU voltage from 1.312V to 1.4V, allowing GPU and memory clock performances to be boosted from 850MHz to 950MHz and 3900MHz to 4600MHz, respectively. Also of note, the new EAH4890 TOP can exhibit up to an 8% performance boost.
Specifications
| Model | EAH4890 TOP/HTDI/1GD5 | EAH4890/HTDI/1GD5 |
| Graphics Engine | ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 graphics | ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 graphics |
| Video Memory | 1GB GDDR5 | 1GB GDDR5 |
| Engine Clock | 900MHz | 850MHz |
| Memory Clock | 4000MHz (1000MHz GDDR5) | 3900MHz (975MHz GDDR5) |
| Memory Interface | 256 bit | 256 bit |
| DVI Max. Resolution | 2560 x 1600 | 2560 x 1600 |
| Bus Standard | PCI Express® 2.0 | PCI Express® 2.0 |
| DVI Output | DVI-I (Dual Link) X2 | DVI-I (Dual Link) X2 |
| HDCP compliant | YES | YES |
| HDTV Output | YES | YES |
| HDMI Output | YES (via adapter) | YES (via adapter) |
| D-Sub Output | YES (via adapter) | YES (via adapter) |
| Software Bundled | ASUS utilities and drivers | ASUS utilities and drivers |
