ASUS GeForce 8600GT OC Gear 256MB

Earlier this month we looked at the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi motherboard, which featured a new technology called Express Gate that was an instant-on Linux-based desktop environment that supported a web browser and the Skype VoIP client. This motherboard also featured integrated 802.11n wireless, Intel's X38 Chipset, and a variety of ASUS AI features. However, ASUS innovations are not limited to their motherboards but certainly extend to their wide graphics card selection as well. The EN8600GT OC GEAR/HTDP/256M graphics card is based upon NVIDIA's GeForce 8600GT GPU with ASUS OC Gear. OC Gear? This is the world's first hardware-based real-time overclocking device. The PCI Express graphics card ships with a controller device that can be installed into a 5.25" drive bay and via USB, it's able to overclock the graphics card with a turn of a dial. In this review today we'll tell you how well the ASUS EN8600GT OC Gear graphics card works under Linux.

Features:

· NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT
· 256MB DDR3 Video Memory
· 540MHz Engine Clock
· 1.4GHz (700MHz DDR3) Memory Clock
· 128-bit Memory Interface
· PCI Express x16
· HDTV-Out, and TV-Out Support
· Dual DVI

Contents:

The ASUS EN8600GT OC Gear shipped in a rather long cardboard box equipped with a plastic handle. Advertised on the front of the box was its HDCP compliance, Gamer OSD, 256MB GDDR3, and Microsoft Windows Vista compliance. The OC Gear area of the box shows a picture of the real-time overclocking hardware device and that you can run your GPU 30% faster via this device. Found inside the box was a USB cable (for the OC Gear interface), video out cable, DVI to VGA dongle, the PCI Express x16 graphics card, an ASUS Speed Setup Guide, three CDs (ASUS, VGA driver, OC Gear), and the OC Gear device. One of the extra items included was an ASUS CD/DVD wallet.