Overclocking

ASUS includes an application called Smart Doctor on their driver CD, which is a very good tool in monitoring your card's health, and has a built-in overclocking tool. There is even a built-in fan control tool, aptly named Smart Cooling, which you can use to slow down the heatsink's fan default 5000rpm setting (which is quite audible by the way).

One feature of the overclocking tool is HyperDrive, which dynamically overclocks the card based on temperature, usage, or CPU utilization. We chose the traditional manner, and pushed the card via the sliders for core and memory. By default, the card ships clocked at 500 core/740 memory. We were able to push up to the slider's maximum of 550 core/780 memory. However, when benchmarking the card, we noticed almost no change in performance, with only a 2% boost overall. This is within our margin of error, so it is our belief that the tool does not work.

We downloaded a number of tools, including Rage 3D's tweak, Powerstrip and ATI Tool. Using all three separately, we did not fare very well with our overclocking attempts. The greatest gains were at 522 core/804 memory. Anything higher cause instability and system lockups while benchmarking. Here are some benchmark results at our highest overclocks.

Doom 3 - Demo1 (High Quality)

	1024x768 (no AA/AF)	1280x1024 (4xAA/8xAF)
Stock 500/740	25.0	8.4
Overclocked 522/804	27.9	9.0

Call of Duty - VL Custom Demo

	1024x768 (no AA/AF)	1280x1024 (4xAA/8xAF)
Stock 500/740	93.8	29.9
Overclocked 522/804	104.6	36.3

As we can see, overclocking can improve performance, but given we didn't really go that far past stock, the gains were not as good as we would have liked. Call of Duty saw a better leap in performance, while Doom 3 hardly changed.

3D Image Quality

ATI has traditionally been quite solid when it comes to 3D image quality. It's tough to compare with NVIDIA's competing products, as both companies do a fine job in gaming.

Doom 3

PCX5750 No AA/AF	AX600XT No AA/AF

There is almost no difference between the two without AA/AF enabled. What happens if we enable the features?

PCX5750 4xAA/8xAF	AX600XT 4xAA/8xAF

Again, very little change, but close examination reveals that there are slightly fewer jaggies on the AX600XT.

2D Image Quality

We loaded up a 1600x1200 image normally used in our video card reviews. I also pulled up an HTML document with various sized fonts to judge the text rendering. The document used white text on a black background, and vice versa. The screen resolution for all tests was 1600x1200 @ 85Hz on a Dell rebranded 21" Trinitron.

Scores are subjective, but having worked with many video cards the last few years, I got a pretty firm grasp on what card renders 2D better than the others. The scores will be out of 10, with 10 being excellent.

	MSI PCX5750	ASUS AX600XT
Black Text (12Pt)	8	9
Black Text (6Pt)	6	7
White Text (12Pt)	7	8
White Text (6Pt)	5	7
Bitmap Quality	8	9

I still prefer the clarity found in ATI's products, but the PCX5750 is by no means a slouch in this department. With NVIDIA's ForceWare drivers, I've found their images to be quite a bit brighter "out-of-the-box", so to speak, than before. Text is still easier to read in our opinion on the AX600XT, which is a credit to ATI's 2D image quality.

Final Words

ASUS put together a comprehensive packaging that covers a wide audience, depending on what you need. For gamers, the ASUS Extreme AX600XT/HTVD provides very good performance with many of today's popular titles, without sacrificing image quality in doing so. Many games are playable at 1280 resolution, with image quality cranked up high, though 1600 is something I would reserve for the higher-end cards.

Image quality is great for both gaming and 2D work. Productivity wise, the Extreme AX600XT/HTVD is the only consumer level card I'm aware of that has HDTV support out of the box. With the ATI Rage Theater chip soldered on, it is also capable of quality video-in. That being said, there is a price to pay for the added functionality, and that is losing the second DVI or CRT connection needed for dual screen display.

Out of the box, the fan cooling the heatsink is quite loud. Smart Doctor is a nice package from ASUS that allows you to adjust the speed, as well as overclock the card and monitor the health (via alarms). On the topic of overclocking, this was one area that we were a little disappointed in as our sample was a poor overclocker, especially when using the included tools.

The ASUS Extreme AX600XT/HTVD falls a bit on the high side when it comes to pricing, weighing in at about , but for the money, you're getting a very fast PCIE mainstream card, and nice bundle. If you can live without the dual monitor support, this card is worthy of your attention.

Pros: Good 3D performance up to 1280x1024. Great image quality and HDTV support.

Cons: Overclocking is questionable. No dual display.

Bottom Line: ASUS took the X600XT and broke away from ATI's reference design in many ways. Their changes add to the overall cost of the card, but you're getting features not normally found in a mainstream PCIE part. Their software bundle is good, and coupled with the image quality and performance, the AX600XT will not let you down.

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