Round Up and Comparison of X700 Pro graphics cards
PCI Express x16 graphics cardsChipset X700 Pro 128/256 MB, 128 bit
Those wanting an affordable, all round great card with good shader performance will likely be pleased with the Radeon X700 Pro series. Even with the lack of AGP support and the absence of its premium part (the elusive Radeon X700 XT), Radeon X700 Pro continues to be one of the preferred choice for many gamers. Today, we test boards from three different manufacturers. In alphabetical order they are the ASUS Extreme AX700 Pro 256 MB, Gigabyte X700 Pro 256 MB and the MSI RX700 Pro TD128E.
Overview
The cards are pretty much the same, except for the amount of memory, video input / output accessories and cooling solutions. Before discussing benchmark results, we'd like to share our thoughts and notes on each card.ASUS Extreme AX700 Pro TVD 256 MB
425/433 MHz
ATI Radeon X700 PRO, 256 MB DDR3Core Clock : 425 MHz
Memory Clock : 430 MHz (860 MHz DDR3)
Overall Score: 85 points
Unfortunately, our review sample has made some rounds, so we're not completely sure if everything that was bundled with the card is still there. So, we're going to evaluate the bundle according to the information on the box: the ASUS Extreme AX700 Pro TVD 256 MB comes bundled with a DVI to analog bundle, a TV output / input dongle (S-video and composite / RCA) and the drivers / utilities CD. There's also a quick setup guide, that's really brief and quite frankly doesn't offer much information regarding hardware and software installation. You'd have to read the manual to find them, which is located inside the second CD in PDF format. Unfortunately, ASUS didn't supply the needed Adobe Acrobat software, you'll have to get them yourself. Small details, but come on ASUS!
There's no application and game bundle for this card, which is a real shame. Especially since the card came with video input. Something in the line of Cyberlink's PowerDirector or Intervideo's WinDVD Creator would've been nice. There's not even a DVD player software. As software goes, ASUS only provides the basic stuff: drivers and utilities.
Thankfully, their SmartDoctor utility is a great tool. With SmartDoctor, you can keep tabs of important information regarding the health of your graphics card, such as temperature, fan speed, voltages. It also allows setting your own alarms, letting you know when the a component goes above the set temperature. You could also set the alarm for fan speed, or even core, memory and PCI Express slot voltage . Kudos to ASUS for this utility and the card, not many manufacturers go the extra mile to include such a feature. You can say that this feature alone more than made up for the lack of software. You can get the software from somewhere else, but you can't put features like hardware monitoring by yourself (especially voltage monitoring for both the graphics chip, the memory and the PCI Express slot).
As for the card itself, ASUS engineers choose to retain the reference board design. The Rage Theater chip is used to handle video input, which is a given for any ATI Radeon based cards. Since the card has 256 MBs of memory, there are memory chips in the front and back. ASUS used a single cooling design to cool both the chip and the memory in front, but they neglected the memory in the back. Annoying but still 'fixable'. Both the memory and chip is covered with thermal paste, so heat transfer from these components to the heatsink should be optimal. The fan is not protected by a finger guard, so mind your fingers when installing this card. People often find themselves playing with the fans (intentionally or accidentally), which is not a good thing. A well placed finger guard should prevent this and might even be useful for stopping dust and other particles from clogging the fan's intake.
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