ASUS: The EN7600 GS Silent, and EN7800 GT TOP Silent
by Josh Venning on May 12, 2006 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Cards
The EN7800 GT TOP Silent follows the same design of the earlier released 6600 GT Silent for the most part. The card and heat sink are scaled up to accommodate the more powerful architecture, but the heat sink is basically the same with an odd-looking metal arm protruding from the top that swivels out 90 degrees. The 90 degree angle on the protruding sink positions it squarely over the CPU fan on our system, ingeniously using the air from the fan to aid in the card's cooling.
While one of the strangest looking designs we've ever seen, the heat sink appears to be very effective at keeping the GPU cool, and we haven't experienced any problems at all with performance out-of-the-box. Something else worth mentioning about the ASUS EN7800 GT TOP Silent package is the game bundle included is fairly large, and includes King Kong, as well as several other older games like Savage and Second Sight. There are an impressive seven games included in all, as well as ASUS DVD, CyberLink MediaShow, CyberLink PowerDirector, and a small black CD pouch to carry them in. These additions make an already nice package even better, and it was nice for ASUS to include them in the bundle.
Another nice thing about this silent version of the 7800 GT is that it comes with an GPU core factory overclock of 420 MHz instead of the standard 400 MHz. The memory is also factory overclocked to 1.24GHz versus the normal 1.0GHz memory clock. This factory overclock is interesting considering the heat issues that silent cards like this tend to have, but as we said we have experienced no problems during testing.
ASUS EN7600 GS Silent
The more recent silent card of these two from ASUS is closer to budget/mid-range in terms of performance, and also has a much more modest heat sink design. The 7600 GS is a less powerful variation of the recently introduced 7600 GT. Since this card won't run nearly as hot as the 7800 GT version, ASUS, and ultimately the consumer, saves money due to the cost-saving design. 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. Unlike the silent 7800 GT, which uses the 6-pin PCI-E power connection, the EN7600 GS Silent doesn't require the extra power. There is a game bundle included with this card which is similar to the EN7800 GT TOP Silent bundle, but not as sizable with a game pack of some older games.
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Seer - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
This review is so messed up that it's not even funny. Okay, maybe it is funny to laugh at how pathetic it is. Let me start:1) The 7800GT Top Silent isn't available anymore. It was a limited edition run. GJ guys, there goes half of your article. (You even state this at the end that its not available. WTF dudes, what are you smoking?)
2) Extremely inaccurate test results. The O/Ced version of the 7600 GS is repeatedly listed as performing WORSE than the non O/Ced version. Niiiice. Also, performance for the 7600 GS INCREASES when going from a lower resolution to a higher one. Rofl.
3) Averaging core and memory % o/c's in a 50/50 weighted ratio gives the 7600GS an o/c os 9.9% avg, and the 7800GT TS a 9.25% avg. Yet you claim it overclocks better. Oh, right, you must have said that because the O/C version was performing worse. (I realize that the 7800GT TS is already factory o/c'ed. However, this means that you are guaranteed that stock clock. A real, consumer overclock is raising the clock to a speed that the chip [I}is not rated at. )
4) Hardly any mention of the EXTREME heat these cards put out. Into the air that should be going into your CPU, nonetheless. (Pointed out in an earlier comment). In fact, "the heatsink appears to be very affective at keeping the GPU cool" 95 C. Right, cool. In fact, if you understand the relationship between Heat and Temperature (two different things, people), you would understand that the 7800GT TS is in fact much worse for your case's ambient temps than the 7600GS, despite this articles claims to the contrary.
GJ guys, pat yourself on the back and go buy a few beers! You really deserve it! *rolls eyes*
Guuts - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Also, on page 5, the author writes: "What is even more nice..." More nice?! I hate to be the grammar police here, but I think what he's looking for here is "nicer".JarredWalton - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Fixed, thanks.Seer - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
I forgot to mention why I think this shitty article came out: Asus paid them to do it. It's just like those shitty articles on Daily Tech about seemingly random product releases that are nothing other than shameless plugs.poohbear - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
please tell your mom to stuff feeding u cocoa puffs for breakfast. they have TOO MUCH sugar for u.JarredWalton - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Actually, the 7600 GS Silent was released and they sent it to us for review (the same way we get nearly all products). Since it was a silent card and we hadn't looked at the 7800 GT yet, it was included as well as something of a reference point. Some people are interested in silence and don't care all that much about performance past a certain point, and that's where the 7600 GS fits in nicely.As for the other comments above, the results in the 1600x1200 graphs look like they were reversed, and in fact all of the results look odd. I'm checking with Josh to verify, but it could be the OC'ed 7600 is throttling down due to heat. I'm not sure about the stability of the 7600 OC'ed either - Josh mentions artifacts, so I'm not sure if the final results he posted are "clean" or not. A 9% OC shouldn't give you 35=65% more performance, or cut performance a lot.
Other than that anamoly, the 7800 GT overclocks "more" because averaging RAM and GPU OCs is not normally an accurate way of quantifying performance. Most modern games are hitting the GPU harder than the RAM bandwidth (unless you have really slow RAM), so 15% is more than 11%. Honestly, I wouldn't even think about OC'ing a silent card, though. Maybe if you want to add a low RPM fan to it?
Temperatures are GPU core AFAIK, so 95C is not the surface HSF temperature. Remember that these cards aren't actually generating more heat than any other card based off of the same graphics chips; the only difference is that they're not dissipating heat as quickly because they don't have fans. Unless you are using a graphics card that expels heat outside of the case, these cards aren't actually increasing the ambient case temperature.
Seer - Saturday, May 13, 2006 - link
Thanks for the response. I admit it was a bit of a troll. I was just disappointed with this article because I know AT can do so much better (IMO). Hopefully I elicited some motivation for improvement.LoneWolf15 - Monday, May 15, 2006 - link
Troll? More like a tool.If you're disappointed, there are professional ways to respond that don't make you look like a pathetic whiny git.
Seer - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
Sorry for not blindly supporting any article put out by your favorite site D:LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - link
I've disagreed many times here; if you read regularly, you'd have seen them, and you'll see them again. I just choose to do so in a manner that doesn't make me look like a 15-year old who's flunking 8th grade for the second time. Constructive criticism is one thing you apparently don't know how to do.