With the card based on the Radeon X800XT
PE core there's little doubt that the Asus AX800XT/TVD is extremely fast as
you will soon see in the benchmarks. To sweeten the deal, the X800XT is HDTV compatible
so you can output video with greater visual fidelity than previously possible.
The Asus AX800XT/TVD still maintains an
assortment of RCA video and S-Video cables, but along with that are the
familiar red, blue and green of a component output. Assuming you have an HDTV screen,
the difference in picture quality between this and s-Video is pretty substantial.
Asus has long touted
their Game Face software which allows gamers to see each other within games
through a web cams. Another place where Asus has traditionally been better then
the rest is their software package. While not the best we've seen it's certainly
very good and bound to keep people busy for quite some time!
The Asus AX800XT/TVD also comes with a USB web camera as
we already mentioned. This is for a software application called Asus GameFace. I
must say that setting up a translucent video conferencing window in the
corn of the screen within games is a cool way to face down your
opponents. After all, who wouldn't like to see
the reaction of friend in a death match round just as you're crossing
the finish line in a race, or sneaking up from behind with
a rocket launcher?
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| PCstats very own Mr. Mike volunteered to
use his face. |
When setting up Asus Game Face, you'll need to load
in Asus' software, and hook up the USB webcam that ships with the videocard, but
at least it doesn't require any special drivers to function. It works well with
standard nvidia reference Forceware drivers.
Asus Game Face
can view and monitor several people at any given time, or allow up to
seven fellow gamers to see you reactions. You'd better be a
good player beforehand, otherwise it could be quite embarrassing. ;-)
The wecam is itself a pretty decent unit. On
the left side of the webcam is a small pin hole mic, so a separate microphone is
not necessary, talk about handy! The stand is detachable, and allows the webcam
to pivot up, down and rotate side to side.
Also, if you don't have a digital camera, and want
to take a snapshot of yourself for that online dating site you've just joined,
you can do that by pressing the grey button on top of the webcam. Presto!
Your smiling mug shot will be saved to the PC desktop.
While the
games which are included with the Asus AX800XT/TVD are not the latest and greatest,
they're sure to keep gamers busy for at least a couple of weeks. The legion of CS fans
will be happy to see that Counterstrike Condition Zero is included, which is
easily one of the most popular online multiplayer games in history.
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