Detailed deluxe description
Written: Aug 11 '00 (Updated Aug 14 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Tons of fun, cool extras, good value
Cons: GeForce 256 is dated - get a GeForce2, a bit gimmicky
|
|
|
| silencery's Full Review: Asus AGP-6600 |
Disclaimer: I'm writing this review to describe a few aspects most of the hardware review sites such as tomshardware, anandtech, and firingsquad glossed over when they reviewed this card. I understand that this is now old technology, but as I am focusing on the "Deluxe" portion of the package, which is carried over between all current iterations of Asus's deluxe video cards, the graphics chipset is of little importance.
Introduction
When I first received the card, I was extremely impatient w/ opening the box because I'm the type of person that needs instant gratification, and seeing as how my old Nvdia TNT (Diamond Viper 550) was getting to be quite dated, it's sufficient to say the package was in quite a few pieces by the time I was through with it.
At any rate, the complete package came with quite a few extra features. As you may or may not know, the deluxe version of Asus's video cards come with four main extras: video-in, video-out, 3D glasses, and software. I will be covering each in their respective order.
Video-In
The video-in feature was the main reason I bought this card; I wanted to take video clips and put them up onto the Internet and hopefully convert them into Flash files (BTW, Flash 4 does not natively import any video type except for Quicktime). Physically, the card only comes with an S-video input jack mounted on the backplane. This had initially caused me to be a bit cautious about buying the card because I didn't have a video camera lying around w/ S-video out capabilities. I bit the bullet however, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Asus had provided an adapter for converting the S-video in jack to a standard RCA port. That said, the video-in capabilities of this card are exceptional considering the amateur market Asus is targeting w/ this card. At 640x480, framerate is a full 30-FPS and looks very sharp for the most part. There are a few horizontal lines visible at times, but for someone who's just playing around, it's more than adequate video quality. The functionalities behind video-in are limitless. It's cool to be able to say you can record home videos, tv programs, movies from your VCR, or anything else w/ video functions (except for DVD players, they have special scrambling which prevents output to other sources) onto your computer's hard drive; providing you have sufficient space -- to save space, I usually just burn my movies onto a CD.
Keep in mind, however, this card does not support any audio-related functions. In order to capture the sound portion of the video, your sound card must support audio-in (most do), and if it does not have RCA input, you must buy a separate adapter. This works independently from the video capture card, but your software will pull it together. Most cases are often fairly painless. In case anyone is curious, I'm using a Diamond Monster MX-300 in my own system.
Video-Out
The video-out function is equally great for gadget-lovers because this allows you to use your TV screen as a display for your computer system. In addition, you can also output your computer's display to a video-camera or VCR if you ever found the need to present a computer application or such on videotape. For my personal applications, I'm constantly using the video-out to play DVD's from my computer and watch them on my TV screen which is significantly larger albeit less sharp than my 19" monitor. I also have a friend that constantly plays emulated arcade and neo-geo games on his computer, but outputs them to a TV screen which gives you the home-console feeling which is great for multiple-player games. Asus also includes special output tweaking functions for adjusting the TV display with their drivers which are useful in controlling flicker, text-display, colors/contrast, and screen orientation which work fairly well as a whole (I prefer to use <A HREF= http://come.to/tvout >TvTool</a>, it's free!). Once again, I must reiterate that sound operates independently of this card.
3D Glasses
The addition of 3D glasses reinforces the fact that this is a computer-gamer oriented product because it relies on Direct 3D or OpenGl, both of which are game-oriented program interfaces. Without the support for either Direct 3D or OpenGl, the glasses will not work which isn't a major problem because almost all 3D games come packaged with Micro$oft's Direct 3D for some obscure reason. The bulky 3D glasses are a bit uncomfortable and VERY tacky-looking for those who should care about asthetics. While Asus did provide foam cushions to support the weight of the glasses against your face, wearing the glasses for prolonged periods of time proves to be rather annoying. Moreover, if you should wear them while not looking at a 3D-enabled screen, the flickering action of the glasses can hurt your eyes and cause dizzyness. 3D performance is exceptional and it really brings out textures in all 3D games. I have tried the glasses in Quake 3, Rainbow 6, Rogue Spear, Re-Volt, Unreal Tournament, and various other games. It's extremely cool to see certain aspects of the screen pop-out at you (i.e. targeting reticles, buildings in the foreground, items on the floor, close cars), while others fade into the background. If you're curious, it's similar to the effect of Captain EO or Honey I Shrunk the Audience at Disneyland. The 3D glasses, while they are fun, are still just a gimmick. In OpenGl games, you must run the resolution at extremely high rates (approximately 1280x1024 which totally kills your framerate) in order to get it to work, and in some other instances, the dual-mode required to produce 3D illusions throw off your accuracy in perceiving lateral motion (i.e. shooting to the right of your target). Asus does give you the option of tweaking the 3D effects to your taste, but I don't think this alleviates the problem enough to use it permanently; people almost always go back to non-3D mode after playing around with the glasses for a while.
Software
Asus packages the card w/ about 6 CD's I believe and they include various games, drivers, Asus's specialized programs, and Ulead's Video Studio 3.0. I didn't bother installing the games, downloaded the drivers and special programs off the Asus <A HREF= http://www.asus.com >website</a> and installed Video Studio. Video Studio is pretty cool for video input but for those that always need the newest thing, you might be disappointed to know that Ulead is now up to version 4.0. The upgrade may be purchased from their <A HREF= http://www.ulead.com >website</a> for about $50.00, but you may be able to find it elsewhere for less. Asus's programs include a video security program which turns your video camera and computer into a motion detector. The security program monitors input from your camera, and if it detects any significant environment change in specified areas of the screen, it will alert you according to the option you choose. These options include page you through the modem w/ special codes you specify, e-mail you, and record activity to your hard drive. While the concept is cool, it's also as gimmicky as the 3D glasses. There are, of course, the much talked-about overclocking and health monitoring utilities which are useful as well.
One word of caution: if you like to use Nvdia's reference drivers, which I do, you won't be able to use the 3D Glasses option or the special TV-out adjustments found in Asus's drivers. Asus does, however, update their drivers quite frequently considering the scope of their company, so I don't mind using their drivers as much =).
Overall
Overall, buying a deluxe Asus card is a great idea if you like those extra add-on features. Typically, the price difference between a deluxe and standard card is about $50, which to me, is quite a bargain for so many extra features. For the enthusiast that is looking for an ATI All-in-Blunder (oops, I mean Wonder) type card, but don't want to rely on an ATI chipset (though I hear the Radeon-based wonder should be pretty nice), I think Asus's Deluxe series comes the closest. Too bad they didn't include a TV Tuner.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 230.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
silencery
|
|
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.