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Unlike the slightly disappointing GeForce4 MX-type boards, the Asus V8460 is a graphics card that will turn heads, because it's one of the fastest products you can now buy and also one of the largest, reaching right up to the edge of an ATX motherboard.
As such, you might find that your PC's E-IDE and floppy cables obstruct the installation of this product if they're in front of the AGP slot. However, if you can find the room for the V8460 in your PC, you'll not be disappointed.
It's one of the first boards to feature nVidia's latest GeForce4 Ti 4600 chipset and represents the highest level of consumer graphics acceleration currently available.
The chip is clocked at 300MHz and is fitted alongside the maximum frame buffer configuration of 128Mb, which is made up from 3.8ns DDR SDRam clocked at 325MHz. This is equivalent to 650MHz data rate and offers a maximum bandwidth of 10.4Gbps.
To make best use of this specification, the GeForce4 Ti 4600 is equipped with four independent memory controllers and improved occlusion routines.
This is just as well, as it also features a second dual-texel processing unit, giving the V8460 a massive maximum texture processing rate of 4.8Megatexel/s along with its impressive raw fill rate of 1.2Megapixel/s, so efficient use of memory bandwidth is crucial to avoid performance bottlenecks.
Additional improvements to the architecture include MPEG-2 decoding with motion compensation for DVD-Video playback and the multi-sampling anti-aliasing technique demonstrated by the MX series.
What will appeal most to power users, though, is the 3D performance, which is very fast. The results of the pipeline optimisation are clear, with the V8460 returning a score of 277 in our 3D WinMark 2000 tests.
It also features the same programmable vertex and pixel shaders of the GeForce3 and will support the custom shaders likely to appear in future software.
In keeping with its status as a top-end product, the V8460 is equipped with VGA and DVI-I ports. Asus has also squeezed in an S-Video port for TV output.
It's possible that there's a faster, 0.13-micron chip waiting in the wings to replace the GeForce4 Ti 4600 but, until this emerges, cards like the Asus V8460 are more than capable enough to keep the most performance-hungry PC owner happy.
Price: £320.99 (ex. VAT)
Specifications:
Controller: nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4600
Memory: 128Mb DDR SDRam
Core clock: 300MHz
Memory clock: 650MHz
RAMDAC: 350MHz
Connectors: VGA, DVI-I, S-Video
Contact: Dabs.com (distributor) 0870 429 3220
www.asus.com.tw
See also:
We check out two graphics cards using the fastest chip you can buy. 20 Nov 2002
A mainstream graphics card using nVidia's GeForce4 MX440 chipset. 29 May 2002
A better-priced card for the average user than its big brother, the V8460 (GeForce4 Ti 4600), and it packs a punch. 24 May 2002
Outstanding in more ways than one, the Ti4600 will attract the enthusiast. 15 May 2002
All Graphics Cards
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