There’s no denying that the fastest 3D gaming card available for home use TODAY is one based on the ATI Radeon 9700 PRO GPU. Generally, the top spot has been held by nVidia during the last few years and we’re sure that their hands are twitching to see someone else occupy that slot. Sure, we’ve heard plenty of rumors about their upcoming NV30 that is supposed to blow everything out of water, but until that happens, nVidia needes to fill in the gap- especially by a card that boldly supports AGP 8X.
At this point of time, AGP 8X is more loved by a company’s marketing department than by their technical department- just like when AGP 4X was introduced. You’re not really gonna see your 3D Mark scores double or anything, however, it will be useful in the long run when newer graphics cards start demanding more. But just like Serial-ATA and Gigabit LAN (technologies that you’re not going to use right now), AGP 8X is a selling point. That’s pretty much the story behind NV28- nVidia’s GeForce4 Ti4200 GPU supporting AGP 8X and we look at it on a card by ASUS modeled V9280S.
Powered by nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200-8X
AGP 8X support with bandwidth of 2.1 GB/sec
High Speed BGA DDR 128MB video memory
Super cooling solution with Copper-fin and memory heat-sink
VGA Connector: 15-pin D-sub VGA connector
DVI Connector: Easy connectivity to digital flat-panel displays
TV-out Connecotr: High quality TV-output for big screen gaming or presentation
Video-in Connector: Supports real time video capture, high quality video compression and video editing
Bus Standard: AGP 8X / 4X / 2X / 1X
Software Bundle: VR Aquarium, MediaShow SE, PowerDirector ME, ASUS DVD
Games Bundle: Morrowind, Black Thorn, Worms Blast (Full Versions). Battle Realms, IL Sturmovik (Demo Version)
