The first card we will be analyzing in this comparison is the ASUS EAX1650XT. The video card operates at frequencies of 574MHz core and 675MHz (1350MHz effective) for the GDDR3 memory. The card has a total of 256MB of memory which uses a 128-bit interface. ASUS chose large packaging for its video card, displaying much of the card’s technical characteristics and a table comparing the card’s performance to the NVIDIA 7600GT on the back.

ASUS includes a CD to install the user manual, which is actually in digital format, and a driver CD. In addition, the package comes with the video game GTI Racing V560.

The accessory package comes with two DVI-to-VGA connectors, two Crossfire bridges, and a Molex to 6-pin PCI-Express cable converter.

The layout of the board makes it clearly evident that ASUS chose to use their own board design in place of the reference ATI board. The ASUS EAX1650XT is the only video card in this article that requires a 6-pin auxiliary power source. The cooling solution ASUS chose covers only a small amount of the video card’s surface and is limited to the GPU and memory chip region.

Although the cooling solution might not be very wide, it is much more vertically thick. The card comes with two DVI output ports and one S-Video Out.