
Following the release of the OC Gear gaming card, Asus has decided on unveiling a new overclocking-friendly card, this time lacking any 5.25" bay. The new addition to Asus' offer is the EN8600GT TOP/HTDP/256M., a new mainstream card based on the G84 chip from Nvidia. The newly-announced GeForce 8600GT card is claimed to provide a 40% improvement in gaming experiences due to its higher clocks set by Asus itself.
The card boasts a non-reference cooler that keeps the GPU 13ÂșC cooler when compared to stock heatsinks. In terms of clocks, the EN8600GT TOP packs a core clock of 600 MHz (540 MHz stock), a Shader clock of 1458 MHz (1180 MHz stock) and a memory clock that is most likely a typo - 1008 MHz (504MHz DDR3). With the new settings, the card is said to have scored 5889 pints in 3DMark06, up 40% from the 4185 score of a reference card.
The new TOP card also comes equipped with Asus' SmartDoctor software for easy in-OS overclocking. No pricing or availability yet.