Not all G92s are created equal. With the release of the 8800 GTS 512MB (G92 core), this has become more evident – since the GTS is fast becoming a popular target for many companies’ overclocking efforts. Aside from well-known “extreme” brands such as XFX and EVGA, one of the more mainstream companies cranking out overclocked versions of the GTS is Asus, with their TOP card. Asus with their genius has come up with a GTS that’s yawningly plain – which is both good and bad. Read on to find out why.

                                             This GTS sports the ever-present Asus model for its current crop of cards.

TOP stands for Top Overclocking Performance, and Asus did not mince any words when this acronym was created. Clock speeds have been ratcheted up to 740MHz from a stock of 650MHz for the GPU, 1.8GHz from 1.625GHz stock for the stream processors, and 1035MHz from 970MHz stock for the memory. None of the other commercially available pre-overclocked 8800 GTS’s reaches this kind of clock speeds, not even the vaunted XFX XXX edition.

                                             Asus sticker on the fan differentiates this otherwise generic facade.

The GTS is the second videocard released with the G92 process-core, and is meant to replace the old G80 – based GTS. As such, performance slots above that of the GT, especially overclocked as it is. In fact, the G80 – based GTX, a powerhouse of a card that holds second fiddle only to the top-of-the-line Ultra, has inferior specs when it comes to clock speeds, with 575MHz core and 900MHz memory. This is not to say that the GTX is slower than the GTS, since aside from clock speeds, differences in the number of stream processors, the width of the interface, and the resulting memory and actual fill rates.

                                             The prominent angling of the fan should give better cooling in SLI setups.

Crysis was the only benchmark we could fit into the publishing schedule, but I am glad we were able to pick the right game to represent the 8800 series placing: we were treated to an upset and pleasant surprise (yes, both at the same time – since I use a GTX at home) – Asus’ overclocked GTS beat the stock-clocked GTX from 1024 x 768 with 4x AA and 16x AF up to our monitor’s max resolution of 1600 x 1200, with the same AA and AF settings. Although the difference only amounted to one to a maximum of 3 FPS, the fact that this roughly P15k card could beat a year-old P35k card is surprise enough, and add to that the stable nature of the TOP card, gives this card a license to speed.

                                             The GTS' dual slot solution may not appeal to everyone.

This increase in clock speeds is not due to any special change or improvement that Asus made, rather, Asus makes sure to pick and choose the chips with the most headroom for overclocking, and bases their products on these. The trick is to find these chips, and test whether their fit to be labeled “TOP” videocards. Other than the extreme overclock, Asus did not make any other definitive changes to distinguish their videocard from others in the same bracket. The cooler is the stock Nvidia reference design, and while Asus includes the software utility Smart Doctor for further overclocking and diagnosis / monitoring duties, software utilities are nothing new.

                                             Supplementary power.

There’s nothing to distinguish the Asus EN8800GTS TOP in the looks department, besides the stickers on the fan and the heatsink housing. The box it comes in is quite big, but the contents are somewhat sparse – a leather CD case, CD drivers, Manual, molex to six-pin power, and S-video to triple RCA, plus the card itself. All that’s left is speed- and lots of it. Asus’ energies were not applied anywhere else except to the attainment of the top (ehem) performance attainable for the GTS, and this more than anything makes this a distinguished option for your gaming pesos.

Watch out for an in depth review with benchmarks and hard numbers in an upcoming issue of HWM. More pictures follow.

                                             Even though a new product, the GTS only has a single SLI "golden finger" - no triple SLI for this product.

                                             Bundled extras.

                                             The new GeForce logo that appeared a few months ago. I like.

                                             The Box. If you're looking to buy this, don't worry - it's hard to miss.