Item: ASUS EN8800GTX AquaTank - the fastest graphics card in the world?
Author: Tarinder Sandhu

Review: ASUS EN8800GTX AquaTank - the fastest graphics card in the world?

Final thoughts, HEXUS.awards and HEXUS.right2reply

We have little doubt in pronouncing it as the fastest single graphics card we've seen, but that assertion is laced with provisos. The first is the spatial limitations imposed by having to use 4 expansion slots to house the graphics card and Tide Water cooling. That should be no problem for a single card but will stop most from using it in SLI configuration, with two boards in one machine.

We're also miffed at fan noise in both quiet and fast modes. The latter produces an unacceptable level of noise and even the supposed quiet mode is louder than an air-cooled reference heatsink's fan, so please bear this in mind if you automatically equate watercooling with near-silent operation.

Still, the ASUS EN8800GTX AquaTank is about as fast as current GTX cards go, and those looking for ultimate single-card performance could do a lot worse than shortlist it.

The rate of new announcements is such that ASUS will have a small window of opportunity with this SKU. Rumours are abound that the GTX is to be usurped as performance king by a certain GeForce 8800 Ultra - an air-cooled beast sporting even faster clocks in every respect.

Bottom line: the fastest GeForce 8800 GTX card we've seen thus far. Ultimate performance is derived from the use of an external, noisy watercooling solution. If that doesn't bother you and you can't wait until GeForce 8800 Ultra or Radeon HD 2900 XT hit the shelves, this is a reasonable high-end buy.

HEXUS Awards

ASUS EN8800GTX AquaTank

HEXUS Where2Buy

You can buy this card for around £462 here

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any of ASUS' representatives choose to do so, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

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You state that the title of fastest factory overclocked 8800GTX would go to a water-cooled card from EVGA, but the link you provide is to a page selling the more commonly known BFG card.

I have also heard that EVGA will be releasing (have released?) an 8800GTX with a pre-fitted water-block, to partner with a 680i-SLI motherboard with FOUR! (count-em, 4!) waterblocks (CPU, NB, SB, VRM), but have not seen any details.

Other than that, a nice review overall. Although personally, if I wanted to water cool an 8800GTX or two ($$$ :eek:) I would go for a proper water cooling setup, not a noisy barely adequate space-hog (sorry Thermaltake, not a fan). Given that most people planning to water cool are going to want to nuke the main sources of heat (oddly enough, that is now high-end GPUs, even more so than CPUs, 150W+ vs 135W QX6800), a more complete (and paradoxically probably quieter with low speed 120mm fan(s) on the radiator) solution seems in order.

Steve hb,

Scan has been moving URLs around so it should link to an EVGA card. Anyway, the BFG exists and does seem to be the fastest around.

We did see the four-block board at CeBIT this year

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=8125

I agree with your ‘proper’ watercooling soluiton.