Final thoughts and rating
ASUS has used its considerable resources to engineer a couple of high-end graphics cards with a difference. The Radeon HD 4890 Voltage Tweak 1,024MB appears to be rather unassuming at first glance, encased in a reference cooler and clocked in at basic HD 4890 speeds. Dig a little deeper and you find that ASUS has endowed the card with variable-voltage technology, accessed through the bundled SmartDoctor application, and enough to push the sample card to a more-than respectable overclock.The smart thing here is that the warranty remains intact, so we look upon it with favour when compared to other Radeon HD 4890s. One problem is the bunching of HD 4890 pricing such that a well-overclocked model - 901MHz core and 4,000MHz memory - is available for few pounds less. ASUS' card is still decent, of course, but needs to drop the price of the VT model to around £190 if it's going to be competitive.
Moving on, the grounds-up design of the GeForce GTX 260 MATRIX is unmistakeable. Shipping with a more-comprehensive software set - iTracker - the voltage-adjustments settings are generous. Trouble is, the fans are loud when set to the default profile; and the pre-overclocking is meagre. That's real shame because the card has plenty of headroom with the voltage bumped up.
We like the fact that ASUS has tinkered with the design and it's a good buy if you like to push components to the limit. Such is the pricing of current cards, that a £150 bone-stock GTX 260 model is attractive, as is a £199 GTX 275. The MATRIX range, however, is a good idea that's around to stay.
Muddying the buying waters further is the excellent performance exhibited by twin-card Radeon HD 4770. Faster and cheaper than either ASUS single-GPU card, they demand serious attention if frame-rate is the most important criterion in your buying decision.
Bottom line: ASUS' two non-reference packages both do well enough, sure, but competition is so fierce that neither stand out with 'must-buy' written all over them. Appreciating what ASUS has put into the MATRIX range, it's our pick of the two, and it can be recommended at £185. Quieter fans and better pre-overclocking would have seen it walk away with an editor's choice award.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the cards are evaluated with respect to our 'high-end components' criteria.
ASUS Radeon HD 4890 Voltage Tweak 1,024MB
ASUS GeForce GTX 260 MATRIX 896MB
HEXUS Awards
ASUS GeForce GTX 260
MATRIX 896MB
HEXUS Where2Buy
The
ASUS Radeon HD 4890 Voltage Tweak 1,024MB
is available from Ebuyer.co.uk for £201.36,
including delivery.
The same card is also available from Scan.co.uk for £203.55, including delivery*
*As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
Pricing for the ASUS GeForce GTX 260 MATRX 896MB has yet to be finalised. We expect it to etail for around £185.
The same card is also available from Scan.co.uk for £203.55, including delivery*
*As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
Pricing for the ASUS GeForce GTX 260 MATRX 896MB has yet to be finalised. We expect it to etail for around £185.
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