YugaTech | PC Labs

This gigantic video card from Asus came in for review several weeks ago — the Asus ENGTX280. I had some problems with setting up a rig due to the power supply requirements of this power-guzzler gaming card by Asus (and even busted one PSU in the process).

The card is based on the NVidia GT200 and was first released way back in the third quarter of 2008. Built for serious gamers, the Asus ENGTX280 sports a 512-bit DDR3 RAM for bigger processing bandwidth.

The core specs:

Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
Core Clock Speed: 670MHz
Interface: PCI Express 2.0
Video Memory: 1024 MB GDDR3 512-bit
Max Resolution: 2560×1600 pixels (DVI)
Stream Processors: 240

The card has two dual-link DVI ports and a 7-pin HDTV-out port for connecting into hi-def TVs and playing videos. Unlike most other graphic cards, the ENGTX280’s innards are completely encased in metal with only the cooling fan visible from the outside. That added to the heft of the video card.

Be prepared to have a high-capacity PSU as this unit eats up a considerable amount of juice (~300watts). That’s one of the first mistakes I made when testing out this card. A suggested PSU would be the Corsair 650w or the Gigabyte Odin 800 and Odin 1000. Be prepared to shell out some serious dough for those.

The card was pretty expensive when it first came out (above Php20k) although I think it has gone down considerably (around Php12k – Php15k).

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