SUMMARY: Today we are looking at the two top dogs from both ATi and nVidia in the form of the Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra from ASUS. We pit them directly against a reference 9800 XT and an older 9800 Pro to find out who is the king of the hill in the VGA department.
Both cards include a much-appreciated accessory entitled the “Multi-video in & TV out adaptor” - and frankly, it does just that. The adaptor sports composite in, composite out, S-Video in and S-Video out and attaches to a proprietary adaptor available on both the V9980 Ultra and the 9800XT.
This adaptor replaces some of the advantages brought forth by ATi’s All-In-Wonder line, and other third party multimedia cards. Logically, ASUS has included software to completely take advantage of their “Multi-video in & TV out” adaptor. Software such as Video Security II allows one to monitor ambient movement through the use of a video camera (connected to the card). This software is able to detect foreign movement through live video and act accordingly to previously defined user-programmed features; such as taking a live snapshot and emailing it to your address, automatic dialing to a user-defined phone number, or simply running executables on your desktop machine.
I had previously mentioned bundled program entitled “Game Face”. What this software allows you to do is live stream webcam video from you to a recipient whilst online gaming or other screen-hogging activities. In addition to this, you could watch TV in the corner of your screen (with the aid of the included adaptor) while using your computer. Some expensive monitors already have this feature built-in (virtually PIP), but this software provides better overall control and flexibility of operation.
On the overclocking side of things, ASUS includes their own clock manipulation software, “ASUS Tweaker”. Combining a sleek look and easy accessibility, ASUS Tweaker is a welcomed replacement to registry tweaks, third party overclocking software and BIOS editing.
Finally, to elaborate on an already brought up program - ASUS’s Video Security allows one to monitor intruders in the surrounding area, and react programmatically upon intrusion detection. The software allows you to use either your web camera or DV cam as a stand-alone video camera capable of monitoring and detecting foreign movement when asked to. This software is particularly useful for someone who doesn’t want anyone in their room, or anything, as although you can adjust the sensor detection, it’s still quite sensitive.
