Introduction

With the market currently being flooded by graphics cards from a variety of manufacturers, it is often quite difficult to make a decision as to which is the best purchase. This is mainly due to the fact that essentially, the cards don't differ much from manufacturer to manufacturer, as they are based on the same chipset and usually run at the same clock speeds. Thus, manufacturers have been forced to come up with ways they can make their products stand out from the crowd. Some do this by coloring their card's PCB while others include an extravagant software bundle. That said, most of the market has already caught on to this trend and it is rare to see a mediocre brown/green PCB or lack of free software.

To differentiate themselves even further, Abit have released their OTES (Outside Thermal Exhaust System) range of cards. Featuring a unique cooling system never before seen on a graphics card, this range is likely to become very popular amongst the enthusiast community.

The first card in this range is based on the GeForce4 Ti4200 chipset. Not only did we manage to obtain one of these cards, but we have also prepared a full performance analysis including details on the effectiveness of its cooling system. Were we satisfied? Read on to find out!