With the X800's and 6800's hogging limelight, a new battle has begun for affordable, mid-performance cards -- the 6600GT's versus the X700's -- and ASUS has stepped up to the plate with its Extreme AX700Pro.
Performance-wise, this card conducts itself well, with decent framerates in Half-Life 2. It managed 110.87 in our custom demo at 1024 x 768, which guarantees you'll experience silky smooth gameplay in even the most hectic scenes. This card also performs well in 3DMark05, ensuring that DirectX 9 games like the forthcoming STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl will be handled with aplomb.
The Extreme AX700Pro is another card which has deviated from the reference cooler design, and features a reassuringly chunky heatsink.
The bundle, which consists mostly of tweaking tools, isn't as well rounded as the others on offer, but the biggest hurdle for ASUS is its price. Again, like ASUS' given the price, consisting mostly of tweaking tools with no games to speak of, but if you have a webcam you can make use of ASUS' GameFace. Overall, this is a good performer and, while not the cheapest in the pack, it's a solid offering.