02 - A closer look

The Asus AX 600XT uses ATI's R380 chipset. We've mentioned before that the changes are only minor making the card equal in graphics power with the older 9600XT.

A close-up on the AF-22 memory.

In contrast to Powercolor's X600XT memory, the AF-25, Asus designed the AX600XT using 128Mb of the AF22 version of the HY4DU283222 memory. This means the memory parts are built for running at 450MHz while the AF-25 could only reach up to 400MHz although we managed to overclock Powercolor's memory up to 425MHz without experiencing any problems. We'll see how good of an overclocker the AX600XT is later on.

The ATI Rage Theater chip for VIVO purposes.

If you take a closer look at the next picture, you'll see how the cooling system on the AX600XT works. Quite noisy for it's size, the clear crystal fan is located above the main chipset taking in air and forcing it through the heatsink towards the PCI-express slot. All of this while the memory heatsink located further left remains without proper air cooling.

The front side of the card.(click to enlarge).

As you can see in the picture above, the AX 600XT doesn't have a VGA output. Instead it has DVI and HDTV outputs but if you can't take advantage of these, you can just use the bundled DVI-to-VGA adaptor to connect your monitor or the S-Video to Composite VIVO cable for standard TV output.

The latest trend wants crystal clear fans being lit by blue or red leds .

The rear side of the AX600XT (click to enlarge)