Asus ENGTX480

The Asus ENGTX480 is the second GTX 480 graphics card we've reviewed. Priced at US $550 it is $104 less expensive than Zotac's GeForce GTX 480 (also reviewed on ITP.net).

Like the Zotac GTX 480 card the Asus follows nVidia's reference specs to the letter. As a result the card's GPU runs at the recommend frequency of 700MHz, while its 1536MB of GDDR5 is clocked at 3696MHz. The card also uses a reference design cooler and so looks exactly like Zotac's GTX 480.

Putting the Asus through our performance gauntlet the card proved slower than the more expensive Zotac offering. In Heaven v2.0 for instance the ENGTX480 scored 78.7fps, 58.1fps and 49.9fps at 1024 x 768, 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 pixels. The Zotac on the other hand produced higher scores of 87.5fps, 58.9fps and 50fps, making it the faster card. Similarly in our H.A.W.X tests the Asus scored 166fps, 117fps and 99fps to the Zotac's 167fps, 119fps and 100fps respectively.

While the Asus is the slower card overall, it's worth remembering that it also retails for a significant amount less than Zotac's GTX 480 offering. If you're looking for a GTX 480 and cash is a concern this card actually represents great value. At this price it is also cheaper than Gigabyte's GV-N470D5-13I-B GTX 470 card (also reviewed on ITP.net).