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The Asus GF4titanium cards are finally here for me to review , and I apologize to all the techno's out there for not doing a 10 page feature by feature review  on this card but thats not me  . With the more standard cooling set up ( orbish cooler on GPU and no ram sinks )

 these two cards are far lighter than the Leadtek cards I tested two Days ago. Both cards come with 2 Games , DVD driver and a Asus Driver disc with some nice utilities , one , the GPU temp monitoring software , does not work on my Epox MB . When it came to installation , both cards were the same physical size as there Leadtek brethren  , so expect a snug fit if your short on space . The one thing that jumped out and grabbed me about the Asus cards was the 3 Year Warranty on them , nice , very nice .

ASUS V8440  275mhz core / 550mhz memory

 Powered by the powerful NVIDIA^® GeForce 4 Ti 4400 GPU
 High speed 128MB DDR video memory with 8.8 GB/sec bandwidth
 DVI output for easy connectivity to digital flat-panel displays
 Bus Standard: AGP 4X / 2X / 1X
 TV-out Connector: One S-VHS mini-DIN and one RCA to mini-DIN cable
 High quality TV output for big screen gaming or presentations
 High valued software bundle: ASUS DVD 2000 S/W player and the hottest 3D games

ASUS V8460 ULTRA  300mhz core / 650mhz memory

 Powered by the world's most powerful GPU
 NVIDIA^® GeForce 4 Ti 4600 GPU
 High speed 128MB DDR video memory with 10.4 GB/sec bandwidth
 Uses "Immersion Gold Coating" for enhanced reliability and circuit connections
 Special "Copper Fan Sink" cooling solution for superior overclocking and performance
 DVI output for easy connectivity to digital flat-panel displays
 Supports multiple displays
High quality TV output for big screen gaming or presentations
 Valuable software bundle: AQUANOX Action Adventure, Midnight GT Action Racing, Games Showcase Multiple

PERFORMANCE:

System : Epox 8k3a , XP1700 @ 9.5x166=1577mhz ( 166/166 ) 20gig ATA100 7200rpm Seagate 256mb pc2700 DDR ram , Win 98SE direct X 8a  Nvidia 28.32 video drivers.

ASUS V8440 

Starting with 3Dmark2001 , the graphics card was left on default settings and simply changed to Best Performance . All testing will be done the same as with the Leadtek cards so that results can be compared .

3Dmark2001 Results

ASUS v8440	10,318 3Dmarks
Leadtek ti4400	10,360 3Dmarks

3Dmark2000 Results

ASUS v8440	13,612 3Dmarks
Leadtek ti4400	13,618 3Dmarks

So far the results are close enough to not really mater , so lets se what happens when we use Quake .

Quake Results

Manufacturer	Graphics Detail	Normal	High	Max
ASUS v8440	800x600	233fps	228fps	224fps
Leadtek ti4400	800x600	233fps	228fps	224fps
ASUS v8440	1280x1024	192fps	173fps	171fps
Leadtek ti4400	1280x1024	192fps	171fps	169fps

Again the results are close enough not to really mater , both cards are equal , and the only way to see if one is better than the other will be through Overclocking .

OVERCLOCKING: 

The Leadtech card got up to 320mhz Core / 630mhz Memory and returned a 3Dmark2001 score of 10763 3Dmarks , whilst the Asus got up to 300mhz core / 600mhz memory and returned a 3Dmark2001 score of 10719 3Dmarks . The Asus card has no ram sinks , and its GPU cooler is no where near as large as the wrap around heatsink of the Leadtek , which would explain the higher overclock from the Leadtek card.

Antialiasing x2 + Fast Linear-mipmap-linear filtering + Anisotropic filtering .

Im doing this test just to see what sort of performance hit you can expect .

3Dmark2001

ASUS V8440	7918 3Dmarks
Leadtek ti4400	8158 3Dmarks

Ok thats quite the performance hit all right , but dare I say still faster than most GF3 cards , so you can have your cake and eat it so to speak . I personally didnt notice any greater graphics detail or increased quality , either in Games or 3Dmark2001 from enabling all these features , esp from the software I currently own , but then the GF4 was made with the future and games to come in mind . Here we can see the Leadtek take a strong lead over the Asus card .

ASUS V8460 ULTRA

Time to test the top of the line Asus GF4 card , and I will be comparing it to the Leadtek GF4 ti4600 , so without wasting time lets see how it did .

3Dmark2001 Results

Asus v8460	10,825 3Dmarks
Leadtek ti4600	10,870 3Dmarks

3Dmark2000 Results

Asus v8460	13,881 3Dmarks
Leadtek ti4600	13,922 3Dmarks

Again , the results are very close , but with the Leadtek cards consistently posting the higher score , how ever marginal it may be . Time to run Quake .

Quake Results

Manufacturer	Graphics Detail	Normal	High	Max
Asus v8460	800x600	234fps	229fps	224fps
Leadtek ti4600	800x600	235fps	230fps	224fps
Asus v8460	1280x1024	201fps	185fps	182fps
Leadtek ti4600	1280x1024	202fps	186fps	182fps

Again the results are to close to call a clear winner , so lets see how we go with the overclocking .

OVERCLOCKING:

The Leadtek card went to 325mhz Core / 670mhz Memory and returned a 3Dmark2001 score of 11,037 3Dmarks. The Asus card was taken to 320mhz Core / 670mhz Memory to start with and there were massive artifacts showing up in 3Dmark2001 so I immediately aborted the benchmark. Looks like the Asus v8460 is going to need better cooling if its to achieve reasonable overclocking levels.    

Conclusion :

 

Asus v8440	3Dmark2001 = 10,318 3Dmarks
Asus v8460	3Dmark2001 = 10,825 3Dmarks
Asus v8440	3Dmark2000 = 13,612 3Dmarks
Asus v8460	3Dmark2000 = 13,881 3Dmarks

QUAKE

	Graphics Detail	Normal	High	Max
Asus v8440	800x600	233fps	228fps	224fps
Asus v8460	800x600	234fps	229fps	224fps
Asus v8440	1280x1024	192fps	173fps	171fps
Asus v8460	1280x1024	201fps	185fps	182fps

Antialiasing x2 + Fast Linear-mipmap-linear filtering + Anisotropic filtering . 

Asus v8440	7918 3Dmarks ( 2001 )
Leadtek ti4400	8158 3dmarks ( 2001 )
Asus v8460	9142 3Dmarks ( 2001)

As you can see the results are rather close for the v8440 & v8460 Asus cards , again I had no problems what so ever with either card , both were blistering fast . As you can see the Gf4 ti4600's dont start to shine until you start enabling some of the graphics features (  Antialiasing x2+ Fast Linear-mipmap-linear filtering + Anisotropic filtering   ) unfortunately I forgot to benchmark the Leadtek ti4600 for this particular test . Image quality is superb , what else would you expect from the GF4ti , and personally I would be happy to own either card  . Unfortunately there has to be a winner ,and its the v8460 . With the Asus v8440 it comes very close to the v8460 when overclocked , 10,719 3Dmarks vs 10,825 3Dmarks ( 2001 ) for the stock benchmark of the v8460 , and with very little room for overclocking from the v8460 , well I leave it to you to decide which you want . With some extra cooling added to the v8440 , it just might outdo its bigger brother the v8460 , as I believe the lack of cooling for the ram is holding this card back from some serious overclocking possibilities .

Comparing the Asus cards to the Leadtek cards , I would have to say that at the moment the Leadtek cards offer better value and performance for your dollar , but keep in mind that its a small margin , very small . And the same can be said for the ti4400 vs ti4600 cards , the performance difference is very small , esp taking the overall scores into account , and I personally  have to favor the much cheaper ti4400 cards , for there serious value for money and performance level , when compared to the ti4600 cards . Still if you have to have the best , then its the ti4600 , and they show there metal when graphics features and detail levels are increased . 

Unfortunately these cards are only on loan to me , and have to go back , so unfortunately , pushing these cards to the max was out of the question , and doing any cooling mods were equally out of the question , would be nice if a Manufacturer sent me a card to review , this way I could spend a lot more time with it , do more benchmarks , and tweak the hell out of it , to see what it can do , without worrying about doing any damage or even killing the card , ouch! , but it happens . So in all honesty I feel a little uncomfortable , testing someone else's property , lest I do harm to it .

The last price that I have on the ASUS cards is

ASUS V8440 = $645

ASUS V8460 = $850

Call MSY - 9572-4411 for the latest price.

I would like to thank MSY for making this review possible .

Matt Korhonen