Right there with ZOTAC’s GT 440 is the ASUS spin on NVIDIA’s budget pixel pusher. While I’m pretty sure the digital media performance is pretty great, the gaming performance, well, we’ll have to see if Futurelooks gets their mitts on it for some budget benchmarks. The thing is though, the new “Super Alloy Power” design and that aggressive heatsink on the card makes it look so hardcore that it’s in danger of turning into one of those Honda’s with too big of a wing and too little of an engine. But with 1GB of memory onboard standard, it should make some Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 users happy as this could be a great budget card to try out using the “Mercury Playback Engine Hack”. Full press release below.
ASUS Introduces the All-New GT 440 Graphics Card with Super Alloy Power Technology
— NVIDIAs latest Fermi architecture combined with exclusive ASUS innovations and superior design enables robust digital media and gaming performance —
Fremont, CA (February 1, 2011) – ASUS, the worlds number #1 motherboard manufacturer and leading innovator in graphics cards, is proud to introduce NVIDIAs latest GPU, the GT440 Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). An instant upgrade over todays integrated graphics options, the new ASUS GT440 graphics card is ideal for powering todays media centric PC. The ASUS GT440 offers improved visual quality, reduced processor utilization and hardware accelerated performance for a wide range of online video content, applications and Blu-ray titles.
In addition the ASUS GT440 provides significantly improved gaming experience compared to the latest integrated graphics solutions allowing for an increase in image quality, frame rates and resolution to provide a more immersive gaming experience. Rounding out its full range of functionality is support for NVIDIA PhysX® technology and for NVIDIA 3D Vision offering the next level of immersion on the PC with the latest Blu-ray or online HD content.
Product highlights
- ASUS factory overclocks the GT440 to 822MHz providing better than reference performance out of the box.
- The ASUS GT440 includes Super Alloy Power technology, featuring a special alloy formula used in power delivery components such as capacitors, chokes and MOSFETs. It instantly lowers average operating temperatures up to 35°C*, extends product lifespan 2.5 times* and improves overall performance up to 15%*. This gives users access to greater overclocking potential, as the GT440 can withstand higher operating temperatures than its reference counterparts.
- Taking advantage of the improved power delivery system offered by the Super Alloy Power design, ASUS exclusive and award winning overvolting technology Voltage Tweak is capable of adjusting and increasing core voltage to improve overclcoking scaling that provides superior frame rates in todays latest games.
- ASUS continues to lead the industry in protective design measures on graphics cards. The GT440 features protective designs such as our Dust-proof Fan design ensuring up to 25%* longer fan lifespan than generic offerings due to its double-sealed design, which repels dust and other debris to improve cooling and longevity. ASUS GPU Guard doubles the printed circuit board strength through a special reinforced bonding process, helping to protect the card against fracturing and cracking. This can occur due to the rapid temperature changes within todays PCs. ASUS also implements the class leading Fuse Protection that is a current protection mechanism offering protection against over-current which can damage the GPU, reduce or degrade performance and induce dangerous temperature levels.
- The GT4400 offers full support for HDMI 1.4a, a unified standard for delivering high quality audio and video along with full support and compliance for 3D content. The GT440 offers full hardware acceleration to ensure smooth playback of Blu-ray 3D or other 1080P high-definition content. High-definition 24-bit multi-channel audio up to 192KHz along with lossless DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD audio bit-streaming ensures an immersive sound experience.
About ASUS
ASUS, the worlds top 3 consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the worlds best selling and most award winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era. ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home, office and person, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia, wireless solutions, networking devices and mobile phones. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 3,398 awards in 2010, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC. With a global staff of more than ten thousand people and a world-class R&D team of 3,000 engineers, the company’s revenue for 2010 was around US$10 billion.