DirectX 9

Even with my midrange 7 series card I was able to run many of today's video games in the highest detail (or so I thought).

Once the ASUS EN8600GTS video card hit my system, video gaming has changed for me. Now my gaming is done in absolute highest detail in all but just a very few of today's video games.

Games such as Oblivion, Medieval II - Total War and Test Drive Unlimited look much better now then they did on my previous video card even though both cards were set on highest detail.

Getting more frames per second is one benefit of the ASUS EN8600GTS video card, but the visual quality is also drastically increased. The most noticeable factor is an overall smoother feeling to the games.

The games look absolutely stunning. I've actually caught myself performing poorly in a game because I was distracted by the visual aspects of the game. For example, in Medieval II - Total War, using flaming arrows should be used in special circumstances only. I started using them all the time because flaming arrows look awesome in the ASUS EN8600GTS card.

Reflections, high texture graphics, and particle effects look unbelievable. The way the lights and shadows glitter around makes this card definitely worth of an upgrade (at least in the DirectX 9 market.

Going hand in hand with the increased frame rate is smoke/dust effects. This video card has awakened the dirty side of me (racing and war games here I come). Now that I see that the card can handle DirectX 9 its time to see how well it does with DirectX 10.

DirectX 10

Since I'm a reviewer, this video card "forced" me to upgrade to Windows Vista in order to check out the card's performance under Vista and DirectX 10.

What I saw totally impressed me. To start of my DirectX 10 extravaganza, I went with one of my favorite titles: Company of Heroes. I've spent many nights colliding with the evil Nazis under DirectX 9, but under DirectX 10 things improve even more.

It's the lights, the shadows and the dust, snow and rain. It's the textures. It's everything. Everything looks just a little better on DirectX 10, and the ASUS EN8600GTS video card mixed with the power of Vista and DirectX 10 is a must-have combo.

Once again I blame the ASUS EN8600GTS for my poor performance in Company of Heroes. Instead of running for cover like I was supposed to, I kept sending in wave after wave of troops to the slaughter.

But I had to; I cold not test the power of the video card and the beauty of the game's graphics from behind a wall. The fire, explosions, smoke trails, and the destructible world made the game "eye-candy" with the aid of this video card.

After bringing chaos down upon the Nazis, I decided to take a trip into the wild west; I don't know... something the Call of Juarez. The ASUS EN8600GTS video card did well in the Wild West shootouts as well.

Honestly, I am very impresses with this new video card. It totally changed my gaming experience. Company of Heroes impressed me with the trails of smoke left by tanks and mortar fire. For Call of Juarez it was the fire that mesmerized me. That and the beautiful scenery and lighting in the game.

Note on DirectX 10 gaming: as a game reviewer mostly, it is very important to me how smooth the game plays. The games mentioned in the DirectX 10 review were tested with identical configuration under DirectX 9. In all cases the games dropped around 7 to 15 FPS depending on the game and the amount of rendering on the screen.

That is not the video card's fault. Simply put DirectX 10 is much more powerful and the graphics are much more visually enhanced therefore more power is needed for DirectX 10. Juggling with the settings will optimize your game and the video card's abilities in a matter of seconds.