Today we’ll be looking at nine GeForce FX-based videocards. One 5200 Ultra, one 5600, three 5600 Ultras, three 5900’s and finally one 5900 Ultra. The three boards we’ll use for comparison are Radeon 9600 Pro, 9800 and 9800 Pro. (We won’t use Radeon 9200 Pro since the 5200 Ultra reviewed today is even more expensive than a Radeon 9600 Pro and thus would make it a very unfair comparison.)
Today we’ll
be looking at nine GeForce FX-based videocards. One 5200 Ultra, one 5600,
three 5600 Ultras, three 5900’s and finally one 5900 Ultra. The three boards
we’ll use for comparison are
Radeon 9600
Pro, 9800 and 9800 Pro. (We won’t use Radeon 9200 Pro since the 5200 Ultra
reviewed today is even more expensive than a Radeon 9600 Pro and thus would
make
it a very unfair comparison.)
Four manufacturers
are represented in the review: ABIT, Creative, Gainward and Inno3D. Nothing
new here as these are all well known brands.
Even though we’ve
had a peek at the GeForce FX series before, this time we have a lot of new
stuff. As an example we’re doing the world premiere review of GeForce FX 5900
non-Ultra 256 MB, aka Gainward’s "1300" board. It’s a first for
NordicHardware with the 5200 Ultra, 5600, retail 5900 Ultra etc. as well.
In short there’s a lot of new stuff in here. Oh yeah, the flip chip 5600 Ultra
is reviewed too of course.
Without further
ado, let’s begin by taking a look at the low end FX 5200 Ultra.
Gainward FX PowerPack! Pro/760 XP Golden Sample or
just Gainward GeForce FX 5200 Ultra for short.
Gainward FX PowerPack! Pro/760 XP Golden Sample
|
Chip: |
NV34
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.15-micron
|
Transistors: |
~45 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
350 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1400 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 1400 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
128 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
128-bit, DDR-SDRAM (Hynix 2,8 ns)
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite In/Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
DVI-VGA
adapter, ViVo-dongle, ATX power cable extention
|
Software: |
Gainward
Expert Tool
|
Full version applications: |
Intervideo
WinCinema
|
Estimated price: |
~2000 SEK
|
The GeForce FX
5200 Ultra is a rather expensive “low budget” board. Gainward has
added lots of steam by giving the board video in capabilities as well as their
Enhanced Mode overclocking (which runs the board at higher clock frequencies
while still maintaining the warranty.) This board is 2000 SEK, just as much
as the ABIT 5600 Ultra that we’re going to take a look at on the next page.
What makes it a lot worse is the fact that the much faster
Radeon 9600 Pro is 500 SEK cheaper than this board!
Front |
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Back |
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As always: Gainward
has some of the nicest looking videocards out there.
The fan is fairly
quite, far from perfect though, and seems to be doing its job cooling the
GPU. There are also heatsinks on the memory though rather small ones.
Cooling
|
|
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Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
DVI, VGA and
the 15 pin S-video cable with which you connect the ViVo Dongle. As good as
it gets, though some might opt for dual DVI instead.
Input/Output |
Gainwards bundle
has pretty much the standard stuff as you can see in the picture and the specification’s
list on the top of this page. The one thing that I do think they should start
bundling with their boards is S-Video and Composite cables. WinCinema is the
only noteworthy piece of software here and it offers video editing, dvd playback,
MP3 ripping and much more. The ViVo functionality raises the grade from what
otherwise would be a 7.5.
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Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/780 XP Professional
|
Chip: |
NV31
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~80 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
325 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1300 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 1300 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
256 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
128-bit, DDR-SDRAM (Hynix 4 ns)
|
In- and outputs: |
Dual DVI-I, S-Video/Composite In/Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
Two
DVI-VGA adapters, ViVo-dongle
|
Software: |
Gainward
Expert Tool
|
Full version applications: |
WinCinema
|
Estimated price: |
~2200 SEK
|
This is the first
256 MB 5600 board we’ve reviewed here at NordicHardware. From what we’ve read
on the sites of our compeititors they haven’t been too impressed by the 256
MB 5600 non-Ultra boards as they tend not to deliver enough performance to
justify their price tag (which of course is often a bit high since it has
a full 256 MBs of on boards VRAM).
Front |
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Back |
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However, we shouldn’t
jump into any conclusions here. This board has the same fan as the 5200 Ultra
on the previous page, which means that it’s a low noise solutions. The memory
on the other hand does not have any ramsinks at all.
Good looking
and silent but nothing really special: that’s pretty much how I’d sum up
the design and cooling of this board.
Cooling
|
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
The fact that
this board has Dual DVI-I separates it from all the other boards in this review.
For those of you running high end monitors (projectors, HDTVs etc) this is
certainly a welcomed feature. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about
the general lack of Dual DVI on most boards. This one should suit their needs
in that aspect at least.
Input/Output |
The board also
supports full ViVo functionality as well. A major plus if you ask me.
Accessories |
A pretty standard
bundle with the WinCinema pack being the highlight. Featurewise it’s above
standard with it’s Dual DVI (though that’s rather a question of preference)
and ViVo.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
ABITs boxes don’t
really attract much attention in their current state. I think however that
they should mark more clearly if it’s a Ultra or not since it’s not entirely
obvious.
ABIT Siluro FX5600
|
Chip: |
NV31
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~80 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
350 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1400 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 1400 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
128 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
128-bit, DDR-SDRAM (Hynix 2,8 ns)
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
DVI-VGA
adapter, S-video and composite cables, ATX power cable extention
|
Software: |
Soldier
of Fortune 2 Demo, Earthviewer 3D Demo, Windows Blinds NV Edition
|
Full version applications: |
ABIT
Siluro DVD 4
|
Estimated price: |
~2000 SEK
|
What do we get
out of looking at the specifics? Well, the first thing that struck me with
the FX 5600 Ultra was the fact that it has a lower texel fillrate than the
good old GeForce4 Ti4600. The pixel fillrate however is a bit higher. FX 5600
Ultra also has a bit more bandwidth than Ti4600, but it’s not really anything
worth taking note of. So the performance gains over nVidia’s previous series
are either mostly architectural advantages or it’s simply slower than the
Ti4600.
The transistor count of the 5600 is 80 millions. In comparison Radeon 9600
Pro has roughly 20 millions less transistors which in turn is about as much
as the Radeon 8500 and GeForce4 Ti have.
Front |
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Back |
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ABIT has a pretty
nice looking board with a cool blue PCB and some pretty exotic cooling. I
can’t say that I really think that there seems to be any cooling functionality
involved with the strange shape of the “lid” on the cooling. The
“lid” doesn’t seem to transfer much heat and thus I’m inclined to
think it’s simply there for cosmetical purposes. The fan is pretty quiet,
which is good to know as many people have become wary of FX noise levels.
The memory on
the other hand has not been equipped with any cooling.
Cooling
|
|
Memory |
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
ABIT has a silent
cooling solution, however it’s not very powerful. Nor does the memory recieve
any form of cooling, and thus the overclocker will want to look at alternative
methods of cooling.
Input/Output |
The Siluro FX5600
offers the standard outputs of today: S-Video, VGA and DVI. Nothing worth
mentioning here.
Accessories |
The bundle for
this board is not very impressive, nor is it really a disappointment. A few
demos and a crippled version of Windows Blinds (which only works with two
themes which both look anything but good). Other than that ABIT bundle their
own DVD player as well as all cables, drivers, adapter etc. that are needed
for full functionality. In the mid end we don’t really expect more than this.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
All Gainward boxes
look the same apart from stickers. Also their naming schemes of the boards
are very similar. It spells confusion. One thing that they need to do immediately
is to make it much more clear what videocard is actually in the box. Apart
from the Firewire sticker and the word “Ultra” this box looks identical
to the 5200 Ultra box for an example. Yet the packages hold two different
boards with completely different performance. The fact that resellers also
have a hard time keeping up with all these names makes it even worse. A recent
example is a webshop which sold a Gainward FX PowerPack! Pro/760
XP (ie 5200 Ultra) but on their site it was called Gainward FX PowerPack!
Ultra/760 XP (ie 5600 Ultra).
Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/760 XP
|
Chip: |
NV34
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~80 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
450 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1800 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 1800 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
128 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
128-bit, DDR-SDRAM
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite In/Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
DVI-VGA
adapter, ViVo-dongle, ATX power cable extention, Firewire card
|
Software: |
Gainward
Expert Tool
|
Full version applications: |
Intervideo
WinCinema
|
Estimated price: |
~3000 SEK
|
This 5600 Ultra
is built on the new rev 2 flip chip version from nVidia, which ensures higher
clock frequencies. On top of that Gainward has added their enhanced mode which
this time is already pre-activated in the BIOS. No more need for software
overclocking through Gainwards Expert Tool: very nice! This is how it should
be done in my humble opinion. I hate having to have software “autorunning”
at startup just to get full functionality out of a product.
Though this added stuff doesn’t note come for free. It’s a whole 1000 SEK
more expensive than ABITS 5600 Ultra.
Front |
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Back |
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Gainward really
cooked up some nice design this time. The flame shaped HSF adds a really
cool look to the board.
It is with some
disappointment that I have to inform you that the fan on this board is kind
of loud. It’s a high pitch, metallic, whining noise. I admit that I’m probably
more sensitive than the majority of our readers. Actually I recieved two boards,
on the first one the fan was even louder than the second one, due to some
error in manufacturing. I have no idea if this is a commonly occuring problem
though. On the positive side the fan does cool properly and the board has
quite large memory heatsinks.
Not to mention that the flame design looks pretty damn spiffy.
Cooling
|
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
As usual Gainward
offers lots of input and output connections. Dual monitor support with one
DVI and one VGA output is supported as on most other boards of today. Video
In and Out in both S-video and Composite formats is available. On top of that
we have the firewire card with both input and output. This is simply great
stuff for those of you into video capturing and editing.
Input/Output |
VGA, DVI, Firewire,
S-Video and composite all the inputs and outputs you’ll need and then some.
Accessories |
As for the bundle
just look at what I said about the 5200 Ultra and add the firewire card
and cable on top of that. If they added a good game in the mix they might
have gone for a 10 or at least a 9.5.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
3D Blaster 5 indicating
the fifth generation GeForce board inside:
Creative 3D Blaster 5 FX5600 Ultra
|
Chip: |
NV34
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~80 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
400 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1600 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
1
/ 1600 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
128 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
128-bit, DDR-SDRAM (Hynix 2,5 ns)
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
ATX
power cable extention
|
Software: |
–
|
Full version applications: |
GunMetal
|
Estimated price: |
~2300 SEK
|
This Creative
5600 Ultra is built on the new rev 2 flip chip version too. However it runs
at nVidia’s reference clockrates of 400/800 MHz. Again the 5600 Ultra is fairly
pricey compared to its competitor Radeon 9600 Pro. You’ll have to add another
800 SEK to afford this card compared to the 9600 Pro. Still it’s 700 SEK cheaper
than Gainwards version.
Front |
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Back |
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The card, actually
manufactured by MSI, has a red tone similar to that of Gainward cards and
a golden (copper) HSF. The fan is very silent which is a major plus.
The memory doesn’t
recieve any cooling though, which is a bit sad for the overclocker.
Cooling
|
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
There’s no video
input on this board, but it offers the standard DVI/VGA/S-Video that 90% of
all modern cards sport.
Input/Output |
The board I recieved
was in an unopened Retail box. Yet there was no S-Video -> Composire adapter,
no DVI -> VGA adapter, no S-video cable nor any Composite cable. Of course
you can get most of these peripherials yourself but a S-Video -> Composite
adapter can be quite tricky to get a hold of since different manufacturers
use different standards.
Accessories |
On the other
hand Creative is the only manufacturer as of yet in this review to bundle
a full version game. Gun Metal is quasi DirectX 9 game (the only thing
DX9 is a VS2.0 shader or two, nothing that couldn’t be done on a DX8 GPU
or even a CPU) which brings some hot arcade style action to your PC. I’ve
actually played this game quite a lot, as nVidia sent it to me a few months
ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like fast paced shoot ’em ups
this is a gem in my humble opinion.
Too bad for
Creative that they skipped bundling so many basic peripherials, otherwise
they might have gotten a good grade here.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
This is one of
the first few ABIT boxes for videocards I’ve seen where they’ve actually
spent some time with the design.
ABIT Siluro FX5900
|
Chip: |
NV35
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~125 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
400 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1600 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
2
/ 3200 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
128 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
128-bit, DDR-SDRAM
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
DVI-VGA
adapter, S-video and composite cables, ATX power cable extention
|
Software: |
Soldier
of Fortune 2 Demo, Earthviewer 3D Demo, Windows Blinds NV Edition
|
Full version applications: |
ABIT
Siluro DVD 4
|
Estimated price: |
~4200 SEK
|
Time for some
high end action with ABITs 5900 board.
Front |
|
Back |
|
ABIT has worked
a lot on their cooling since we last saw their 5800 OTES board. This version
of OTES looks pretty damn strange, especially the exhaust “pipe”.
The fan is fairly
silent, though it resembles nVidia’s Flow FX, the noise level is nowhere near
nVidias “less than great” solution. ABIT opted for an aluminium
heatsink instead of copper because of it’s lighter weight. According to the
OTES PR material bundled with the card they use some heavily optimized aluminium
that brings it close to the excellent cooling properties of copper.
At the first
glance this cooling solution with many moving parts (the fan is slidable,
the exhaust pipe is segmented etc.) might appear as if it would rattle while
running. But it doesn’t. To make it look a bit nicer they’ve added blue LEDs
in the FAN, certainly appriciated by those of you with case windows.
Cooling
|
|
Exhaust |
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
ABIT recieves
a 7.5 out of 10 grade for their cooling/design. On the plus side it cools
well and it also looks very nice. On the minus side it’s not as silent
as it could be and it does take up a whole extra slot.
Input/Output |
The Siluro FX5900
offers the standard outputs of today: S-Video, VGA and DVI. Nothing worth
mentioning here.
Accessories |
The bundle for
this board is not really impressive, nor is it really a disappointment. A
few demos and a crippled version of Windows Blinds (which only works with
two themes which both look anything but good). Other than that ABIT bundle
their own DVD player as well as all cables, drivers, adapter etc. that are
needed for full functionality. ABIT could use some bundled game or Video In
or something else to make their card a bit more attractive amongs the high
end offerings of today.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
I really like
Inno3Ds box design. Not too flashy, not too boring, not too cheesy.
Inno3D GeForce FX 5900
|
Chip: |
NV35
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~125 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
400 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1600 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
2
/ 3200 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
128 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
256-bit, DDR-SDRAM
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
DVI-VGA
adapter, S-video and composite cables, ATX power cable extention
|
Software: |
3DMark03,
Black Hawk Down, Ghost Recon, Red Faction, Serious Sam “2” and
Vietcong
|
Full version applications: |
WinDVD
4, WinDVD Creator and Commanche 4
|
Estimated price: |
~4600 SEK
|
Inno3D follows
nVidias specifications to the point, nothing much to comment here. The
one thing that is a bit bothersome is the price of the board. At least
in Sweden
that is.
Front |
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Back |
|
I like the looks
of Inno’s cards, black PCB with a silver heatsink. The yellow/orange text
on the heatsink doesn’t fit too well but other than that I’d say it’s one
of the better looking cards out there. (All in my personal opinion of course.)
The one thing
that I really, really like about this product is the dead silent cooling.
I was a bit worried at first when I saw the two small fans inside the aluminium
cage but once I fired up the computer I realized I had nothing to worry about.
The fans run more silent even than most low end cards today. Noise is no problem
whatsoever. The large surface of the heatsink spells good heat transfer. On
top of that the design only requires one slot.
Another cool feature which is becoming more commonplace nowadays is that the
fans have blue LEDs. But even with a windowed case you can’t really see them
shining since the light is directed directly downwards, in my case on the
Audigy 2 card beneath the AGP port (though one slot is free in between).
Cooling
|
|
One slot |
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
The one thing
that is a bit negative is the very heavy weight of the board. Though it looks
like an aluminium heatsink I’m betting it ain’t since the board weighs much
more than ABITs.
Input/Output |
Standard: S-Video,
VGA and DVI.
Accessories |
Inno3D went
out their way to provide their consumers with a good bundle. The only thing
I can say that I miss here is a S-Video cable. The bundled cable is an
S-video to composite adapter in it self and thus if you want to use S-video
output you’ll need to get yourself a cable on your own.
Now on to the
good stuff: Bundled in this package is no less than six CDs.
-
Driver
CD
- WinDVD 4 –
among the best DVD-playback software
- Games Tryout
with 5 demos: Black Hawk Down, Ghost Recon, Red Faction, Serious Sam “2”
and Vietcong – should provide a few hours of gaming fun
- Commanche 4
– Helicopter simulator by Novalogic, not my cup of tea but seems to be
a pretty popular game
- WinDVD Creator
– edit and author movies (would make even more sense if Inno3Ds board
had Video In, but it’s still a really nice piece of software)
- 3DMark03 –
The well known 3D benchmark (standard “demo” version)
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
We’ve already reviewed
one Gainward 5900 card, this time it has 256 MBs though. Actually if
I’m not mistaken you’re actually looking at the worlds first review of a 5900
non-Ultra 256 MB card. (Certainly the first review of this specific card.)
Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1300 TV/DVI
|
Chip: |
NV35
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~125 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
400 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1600 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
2
/ 3200 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
256 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
256-bit, DDR-SDRAM (Hynix 2,8 ns)
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video/Composite Out
|
Extra
peripherals: |
DVI-VGA
adapter, S-Video->Composite adapter, ATX power cable extention
|
Software: |
Gainward
Expert Tool
|
Full version applications: |
Intervideo
WinCinema
|
Estimated price: |
~4600 SEK
|
For those of
you who read our review
of Gainwards 5900 128 MB, you’ll see that this card basically looks the
same, apart from the addition of the large heatsink on the back of the card
which cool the extra 128 MBs of RAM. About the RAM, as you can see this card
is equipped with 710 MHz RAm instead of 850 MHz. This is of course to keep
the costs down as the 256 MBs of high speed memory on a 5900 Ultra is quite
expensive to say the least. I was a bit worried about the lowering of these
speeds at first but as you’ll se in our benchmarks it’s actually not an issue,
it seems as if the extra RAM alliviates any disadvantage. (Pretty strange
as 256 MBs on a 5600 or even Radeon 9800 seems to do next to nothing for performance.)
Front |
|
Back |
|
Do I even need
to tell you that this card is damn fine looking? It’s also fairly light
weight. A little bit heavier than the ABIT card but not as heady as the
Inno3D card.
The memory on
the beast is cooled by massive aluminium heatsinks and the card has two smaller
fans on it. The noise level is roughly the same as ABITs card, perhaps just
a little bit less if I were to be picky. Just like Inno3D and ABIT the fans
have blue LEDs built in (seems a common trend nowadays) for some cool effects
for those of you with windowed cases. The cooling is efficient and does it’s
job just fine.
Cooling
|
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
As this is a
more economic card than Gainwards standard Golden Sample versions, it offers
no Video In nor Firewire. It has the standard S-Video, VGA and DVi configuration
that all cards in this roundup sport.
Input/Output |
The bundle is
not quite up to par, though this keeps the cost down hopefully.
Accessories |
The card offers
no Video In and thus Gainward decided not to bundle WinCinema and instead
opted for the plain WinDVD 4. Other than that it encloses the basics.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
One negative
thing that I do have to mention is that the card came with the mouse scroll
wheel bug present on quite a few FX 5900 cards or so it seems. Basically when
scrolling with the mouse wheel, especially in Internet Explorer for some unkown
reason, the actual videocard makes noises. Their not exactly high pitch or
REALLY nasty, rather it sounds like short burst of static. You can sort out
the problem partially by turning off smooth mouse scrolling. As I mentioned
the noise in itself is not very annoying, but if you use the card for a few
hours it starts to bug the hell out of you. Even normal scrolling (as in dragging
the slider with the mouse pointer results in this noise though it’s not as
bad as when using the mouse wheel.)
This is a confirmed
problem and nVidia are looking into it but as of yet no explanation or fixes
are known. While on topic there’s also been notifications of FX 5900 cards
causing flickering displays, this one also does that. I’ve only encountered
this in 2D on my 5900 Ultra reference sample and all retail cards tested at
NordicHardware are free of this problem except for this Gainward card. The
flickering, as opposed to the 5900 Ultra reference is on this card only present
in 3D. Very, very strange stuff. The flickering is not any refresh rate problem
but rather looks like the gamma is twicthing up and down. Pretty annoying,
especially in high contrast scenes.
I originally
thought this problem might have been related to the PCB components, but while
considering the fact that these cards don’t have the same components I don’t
really know what to think. Your guess is as good as mine.
This is nothing
that I’ll hold against this card in particular as it happens to all 5900/5900
Ultra cards (well it doesn’t happen on all, what I’m getting at is that it’s
not a error connected with the brand of the card) even some 9700 and 9800
cards are reported to suffer from similar problems.
The most powerful
card in the FX series is also the last card in this review: GeForce FX 5900
Ultra 256 MB.
Creative 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 Ultra
|
Chip: |
NV35
|
Manufacturing process: |
0.13-micron
|
Transistors: |
~125 mil.
|
Core clock speed: |
450 MHz
|
Memory clock speed: |
|
Pixel Shader: |
2.0
|
Vertex Shader: |
2.0
|
Pixel
Pipelines/Pixel Fillrate: |
4
/ 1800 MP/s
|
TMU’s/Texel Fillrate: |
2
/ 3600 MT/s
|
RAMDAC: |
(2) 400 MHz
|
Amount of memory: |
256 MB
|
Type of memory and interface: |
256-bit, DDR-SDRAM
|
In- and outputs: |
VGA, DVI-I, S-Video
|
Extra
peripherals: |
S-Video->Composite adapter, ATX power cable extention
|
Software: |
–
|
Full version applications: |
Gun
Metal
|
Estimated price: |
~5200 SEK
|
This is our first
go at a retail 5900 Ultra card. Compared to the reference card, this one is
a bit shorter and the PCB components are somewhat rearranged. It basically
looks the same though.
Front |
|
Back |
|
The cooling
is fairly heavy weight. Heavier than all other cards in this roundup.
It’s also a two slot solution just like ABITS OTES cooling, though this
will most probably be a non-issue for most people.
I was in for
a pleasant surprise when I first booted the computer as it seems as if
nVidia has managed to lower the noise of their cooling even more since
I last reviewed the reference card. It does however make more noise than
all the other cards except Gainwards 5600 Ultra so calling it silent wouldn’t
be correct either. I honestly think it would have been a better idea for
Creative to design their own cooling, I’m sure they could have come up
with something better than this.
Cooling
|
|
|
Design/Cooling
|
We
take a look at the functional and aesthetical design. The performance
and sound level of the cooling is also very important. |
|
Input and output
is similar to all the other cards reviewed today: S-Video, VGA and DVI.
Input/Output |
The bundle is
not quite up to par, though this keeps the cost down hopefully. 5200 SEK isn’t
exactly cheap though.
Accessories |
Creative chose
to skip two standardized accessories on this board: the DVI adapter and the
DVD player. When I asked them about it, this is what they answered:
“The DVI – VGA adapter is something we sell on our web site (we actually
sell it at cost .. its a service not something we make money out of). The
reason for this is financial more than anything else. The vast majority
of people still use a single analogue display and so would never use the
adapter. We ship literally hundreds of thousands of cards so adding in
an extra that people don’t use, regardless of how cheap, actually costs
a lot of money.”
I fully appriciate
this stance on the matter, though of course it does not change that the other
cards do have this accessory while this one doesn’t. As mentioned it doesn’t
have a SW DVD player either, which I also personally believe is mostly a non-issue
since most DVD-drives are shipped with such software and also OEM computers
etc. But again, the other cards have it – this one doesn’t.
On the brighter
side they do ship this card with the full version of Gun Metal. As I mentioned
on the Creative 5600 Ultra page I really like this game.
|
Accessories/Features
|
We
look at the amount and usefulness of included accessories and integrated
features. |
|
Creative’s explanation
to the absence of these accessories is that they instead wanted to invest
this money in their tech support and consumer relations. The fact of the matter
is that Creative indeed has probably the best tech support there is. Answering
calls in 14 different languages here in Europe, you really do get a great
service without waiting in line for hours. If your card is broken you can
replace it at the place where you’ve bought it instead of RMAing it back to
the country where it was manufactured due to Creatives business model with
distributors and resellers.
Perhaps something to make customers sleep better
at night?
|
Test setup
|
|
Hardware
|
| Processor: |
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (333) Mhz
|
| Cooling: |
Corsair HydroCool 200
|
| Mainboard: |
Soltek
SL-75FRN-L
(nForce2)
|
| RAM: |
512 MB DDR333 @ 2-5-2-2 Timings:
2x 256 MB Corsair TWINX512-3200LL DDR-SDRAM
|
|
Videocards:
|
Gainward GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (128 MB, 350/700)
ABIT GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (128 MB, 350/700)
Gainward GeForce FX 5600 (128 MB, 450/900)
Creative GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (128 MB, 400/800)
ABIT GeForce FX 5900 (128 MB, 400/850)
Inno3D GeForce FX 5900 (128 MB, 400/850)
Gainward GeForce FX 5900 (256 MB, 400/710)
Creative GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (256 MB, 450/850)
ATi Radeon 9600 Pro (128 MB, 400/600)
ATi Radeon 9800 (128 MB, 325/580)
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro (128 MB, 380/680)
|
|
HDD:
|
80 GB Western Digital Caviar 7200 RPM Special Edition (8 MB cache)
|
|
Soundcard:
|
Creative
Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum
|
| Power supply: |
Nexus NX-3000 300W
|
|
Ethernet:
|
D-Link DFE-530TX 10/100
|
|
Software
|
| Operating system: |
Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1)
|
| Video drivers: |
nVidia: Detonator FX 45.23
ATi: Catalyst 3.6 6368
|
| Other drivers: |
nVidia UDA Chipset Drivers v2.45
|
|
Benchmarks:
|
|
As you can see
in the "benchmarks" list above we’ve only tried these boards under Unreal
Tournament 2003. This is due to a range of complications:
I’ve lost series of reference benchmarks in a HD crash. Quake 3 was acting
up on my all of a sudden (same ghost image and everything, yet it produced
way too low results on all boards, very strange indeed). Lack of time etc.
So for this review
we’re stuck with UT2003 benchmarks and apparently there’s been some "optimizations"
going on in the drivers again. UT2003 is affected and we’re told that the
FX boards simply do not provide true trilinear filtering in all cases. This
is unfortunate, not only for the users, but also for me as it puts me in a
bad spot.
In fact ATi also seem to be cutting corners when it comes to anisotropic
filtering, not applying trilinear filtering throughout the whole scene.
As I don’t get the chance to keep every board I review I often have to rely
on my results database. A discovery like this could have easily been fixed
by running additional sets of benchmarks, but now I can’t since I simply don’t
have the competing cards at home.
I’m working
on a whole new setup of benchmarks. Both synthetic ones and real games
as well as some "pro" benchmarks. I’m also trying to create some balanced
timedemos for these benchmarks and as you might understand this will take
a while. Thus I’ll have to settle for the few benchmarks I have to present
you with right now.
I’ll put future
reviews on hold until I’ve worked out all the details with our new methodology.
A personal take
on the whole matter of degrading IQ in order to increase performance: I must
say that I have been using both ATi and nVidia cards in my system for a long
time now and I have a hard time spotting the texture filtering differences
with the naked eye. (That is without using magnification or colored mip maps
etc.)
Now some will think I’m a moron for saying that, other will think it’s
the most reasonable thing to say.
But when the pen hits the paper I need truly comparable results, you start
with comparing apples to apples and then you work your way down through
various other settings.
Some might not even see the difference between the settings, some might not
care if IQ is degraded etc. But what some people think, or what I personally
think, isn’t the primary info that I want to report in an objective
review.
Basically what
I’m saying is: I’m sorry for not being able to provide you with more reliable
results right now. It is however being taken care of. But for now I’d recommend
you to take any test results with a grain, or truckload, of salt…
As for image
quality in general nVidia are still somewhat behind ATi. This especially concerns
FSAA. When it comes to 2D and Video Out my personal take is that nVidia are
finally up to par with ATi. ATi still has a bit more clarity in resolutions
above 1280×1024 and colors appear more lush (some think nVidia fixes this
with their sharpening and Digital Vibrance tools, I don’t as I think it rather
ruins than improves image quality) but it’s not any major difference at all.
|
Image
quality
|
|
The
image quality in 2D as well as in 3D are measured. In 3D the quality
of FSAA and Aniso is important. The quality of the TV-out and any other
in and outputs are compared.
|
|
UT2003 is
one of the more popular games and benchmarks at the moment. It’s some hardcore
DX7 action with a twist of DX8 features when we start benchmarking this
game. As we mentioned in the test setup both nVidia and to some extent
ATi optimize their texture filtering. Though this only applies to ATi while
we’re talking Quality anisotropic filtering, they’ve left normal trilinear
untouched as well as application controlled aniso. There’s already a wide
variety of articles covering this by now so we opted
for
not doing
our
own article
on the matter. In this light I’d suggest you take into account that the
nVidia based cards has slightly lower image quality than the ATi ones
in this test.
Fillrate is of
the essence when it comes to UT2003, which we can see by the large drop between
1024 and 1600. The low and mid end boards don’t really like 1280×1024, much
less 1600×1200.
Once we enable
FSAA and Anisotropic filtering all boards can still provide a playable fps
in 1024×768. Though I must admit that it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride on
the 5200 Ultra (though the avarage framerate is acceptable it just dips
too low way too often for it to be really playable).
The mid end
cards still manages to cope with 4x FSAA and 8x Aniso. The 9600 Pro is a
borderliner, but it did not suffer from the afromentioned “dips”
so it is a doable setting for this card. If we’re just comparing chip to
chip without putting it into contact we can see that the “plain”
5600 Ultra rev 2 (aka the Creative board) has a healthy advantage over the
Radeon 9600 pro.
As you can
see the dominating boards are the 9800 Pro and the 5900 Ultra, constantly
fighting for the top position. In the mid end (higher part of mid end)
the Radeon 9800 is dominating. Both Radeon boards boasting higher
image quality to boot.
The lower priced FX 5600 Ultra boards (ABIT and Creative) do better and
manages
to outperform the Radeon 9600 Pro. Keep in mind though that the 5600 Ultra
boards are quite a lot more expensive. The worst performer is Gainwards
5200 Ultra while still being a whole 500 SEK more expensive than the
9600
Pro.
I’ve made a
full chart of the SEK per fps here, I chose to take the avarage of all scores
using 2x FSAA and 4x AF since I think this is a reasonable setting that
all cards can (or at least should) “accept”:
| Gainward 5600 |
22.2 SEK
|
Gainward
5200 Ultra |
20.2
SEK
|
Inno3D
5900 |
19.3
SEK
|
| Creative 5900 Ultra |
19.1 SEK
|
Gainward
5600 Ultra |
19.0
SEK
|
Gainward
5900 |
18.6
SEK
|
ABIT
5900 |
18.0
SEK
|
Creative
5600 Ultra |
15.4
SEK
|
ABIT
5600 Ultra |
14.7
SEK
|
Radeon
9800 Pro |
13.6 SEK
|
| Radeon 9800 |
13.1 SEK
|
| Radeon 9600 Pro |
12.0 SEK
|
As you can
see there’s simply no competition here. The Radeon boards utterly dominates
the price/performance ratio here. Both of ABIT boards do well compared to
the FX competition, as does Creatives 5600 Ultra.
|
Performance
|
|
We
weigh the price/performance ratio.
|
Gainward
5200 Ultra |
4.0/10
|
| Gainward 5600 |
3.5/10
|
ABIT
5600 Ultra |
7.5/10
|
Gainward
5600 Ultra |
5.5/10
|
Creative
5600 Ultra |
7.0/10
|
ABIT
5900 |
8.0/10
|
Inno3D
5900 |
7.0/10
|
| Gainward 5900 |
7.5/10
|
| Creative 5900 Ultra |
6.5/10
|
Time to push
these babies beyond their limits as we overclock all 9 cards. I’ve marked
the worst memory respectively core overclock with red and the best with
green, incidentally the card that had the worst mem OC also had the worst
core OC and vice versa.
| Card |
Default
|
Overclocked
|
Percent
|
Gainward
5200 Ultra |
350/700
|
370/736
|
5,7/5,1
|
Gainward
5600 |
325/500
|
340/534
|
4,6/6,8
|
ABIT
5600 Ultra |
350/700
|
390/760
|
11,4/8,6
|
Gainward
5600 Ultra |
450/900
|
460/935
|
2,2/3,9
|
Creative
5600 Ultra |
400/800
|
460/855
|
15/6,9
|
ABIT
5900 |
400/850
|
438/938
|
9,5/10,4
|
Inno3D
5900 |
400/850
|
438/938
|
9,5/10,4
|
Gainward
5900 |
400/710
|
500/900
|
25/26,8
|
Creative
5900 Ultra |
450/850
|
506/964
|
12,4/13,4
|
Some pretty
nice results here. The extra bandwidth and fillrate is
especially usefull when running with
AA/AF.
The reason
behind the poor overclocking results with the two Gainward cards (5600
Ultra and 5200 Ultra) is of course that Gainward already pushed these
cards past the official specifications.
|
Overclocking
|
|
Here
we see how much we can overclock the card without suffering from
artefacts, and then measure the performance against the default
results.
|
Gainward
5200 Ultra |
4.5/10
|
| Gainward 5600 |
5.0/10
|
ABIT
5600 Ultra |
7.5/10
|
Gainward
5600 Ultra |
3.0/10
|
Creative
5600 Ultra |
8.0/10
|
ABIT
5900 |
7.5/10
|
Inno3D
5900 |
7.5/10
|
| Gainward 5900 |
10/10
|
| Creative 5900 Ultra |
8.5/10
|
The “winner”
of the overclocking tests is without a single doubt Gainwards 5900 card.
An amazing 200 Mhz memory overclock and an almost equally amazing
100 Mhz overclock of the core. When overclocked this card is on par with
the (at minimum) 800 SEK more expensive 5900 Ultra cards. Simply one of
the most amazing overclocks I’ve ever witnessed on a videocard.
On the flip side of things, Gainward are also responsible for the worst
overclocker in the test: Gainward 5600 Ultra, this card simply wouldn’t
go much further than the default clock speeds.
The Creative
5600 Ultra does pretty well too and their 5900 even better, but other than
that the other cards are just around avarage. Not bad, not spectacular.
So today we’ve
glimpsed at 9 cards from 4 different manufacturers. Let’s sum it up.
Gainward
5200 Ultra: I can’t really recommend this card to anyone
at its current pricetag. Slow 3D performance combined with a high
price just doesn’t cut it. Video In isn’t really enough featurewise
to make this a worthwhile purchase.
Gainward
5600: The two main features of this card as I see it is
Dual DVI and ViVo. If
you’re looking for those two features and don’t really care about 3D performance
this is a fine card. If you do need 3D performance you’ll have to look
elsewhere though. As mentioned though, it certainly has it’s niche.
ABIT
5600 Ultra: This card has a fairly reasonable price compared to its
5600 Ultra brothers. I can’t really find anything especially compelling with
this product that would make me recommend it over any other card though.
It’s a plain and cheap 5600 Ultra rev 1. Not a bad card, not a great one
either.
Gainward
5600 Ultra: This card is arguably the fastest 5600 Ultra money can
buy. It also sports Video In which is a nice plus. Though carrying a price
tag of 3000 SEK when there are Radeon 9600 Pros available at 1500 SEK doesn’t
bode well for Gainward. Add the loud fan and this is a product I can’t bare
myself to recommend. Just the plain fact that there are 9800 non-Pros (not
talking SE here) that are even cheaper than this card simply makes it a no-no
as they outperform this Gainward card by far.
Creative
5600 Ultra: In my humble opinion this card is the most balanced
5600 Ultra of the three we’ve reviewed today. It’s faster than the ABIT
5600 Ultra and it’s a lot cheaper than the Gainward 5600 Ultra. Good
card/price, poor bundle. Though as Creative explained in the review
they rather put the money saved from the down scaled bundles into their
tech support services.
ABIT
5900: This card has a lot of coolness factor if you’re into that.
It’s basically a pretty good videocard too. The cheaper Radeon 9800 Pro is
a strong contender though as it delivers even better performance at a lower
price.
Inno3D: This
card has a lot going for it: single slot design, practically noiseless,
sleek looking etc. But the cheaper Radeon 9800 Pro is still a better
choice in my
humle opinion. It’s a good solid GeForce FX 5900 though, probably one of
the best ones you can get apart from the hefty price tag.
Gainward
5900: This card came as quite a surprise. It has a fairly reasonable
price tag for a FX card and the overclocking was simply amazing, especially
considering the silent cooling. For the overclocker this is a cheap 5900 Ultra.
Most definately worth considerations for all you overclockers.
Creative
5900 Ultra: The fastest of them all, also the most expensive
of them all by far. 5200 SEK is too much for any videocard in my personal
opinion, especially when the roughly 1500 SEK cheaper Radeon 9800 Pro
is around delivering almost equal performance. This is basically just
a reference 5900 Ultra in a Creative box bundled with
Gun Metal.
The
price
tag is
pretty
standard
for a 5900
Ultra so unless you’re interested in Gun Metal or the renowned Creative
tech support I can’t really see much to pursuade me to recommend this
card over other brands.
Comparing the
FX cards to the current radeon 9×00 lineup makes you realize one thing:
nVidia is expensive right now. Even the FX based cards that don’t deliver
performance on par with the Radeon cards are more expensive.
Doesn’t really
make sense. This is most probably due to the fact that ATi currently has
smaller margins than nVidia when selling their chips and also because nVidias
chips are most probably a bit more expensive to manufacture to begin with.
The current
situation is not a result of sub par work by Gainward, ABIT, Creative or
Inno3D but rather nVidias expensive line up resulting in a poor performance/price
ratio. We’re pretty far away from the days when nVidia crushed the Radeon
8500 with
their GeForce4
Ti4600 and then brought us the ever so popular Ti4200
to say the least though.
Gainward
FX PowerPack! Pro/760 XP Golden Sample
|
Pros:
+ Video In
+ Faster than other 5200 Ultras
Cons:
– Very poor performance for its price
|
| Features/Accessories: |
8.0/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
8.0/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
4.5/10
|
| Performance: |
4.0/10
|
Final
grade : |
6.5/10
|
| Price: |
2000
SEK
|
|
Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/780 XP Professional
|
Pros:
+ Dual DVI
+ Video In
Cons:
– Extremely poor price/performance ratio
– Poor overclocking
|
| Features/Accessories: |
8.0/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
7.5/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
5.0/10
|
| Performance: |
3.5/10
|
Final
grade : |
6.4/10
|
| Price: |
2200
SEK
|
|
ABIT Siluro FX5600
|
Pros:
+ Cheaper than most other manufacturers’ FX
5600 Ultras
Cons:
–
|
| Features/Accessories: |
7.0/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
7.5/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
7.5/10
|
| Performance: |
7.5/10
|
Final
grade : |
7.5/10
|
| Price: |
2000
SEK
|
|
Gainward
FX PowerPack! Ultra/760 XP Golden Sample
|
Pros:
+ Video In
+ Faster than other 5600 Ultras
Cons:
– Loud fan
– Expensive
– Poor overclocking
|
| Features/Accessories: |
9.0/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
6.5/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
3.0/10
|
| Performance: |
5.5/10
|
Final
grade : |
6.4/10
|
| Price: |
3000
SEK
|
|
Creative 3D Blaster 5 FX5600 Ultra
|
Pros:
+ Fairly silent cooling
Cons:
– A little bit too pricey
– Poor bundle
|
| Features/Accessories: |
6.5/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
7.5/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
8.0/10
|
| Performance: |
7.0/10
|
Final
grade: |
7.4/10
|
| Price: |
2300
SEK
|
|
ABIT Siluro FX5900
|
Pros:
+ Exotic looks
+ Fairly silent cooling
Cons:
– Somewhat expensive
|
| Features/Accessories: |
7.0/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
8.0/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
7.5/10
|
| Performance: |
8.0/10
|
Final
grade : |
7.7/10
|
| Price: |
4300
SEK
|
|
Inno3D GeForce FX 5900
|
Pros:
+ Very quite cooling
+ Nice bundle
Cons:
– Expensive
|
| Features/Accessories: |
8.5/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
9.0/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
7.5/10
|
| Performance: |
7.0/10
|
Final
grade : |
8.0/10
|
| Price: |
4600
SEK
|
|
Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1300 TV/DVI
|
Pros:
+ Extremely nice overclocking
+ Silent fans
Cons:
– Somewhat expensive
– Poor bundle
|
| Features/Accessories: |
6.5/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
9.0/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
10/10
|
| Performance: |
7.5/10
|
Final
grade : |
8.2/10
|
| Price: |
4400
SEK
|
|
Creative 3D Blaster FX5900 Ultra
|
Pros:
+ Good performance
Cons:
– Very expensive
-Poor bundle
|
| Features/Accessories: |
6.0/10
|
| Design/Cooling: |
7.0/10
|
Image
Quality : |
8.0/10
|
| Overclocking: |
8.5/10
|
| Performance: |
6.5/10
|
Final
grade : |
7.2/10
|
| Price: |
5200
SEK
|
|
Please remember that the Performance grade is an evalutation of the Price
vs. Performance ratio.
At the end
of the day I’m not too impressed with any of these boards, again not
due to a job poorly done by any of the manufacturers present in the roundup
but rather the stiff competition from the Radeon lineup. The card I found
the most interesting out of these nine was the Gainward 5900
256 MB. All you overclockers out there should take a peek.
Gainward 5900
|
Thank
you ABIT, Gainward, Innovision and Creative for
making this review possible.
