Summary
The NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics card has been eagerly awaited by an industry with a thirst for new technology. The hype surrounding the card has reached monumental proportions with expectations set very high indeed.
When the Radeon 9700 was launched back in August last year its performance represented a significant improvement compared to the GeForce4 Ti4600 with both improved image quality and blisteringly fast performance. NVIDIA’s task of out performing the Radeon should not be underestimated.
When you consider that the GeForce FX card we tested is one of the first GPU’s to use the 0.13micron and that the card is utilising a great deal of new technology it is clear that NVIDIA have a very solid platform to build on and develop here. In comparison both Intel and AMD did not produce their best 0.13micron processors until they had run with the process for a while and yields have improved.
Some people may mistakenly interpret this very early and UK exclusive first 'hands on' look at the NVIDIA GeForceFX as a definitive guide as to buy or not to buy, and may well be thinking that the GeForce FX is not living up to the hype and over inflated expectation.
However that would be totally unjust on NVIDIA and HEXUS are responsible enough to you guys to only give you our final verdict when we have been provided with sufficient time to really reach one.
There can be no question that the GeForce FX out performs the Radeon. We saw the demos of the Ogre, Dawn and the truck - these are incredible. We will have these on the media archive on the end of this review. There is more to the FX than just gaming, and benchmarks. We believe that this card will be the future of games - with the CineFX engine, High-Precision Graphics, Intellisample Technology all needing to have support from the developers to take full advantage of this card.
With a radical card comes some radical packaging. The cooling system is not the quietest and indeed in discussions with an ex-AKASA thermal guy, we concluded that there were areas for improvement, that could yield more efficient thermal control in conjunction with lower noise.
The fact that it uses the AGP slot and one PCI slot really is not a major issue to most enthusiasts. For a start how many people actually use all of their PCI slots? Especially as due to the PCI IRQ routing on many mainbords the PCI slot beside the AGP slot which the GeForce FX encroaches upon will be sharing an IRQ with the AGP slot which is probably not what you would want. The design of the card is wonderful, no picture does it justice. When held in your hand the card feels very solid and robust.
NVIDIA's Achilles Heel may be the price of the GeForce FX. If the prices are so much more than above say, the Connect3D Radeon 9700 PRO, we feel that the minor performance gain offered by the GeForce FX may not tempt customers.... but as we have said we will reserve final judgement based upon more testing time and in consideration of the kind of hardware and software bundles that GeForceFX manufacturers come to market with.
Pros
- Wonderful looks.
- Sharp Image quality.
- Better performance than the Radeon 9700 Pro.
- NVIDIA Driver support will make sure you get performance.
Cons
- Pricing/Availability
- Noisy
- Produces a lot of heat.
We believe that this NVIDIA card is ahead of its time and for sure we have an interesting few months coming up - these are going to be the best you can get at the moment - will R350 be on time? Will we see more from NVIDIA in the form of NV31 etc. Will we even see partners watercooling their cards? We're hearing that we will... We have heard an awful lot of information about future cards, and of course - you will be able to read all of it on HEXUS.
Thanks from the Editor:
Adam, and Eddie for giving up their Sundays
Simon for coming along to run some numbers with me
Wayne Tritton from Gainward and Paul Dutton from [OCS] for feedback
