Conclusion
It's safe to say that any card based on the FX5900 Ultra GPU is going to be extremely fast. Massive pixel-pushing power, great memory bandwidth, and a number of intelligent features means that it will gorilla most of today's games / demos into submission. The Gainward card isn't really about today's games, it's more to do with upcoming and much-anticipated titles like Doom 3. Will it have what it takes to run those efficiently ?. The basic architecture seems to be sound and a 256-bit memory bus has removed some of the handicaps imposed by the 5800 Ultra design. The inherent trouble of 'benchmarking' a card is that both ATi and NVIDIA will attempt to tweak their drivers for maximum performance. If drivers are tweaked, is it not a case of who has the best software team ?
The Gainward card appeared to be a departure from their normal card presentation. The card arrived in the same green PCB colour that graced the reference model a couple of months ago. Indeed, apart from the Gainward sticker on the GPU's fan and the small Golden Sample sticker on the PCB itself, one would be hard pushed to call this anything other than reference. Perhaps manufacturers are keen to stick to NVIDIA's reference design. It would be nice to see a custom Gainward FX5900 Ultra solution in the near future.
The bundle is what Gainward are all about, especially with their Golden Sample range. 3-port FireWire support, 5.1-channel sound card with S/PDIF and optical cable, together with all the cables you'll need to get it going. Those with a VIVO bias will appreciate these extras, although they may also help bump up the price. Gainward could do with updating their gaming bundle to reflect the quality shown by some of their immediate competitors.
It's kind of hard to recommend this card right now. That's not too much to do with Gainward. The 256MB of on-board memory will push the price up towards the £400 mark, if not over. The 128MB non-Ultras have shown that they can offer up to 90% of the Ultra's present performance for considerably less money. It's one of those situations where a company's own card can make a higher specified card look a little expensive. Still, this is one fast, fast card, and if your wallet is deep enough, you won't go too far wrong.
Highs
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Pretty fast
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Decent hardware bundle
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Decent 2D quality
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256MB of on-board memory will be useful for upcoming games
Lows
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A pre-order price of £450 is a huge detraction. That's heart attack territory
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Gaming bundle is poor
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Generic looks
