Review: Gainward GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB

• Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz 800FSB CPU
• EPoX 4PDA2+ i865PE Springdale motherboard
• 2 x 256MB Corsair XMS3500 memory run at 2-6-2-2 @ DDR400
• Intel reference cooler
• IBM 41.5GB Hard drive
• Pioneer 105 DVD/RW
• 420w Samcheer PSU
• Samsung 181T 18.1" TFT
• Hansol 920D 19" flat CRT for 1600x1200x32 tests

• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB (450/850)
• ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (380/680)
• ATi Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB (325/620)

• Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
• Intel 5.00.1012 chipset drivers
• ATi CATALYST 3.5 drivers (6363) for the 9800 Pro and 9700 Pro cards
• NVIDIA Detonator 44.03 for the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
• 3DMark 2001SE v330
• Quake III v1.30
• UT2003 Demo build 2206
• Comanche 4 benchmark
• Serious Sam 2 Demo

We'll be testing the Gainward card at its stock clocks of 450/850. Its Golden Sample nature allows it to be pre-guaranteed to run at a slightly inflated 460/870. However, these clocks are not hardwired into the BIOS. Rather, they're only accessible once the EXPERTool software is loaded and executed. The card's overclocking potential will be investigated a little later on in this review. ATi's Radeon 9800 and 9700 Pro cards will provide the immediate competition, all run via an EPoX 4PDA2+ Springdale / Intel 3.2GHz P4 combination. The one point to note here is that both ATi cards carry 128MB of on-board memory. The 256MB sample, reviewed by Ryszard, has now found its way back to ATi, unfortunately.

Benchmarks will be carried out at 1024x768x32 with no image enhancement, 1024x768x32 with 4x FSAA and 8x anisotropic filtering, and 1600x1200x32 with 4x FSAA and 8x AF. The two latter settings are what these cards are all about - high I.Q.

On a separate note, this FX 5900 Ultra's GPU temperature, as reported by the control panel and in 2D mode, rarely rose much above 5c over ambient. The GPU's temperature hovered around 33 - 38c. The card felt cool to the touch. Compare that to the finger-scorching FX 5800 Ultra.

nView 2.0, NVIDIA's multi-monitor software program, which is incorporated into the latest Detonator XP drivers, was a joy to use. It's been refined since its initial inception and is now intuitively easy to use. Multi-display support, zooming, improved hotkeys, and a more robust Windows interface are just some of the features.

2D output was crisp and clear on both a Hansol CRT (via HD15) and a Samsung TFT (via DVI). There's now very little to choose between NVIDIA and ATi cards on the 2D image quality front. TV-Out was exceptionally clear on a 28" Panasonic widescreen TV. It was easily on a par with any of ATi's offerings. TV-Out has never been so simple or so good to look at. In fact, nView 2.0 almost necessitates an entire article by itself.

Anyway, on to the benchmarks.