System setup and notes
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Basic setup
Video Cards used
Software
Notes The most obvious difference between this and the FX 5900 Ultra card is that the latter is specified with 256MB of on-board RAM. The Gainward FX 5900, though, is 'only' equipped with 128MB. The possible situations where the extra 128MB of RAM may come into play, assuming that the cards are good enough to push enough data through the pipelines, is when extremely heavy anisotropic filtering and antialiasing is used. These image enhancement algorithms need to be coupled with high resolutions, preferably 1600x1200x32+, to place a substantial load on the frame buffer. Add in the huge textures employed by some of the latest games and you'll start to see how and why 256MB of on-board RAM might be a necessity in the near future. That said, 128MB of on-board RAM should be fine for all but the very extreme cases. It will be interesting to see just how the two FX cards differ. The two Radeon stalwarts will be added to see how the high-end, consumer-level graphics card sector shapes up. Benchmarks will be carried out at 1024x768x32 with no image enhancement, 1024x768x32 with 4x AA and 8x anisotropic filtering, and 1600x1200x32 with 4x AA and 8x AF. The two latter settings are what these cards are all about; high I.Q. As with the FX 5900 Ultra, 2D was crisp and clear at each and every resolution, especially when run through the DVI connection. The non-reference design of this FX 5900 helped in lowering the overall sound profile when compared to Gainward's very own FX 5900 Ultra. The twin fan approach isn't as quiet as, say, the Radeon 9800's, but it's a step in the right direction. That and the single-slot design will endear this card to many.
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