Albatron FX5700P Turbo and Gainward Ultra/980 SilentFX Professional

Thoughts

If I learned anything from this article it's that it doesn't pay to take your eye off the mid-range sector, even just for a second. You do so, concentrating on all that's shiny and new and when you glance back you've got dual-DVI boards aplenty. It's a mini paradigm shift that the market has been waiting for for some time, so it's nice to see it finally taking effect, even if it's just from one or two vendors.

That one of those vendors will combine dual-DVI in a mid-range board with a completely silent passive heatsink is even more reason to cheer. That it's got GeForce FX 5700 and 256MB of memory adds the icing onto an already formidable cake.

The Gainward Ultra/980 SilentFX Professional really impressed. It's not the last word in games that are PS2.0 heavy; witness the much slower 9600 trouncing the 5700 boards in Far Cry. But it's not that slow either, performance just about bearable in that title and very acceptable in pretty much everything else I can think of, at middling resolution and IQ settings.

At a price of just under £140 at the time of writing, from a couple of willing vendors in the U.K., the Ultra/980 SilentFX is certainly one for your mid-range shopping list, especially if either dual-DVI or blissful silence are high on your list of key features.

That I ran it in my main PC after testing, to the exclusion of the latest GPU finery from ATI and NVIDIA, is as high a recommendation as I can give.

As for the Albatron, it makes a great case for itself without really excelling in any one area. At a manufacturer recommended price of just under £100 in the U.K., it's worthy of consideration if you want decent gaming frills with no fuss. It's not especially fast in the current climate, but it is cheap, it is quiet and it does run cool. For some, that's all they really need and want.

Personally, I found it a great accompaniment for my SB61G2 Shuttle XPC. It's tiny dimensions, no need for external power and cool running gave my Shuttle a decent 3D boost, far better than what's provided by the onboard Extreme Graphics 2. Maybe one for the XPC crowd to consider, just a shame it doesn't capture video.

Nothing outstanding, but neither does it put a foot wrong for the price.