NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra: The Way FX is Meant to be Played!!

STaN · 12-05-2003 9:12pm #1

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030512/index.html

You could say that the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra is everything the original FX 5800 Ultra should have been or, to use NVIDIA's slogan, it's "the way the FX is meant to be played!" Thanks to the numerous tweaks, improvements and refinements, the card is finally able to beat the Radeon 9800 PRO. Power users and enthusiasts will have a hard time finding a better alternative.

Phoar!

vasch_ro · 13-05-2003 12:28am

the ATi 9800 card is still a smaller card , cheaper and less noisy

STaN · 13-05-2003 2:42am

Well to my knowledge the FX 5900 has not been released commercially as the review is a test model with manufacturers still to brandish any boards. So we might see a smaller footprint.

On the noise, you can't hear it when running 2D applications which is what we do most of the time? Only on 3D applications does the fan speed up to the next level but I'm sure it needs it for something that fast. The highest level if it overheats, probably only would happen with overclocking. We'll have to wait and see.

btw you havent posted in almost 3 years, how come you rejoined us?

vasch_ro · 13-05-2003 11:13am

I believe the gainward and some other manufacturer's have produced cooling solutions that differ from the nvidia reference designs, there is even a water based solution, but i guess we will have to see what the retail versions are like !!

psI was lost but now I am found again!!

CivilServant · 13-05-2003 11:14am

Just had a brief glance at the anandtech review (which I think is better

) and it seems by reviewing the benchmarks anyways that the 5900 Ultra is a winning product. There's a new king in town

Lucutus · 13-05-2003 11:31am

Am I glad I didn't buy an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro now! Whew!

(Decided to wait a few months before another major gfx card upgrade, you know, the sort that break the bank

)

Luc

STaN · 13-05-2003 1:48pm

Some benchmark snippets

Test bed 1:

Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (Hyper-Threading Enabled)
Intel D875PBZ - Intel 875P Chipset
RAM 2 x 256MB DDR400 Corsair DIMMs
(Drivers) All ATI Cards used Catalyst 3.4 drivers
All NVIDIA Cards used Detonator 44.03 drivers

Unless otherwise noted, all tests were conducted with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Quality Anisotropic Filtering; you don't buy a $500 video card only to leave these settings disabled. (too right!)

Doom3 Performance - AA/Anisotropic disabled & 4X AA/8X Quality
Tests were run at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 with AA/Aniso off as well as with 4X AA and 8X Quality Aniso enabled. 1024x786 results are below

At 1024x768 the 5900 Ultra does extremely well, already breaking the 100 fps mark. What's interesting to note is how close the NV30 and NV35 are in this benchmark, indicating that raw GPU power not memory bandwidth is actually a limiting factor here.

Without any AA/Anisotropic filtering enabled, ATI's solutions fall siginficantly behind the NV30/35.

It's also worth noting that the new GeForceFX 5600 Ultra improves performance by 12% over the previous card we reviewed.

What's quite impressive is that even the mainstream cards are quite playable at 1024x768; with more driver tuning and turning down a few more image quality features (even at medium quality we're dealing with an extremely good looking setup) would make Doom3 even more playable on the cheaper cards. (good news for those without these cards

)

Doom3 Performance - AA/Anisotropic enabled & 4X AA/8X Quality

Unreal Tournament 2003 Performance
Arguably the best looking game available today, Unreal Tournament 2003 continues to be a cornerstone of the GPU benchmarking suite.

Splinter Cell Performance (Average Frame Rates)

Quake III Arena

Huge difference?!

Test bed 2:

AMD Athlon XP 2700+
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (nForce 2)
Memory 2 x 256 MB, PC 333 (2/2/2/5)
(Drivers) All ATI Cards used Catalyst 3.4 drivers
All NVIDIA Cards used Detonator 44.03 drivers

3DMark 2003

I like it, i like it allot

Matt Simis · 13-05-2003 2:55pm

Its so far ahead in Q3 based games, it seems like a bug or mistake! Just think how many Q3 games are out there though, makes it genuinely the fastest card for the games people play.

I imagine ATI will close the gap for Doom3 however, but its unlikely they are gonna get close enough to do much good.

Matt

Venom · 13-05-2003 4:48pm

http://www.avault.com/hardware/getreview.asp?review=geforcefx5900ul&page=4

Another review at Avault.com.

Looking like its going to be an interesting summer.

flav0rflav · 13-05-2003 6:06pm

I thought the idea was these things would get quicker but stay the same price as the old one, year on year.

At komplett 5900 Ultra 30 June
256 Meg - 900 euro
256 Meg - 700 euro (different, is all i know)

Matt Simis · 13-05-2003 6:38pm

They do stay the same price, generally. Im not sure why, but Komplett's major weak point is graphics cards. You can buy direct from the states for half the price typically, although you are still meant to pay 21% Vat to the government for the pleasure of being Irish during the transaction.

Matt

STaN · 13-05-2003 7:06pm

Originally posted by Matt Simis
Its so far ahead in Q3 based games, it seems like a bug or mistake! Just think how many Q3 games are out there though, makes it genuinely the fastest card for the games people play.

I imagine ATI will close the gap for Doom3 however, but its unlikely they are gonna get close enough to do much good.

Matt

That is based on 1600x1200 resolution

BabyEater · 13-05-2003 7:30pm

For a very good review visit http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforcefx-5900ultra.html .Altho i think it was against the 128MB 9800Pro , not sure as i read it last night and i don't want to go through it again to find out.

vasch_ro · 13-05-2003 11:09pm

I know maunfacturers are listed in the sticky at the start of this forum but I do not think any are american can any one recommend a good site as 900 euro is a lot of money !!

CivilServant · 15-05-2003 12:49am

Originally posted by Matt Simis
You can buy direct from the states for half the price typically, although you are still meant to pay 21% Vat to the government for the pleasure of being Irish during the transaction.

Where?

Matt Simis · 15-05-2003 10:50am

Use Pricewatch, search US forums etc. There is no one place, youll just have to look around.

It appears nVidia have been cheating in 3dmark (again?):

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1086025,00.asp

Of course, ATI and others have and are cheating too, in this and other things. Which kinda shows how utterly useless these type of tests are.

Matt

Matt Simis · 15-05-2003 11:08am

Originally posted by STaN
That is based on 1600x1200 resolution

Its faster at all resolutions, with the lead extending as the resolution increases. Whats the problem with 1600x1200 anyway? I play at 1600x900 (16:9), so thats close to the figure Im most interested in.

matt

patch · 15-05-2003 1:39pm

Originally posted by Matt Simis
Use Pricewatch, search US forums etc. There is no one place, youll just have to look around.

Matt

Where did you buy your last one then.....:)

Matt Simis · 15-05-2003 1:45pm

Christ you people are lazy!

I found a retailer (of sorts) selling hardware through hardforum.com

Matt

patch · 15-05-2003 3:09pm

Originally posted by Matt Simis
Christ you people are lazy!

I found a retailer (of sorts) selling hardware through hardforum.com

Matt

Touchy........ share the knowledge!!;)

CivilServant · 15-05-2003 6:11pm

Originally posted by Matt Simis
Christ you people are lazy!

Yup! We sure are.

Personally I like to stand on the shoulders of giants. Making the wheel again is just too damn hard.:D

Chowley · 16-05-2003 9:16pm

When will the FX 5900 ultra be released here and how much will the 128mb and the 256mb cost?

STaN · 21-05-2003 3:58pm

The FX 5900 256Mb costs around 900 on komplett?

eyerer · 22-05-2003 1:14am

Originally posted by Matt Simis
Christ you people are lazy!

I found a retailer (of sorts) selling hardware through hardforum.com

Matt

how much was the shipping from the US?

Kix · 22-05-2003 12:06pm

Originally posted by Matt Simis
Christ you people are lazy!

Not necessearly. I spent quite a while looking for a US retailer who would ship to Europe (or even accept an Irish registered CC for shipping within the US). Didn't manage to find one.

K

Chowley · 22-05-2003 11:14pm

Well its not going to be €900 when its released.Maybe €700, its hardly going to be €400 more than the 128mb one, just discovered that will be about €540 for the Gainward (I think).

CivilServant · 23-05-2003 10:04pm

Well with the news that some of the devious nvidia staff had being playing tricks with 3dmark 2003 to give improved scores, the might not be the hit it could of been. Poor old nvidia resorting to these type of tactics it shameful really.

€540 is a still a lot to ask for a card that we don't know how well it will perform in real world tests. If anyone has seen the halflife 2 movies, then they'll know that the 9800 was running the show. And boy can it run smooth, don't know bout the proc though possibly overclocked, but it is competitively priced against the FX5900. Hopefully this will push the price of the 9700/9500 down lower, 9700 non pro is already 264 in komplett, if memory serves.

Matt Simis · 24-05-2003 10:30pm

Originally posted by eyerer
how much was the shipping from the US?

Pretty expensive, $70 for 3 day Fedex. The lower base price and lack of tax more than makes up for it of course. 90% of the shipping charge is a standard minimum amount, ie 2 or three cards cost pretty much the same shipping as one.

Matt

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra: The Way FX is Meant to be Played!!

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