The card

The eVGA e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra follows NVIDIA’s reference design board to the letter. In fact, we have a strong suspicion that this board was made directly by NVIDIA. eVGA then slaps their sticker on the heatsink and cooling fan and sells the final product directly to the consumer.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, by sticking with NVIDIA’s reference design eVGA is able to bring their GeForce FX 5600 Ultra card to market sooner. In fact, it’s quite common for manufacturers to rely on NVIDIA’s reference board for their initial products, and then offer more inventive solutions at a later date. This keeps the early adopters and the enthusiasts happy, and earns eVGA the distinction of being one of the first with retail samples on the market.

eVGA e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra

Back of the card

Profile shot

Physically the board is longer than ATI’s RADEON 9500/9700 series, and even slightly longer than the RADEON 9800 PRO. The e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra is shorter than GeForce FX 5800 Ultra and GeForce4 Ti 4600 however. As you can see the cooler used is similar to the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra although the 6,000 RPM fan operated with a slightly higher pitch. The heatsink itself is reminiscent of the GeForce4, just half an inch longer.

BGA memory from Hynix

eVGA has equipped the e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra with 128MB of DDR memory from Hynix Semiconductor. Of particular interest to overclockers is the fact that these are 2.2ns BGA modules, good for up to 900MHz. With the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra spec calling for 800MHz, this gives end users quite a bit of headroom for overclocking the memory subsystem.

In the upper left corner of the board is NVIDIA’s “feature connector”. Quite frankly, we’re not sure what it connects to, but we did notice it on NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5900 Ultra board as well, and silk-screened on the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra reference card. On the opposite corner is the Molex power connector. If an external power source isn’t used, the card operates at a reduced 234/501MHz clock frequency.

Video editing

Typically first generation boards of any brand new GPU are light on connectivity options. The obligatory DVI and S-Video outputs are about all you’ll normally get. eVGA bucks this trend however, offering composite and S-video input and output, which is powered by Philips SAA7114H decoder chip.

VIVO cable

VIVO cable with card

Rather than use an external breakout box, eVGA uses a cable that includes the necessary connections. This implementation isn’t quite as tidy as a breakout box, but the longer cable gives end users a little more flexibility.

eVGA then rounds the package out with an additional S-Video cable, DVI connector, and copies of NVDVD 2.0, CyberLink PowerDirector 2.1, and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. Finally, an additional CD includes NVIDIA’s GeForce FX launch demos (including Dawn), a copy of America’s Army, WindowBlinds, and a demo copy of EarthViewer.