Ballistics Report: WinFast A360 Ultra TDH

Pros

NV36 core: NVIDIA’s new NV36 core is a good improvement over NV31, which was used in the GeForce FX 5600. Shader performance is improved on a clock-for-clock basis, while at the same time NVIDIA has bumped up the clock speed to 500MHz.

And since it’s largely based on NV35, NV36 adopts other enhancements NVIDIA has incorporated into its latest processors such as UltraShadow technology and Intellisample HCT. The end result is that NV36 is much better equipped to take on ATI’s mainstream offerings than GeForce FX 5600/5600 Ultra. Unless you can find a GeForce FX 5600-based card at an unbelievable price, you really should go for the 5700 if you’re in the market for an NVIDIA-based card.

Performance: Thanks to its 500MHz NV36 core and blazing fast DDR2 memory providing up to 14.4GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth, the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra is able to give ATI’s RADEON 9600 XT quite a run for its money performance-wise. ATI really opened themselves up by sticking with 600MHz memory for the RADEON 9600 XT, an advantage which NVIDIA really exploits with the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra’s 5GB/sec memory bandwidth advantage.

Both cards are great performers, with more than enough muscle for today’s titles, and good performance with next generation games as long as you don’t crank up the screen resolution too high. Neither will take down a RADEON 9800 or GeForce FX 5900, but you really can’t expect that from a mainstream card that’s built on a 128-bit memory interface and boasts significantly lower fill rate.

Cooling: Leadtek’s Air Surround cooling unit dramatically outperformed NVIDIA’s stock cooling unit in our testing – it really wasn’t even close. This didn’t make a difference in our overclocking results though, our eVGA board is a real champ in regards to this department. Oh well, at least the lower temperatures will give you the peace of mind of knowing that your card is nice and cool.

Another feature we really like is the integrated dust filter. This little gem will protect your fan and its motor from dust, which, if left unchecked for an extended period of time, can ultimately end the life of your fan prematurely. We can’t say enough good things about this feature.

Cons

Price: We haven’t seen any listings for the WinFast A360 Ultra TDH on Price Watch yet, but with the GeForce FX 5700 (non-Ultra) variant of the card currently selling for $159-$176, we imagine the price can’t be good. NVIDIA officially lists the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra for $200. This is roughly the same price point as the GeForce FX 5900 128MB.

Unless NVIDIA lowers the price on 5700 Ultra cards, most consumers will opt for the GeForce FX 5900. It basically costs the same amount and offers more performance.

Availability: GeForce FX 5700 Ultra cards are slowly trickling out, but they’re still hard to find, and until supplies of these cards increases, board prices will never fall.