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MSI GeForce FX5900U-VTD256 Review July 14, 2003 Brandon Bell |
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Summary: As its name implies, MSI's GeForce FX5900U-VTD256 is based on NVIDIA's latest GPU, the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. This board boasts a 450MHz core and 256MB of DDR memory among its list of features, and one of the largest bundles among GeForce FX 5900 Ultra cards. In today's review, we compare this card against the latest 128MB and 256MB RADEONs, as well as a few other GeForce FX cards. Read all about this card and MSI's upcoming NBox bundle inside!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 16 ) |
After surrendering the high-end segment of the 3D graphics market to ATI for consecutive quarters, the big green machine known as NVIDIA is finally back with its GeForce FX 5900 line of graphics cards. NVIDIA isn’t coming halfway either, the company plans to offer three GeForce FX 5900 cards, with retail prices at $300, $400, and for the gamer who must have it all, a 256MB GeForce FX 5900 Ultra at $500 (the other GeForce FX 5900 cards ship with 128MB of memory, although this may change with second generation cards).
We’ve already taken a look at eVGA’s e-GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, the first GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card to hit retail shelves, and MSI’s 128MB GeForce FX 5900 card (you must check out the dual-sided copper cooler this card boasts!), the FX5900-TD128. Today we’re evaluating MSI’s GeForce FX 5900 Ultra board, the FX5900U-VTD256.
MSI has earned a well-established reputation for building innovative NVIDIA-based graphics cards, their T.O.P. Tech coolers are quiet, yet highly effective, and MSI has gone so far as to include remote control units with some of their graphics cards! Because of this, we were eager to see what MSI has come up with for their GeForce FX 5900 Ultra board.
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If you recall, the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra sets itself apart from the $400 GeForce FX 5900 in memory size (all Ultra boards ship with 256MB of DDR memory) and core clock frequency. While the GeForce FX 5900 core clocks in at 400MHz, NVIDIA has bumped the core clock frequency for Ultra boards to 450MHz. Physically, both chips are the same, supporting the same array of features (2.0+ pixel and vertex shaders, as well as full-floating point precision and a 256-bit memory interface among the highlights). NVIDIA simply verifies that 5900 cores that operate at 450MHz successfully become Ultras, 5900s aren’t tested as thoroughly but may be just as capable of hitting this clock speed.
NVIDIA has been doing this speed binning for years in products dating all the way back to their RIVA graphics line. Consumers like it, because they can often overclock regular cards to Ultra levels without any problems, while NVIDIA is able to charge a premium for the high-quality Ultra parts, which can often be very worthy overclockers as well. For instance, eVGA is shipping their e-GeForce FX 5900 Ultra at 500MHz core/900MHz memory, 50MHz over NVIDIA’s reference specification in both regards. This gives them a performance advantage over other GeForce FX 5900 Ultra cards. GeForce FX 5900 cards aren’t quite yet capable of hitting 500/900 consistently, much less the 520/951 clock speeds we ultimately overclocked the e-GeForce FX 5900 Ultra to.
Wondering how high we were able to overclock the FX5900U-VTD256? Read on to find out!
SIDEBAR: MSI FX5900U-VTD256 Webpage
| Board analysis | Page:: ( 2 / 16 ) |
As we mentioned in our e-GeForce FX 5900 Ultra review, NVIDIA is handling all board production for the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. This means that regardless of the manufacturer you choose, you’re getting the exact same GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card. As a result, MSI’s FX5900U-VTD256 looks virtually identical to the eVGA card, and every other GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card on the market for that matter. The only physical difference lies in the sticker on the FX 5900 Ultra fan. As you can see, MSI adorns their FX5900U-VTD256 fan with the company logo, no real surprise here.
This is kind of disappointing, as we know from experience that MSI has the engineering expertise to make some of the most clever board designs in the industry, adorning their second-generation GeForce4 cards with features like built-in hardware monitoring and the aforementioned T.O.P. Tech coolers we love so much, but for now MSI must play by NVIDIA’s rules. They don’t want to risk their vaunted Tier One board partner status after all.
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By keeping all board production in-house, NVIDIA is able to ensure a consistent level of quality regardless of manufacturer and they’re able to strictly control board availability. After all they’re not only bringing Ultra cards to market via their board partners, they’re also controlling who’s first to market and when. ATI is pretty much doing the same thing with its high-end products, so you really can’t do anything as a third-party card manufacturer but grin and bear it.
The downside of handling all board production is that card manufacturers have fewer means of differentiating themselves from each other -- they’re literally selling the same piece of hardware as the next guy. Other than taking the eVGA approach (overclocking the card, which can be risky), the only other means a card manufacturer has at his disposal are price, which can hurt your bottom line, or with the software bundle, which can also be difficult to get right because we gamers tend to be picky when it comes to the games we like.
MSI has made the best of a difficult situation by bundling their FX5900U-VTD256 with one of the more robust software bundles among GeForce FX 5900 Ultra cards, and with retail packaging that is even more impressive, but more on this later. Let’s look at more of the hardware that comes with the card.
Since NVIDIA is shipping all GeForce FX 5900 Ultra cards with Philips’ popular MPEG encoding chip, the MSI FX5900U-VTD256 sports video editing support among its list of features, hence the “V” in the VTD256 designation. MSI includes its VIVO breakout box for connectivity, S-Video and Composite inputs and outputs are offered. The VIVO breakout box offers better display quality than the VIVO cable that is shipped with most GeForce FX 5900 Ultra cards thanks to its gold-plated connectors, but at the cost of flexibility, as the breakout box is considerably shorter than the dedicated cables provided with other boards.
Other than this difference, nothing else separates the FX5900U-VTD256 from other GeForce FX 5900 Ultra cards from a hardware perspective.
SIDEBAR: You can read up on the Philips encoder chip here
| FX5900U-VTD256 Accessories | Page:: ( 3 / 16 ) |
Packaging
MSI packages the FX5900U-VTD256 in what is definitely the largest retail package we’ve seen for a graphics card. In fact, the packaging bests most motherboards. On the front MSI proudly proclaims its status as the world’s largest video card manufacturer by bulk, while the reverse side lists all the goodies (both software and hardware) that are shipped with each FX5900U-VTD256 card. The inside of the FX5900U’s packaging reads straight from NVIDIA promotional material, listing the capabilities of the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra core the FX5900U-VTD256 is based on.
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The accessories within the packaging are very well laid out and include a DVI-to-VGA adapter, MSI case badge, a 4-pin Molex power adapter (in case your power supply is short on plugs), an S-Video cable, a small MSI notepad, and the aforementioned VIVO breakout box.
Software bundle
MSI includes a wealth of software with its graphics cards, and the FX5900U-VTD256 is no exception. For gamers, full retail versions of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III, and Duke Nukem Manhattan Project are included as well as a 7-in-1 game bundle CD that includes demo versions of The Sum of All Fears, IL-2 Sturmovik, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Rally Trophy, Beam Breakers, Zax: The Alien Hunter, and Bungie’s Oni are also offered. We’ve discussed this bundle at length in the past so we won’t rehash it too much again here, but to make a long story short what was once an excellent bundle is beginning to grow a bit old and played out.
Fortunately, as we discussed in the FX5900-TD128 review, MSI plans to replace this bundle very soon. A few months ago we were told that they were debating between Command and Conquer: Generals and Unreal 2 (we suggested that they go with U2 if they wanted graphical eye candy or Generals if they really cared about gameplay), it turns out that MSI has decided to include both titles as well as Battlefield 1942! Battlefield 1942 is one of the hottest online shooters right now, and was the game featured in season one of the FiringSquad Battlefield 1942 league, so you know we were pretty excited to hear of this development. MSI will also be including an 800dpi aluminum USB mouse with a fancy blue LED in the package.
Graphics cards with this bundle will fall under the NBox designation which will start shipping later this month. The NBox series will consist of the N5900 Ultra, N5900, N5600 Ultra, N5600, and N5200. This should land MSI the distinction of being the first graphics card manufacturer to score big as a result of the NVIDIA/EA promotional deal that was signed earlier this year and will place MSI miles ahead of its competition in this area.
The hardcore crowd will no doubt complain that enthusiasts already own Battlefield 1942 and/or Unreal 2, but we’d guess that there aren’t many gamers who own all three. It’s just too bad that the NBox bundle isn’t ready quite in time for the GeForce FX5900 Ultra launch.
Besides the games, MSI also includes its Media Center Deluxe II software (which we’ve already discussed in previous MSI VGA reviews) WinDVD 5.1, WinDVD Creator Plus, FarStone’s RestoreIT! Professional, and VirtualDrive Professional, and Adobe Photoshop AlbumSE and 3D Album on top of MSI’s driver and Live! series of utility software.
SIDEBAR: MSI has more information on the new NBox bundle here.
| Test Systems | Page:: ( 4 / 16 ) |
System Setup
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe
512MB OCZ EL PC3200 (DDR400) SDRAM
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO – 256MB
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO – 128MB
ATI RADEON 9700 PRO
ATI RADEON 9500 PRO
Driver version CATALYST 3.5
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
MSI GeForce FX 5900-TD128
MSI GeForce FX 5900U-VTD256
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra reference card
Driver version Detonator FX (44.03)
30GB IBM Deskstar DTLA 307030 ATA/100 Hard Drive
Windows XP Professional
DirectX 9.0
Benchmarks
3DMark 03 Patch 330
Nascar Racing 2003 Season (Bristol custom demo)
Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (fscrusher demo)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (custom demo)
SIDEBAR: MSI lists the Nbox bundle as limited edition, so it may dry up quickly.
| Nascar Racing 2003 Season | Page:: ( 5 / 16 ) |
Nascar 2003
SIDEBAR: Memory bandwidth for the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra is 27.2GB/sec.
| IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles | Page:: ( 6 / 16 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB
SIDEBAR: Ilyushin, manufacturers of the IL-2 Sturmovik, now manufacture many transports and commercial Russian aircraft.
| 3D Mark 2003 v.330 | Page:: ( 7 / 16 ) |
3D Mark 2003 – DirectX 9
SIDEBAR: The part number for the FX5900U-VTD256 is MS-8929.
| 3D Mark 2003 Frame Rates | Page:: ( 8 / 16 ) |
3DMark03 – Wings of Fury
3DMark03 – Battle of Proxycon
3DMark03 – Troll’s Lair
3DMark03 – Mother Nature
SIDEBAR: MSI also manufactures optical drives and even small form factor systems.
| Quake III | Page:: ( 9 / 16 ) |
Quake III - OpenGL
SIDEBAR: For Quake 3, we run high quality settings, then set the texture quality to maximum and geometric detail to high.
| Unreal Tournament 2003 | Page:: ( 10 / 16 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003 – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: MSI is one of Taiwan’s largest motherboard manufacturers.
| Splinter Cell | Page:: ( 11 / 16 ) |
Splinter Cell – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: MSI also has a Personal Cinema card based on the GeForce FX 5200.
| IL2:FB 4xAA, 8xAF | Page:: ( 12 / 16 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB
SIDEBAR: The FX5900U-VTD256 is one of the first MSI cards we’ve received in awhile that didn’t have a red PCB.
| UT 2003 4xAA 8xAF | Page:: ( 13 / 16 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003
SIDEBAR: Have you checked out NVIDIA’s nZone website?
| Overclocking | Page:: ( 14 / 16 ) |
Quake 3
Unreal Tournament 2003
SIDEBAR: MSI now offers GeForce FX 5900 cards with and without video input support.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 15 / 16 ) |
Pros
Performance: The GeForce FX 5900 Ultra core the FX5900U-VTD256 is based on is one of the most powerful graphics processors on the planet. As a result, the FX5900U-VTD256 is one incredible performer, allowing gamers to crank up the screen resolution and/or turn on visual quality features such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. These eye candy features provide increased levels of visual fidelity for enhanced realism.
Basically, with a card like the FX5900U you can adjust the visual quality of your games to look just like the fancy screenshots you see on the back of the box, rather than having to settle for something less for playable performance. This draws you into the game even further, and the rest as they say is history.
NVIDIA-ensured quality: With NVIDIA’s decision to handle all GeForce FX 5900 Ultra production, you’re ensured that you’re getting a board of reference-level quality (some manufacturers were known to skimp on some components to cut costs). Of course, MSI was never known to cut corners on its GeForce4 cards, but for those who are new to MSI’s graphics cards this should be reassuring.
Bundle: MSI’s gaming bundle is a little long in the tooth, but the rest of their software package should not be dismissed so quickly. You’ve got software for backing up your data, VirtualDrive, which allows you to play your favorite games without the disc being present, DVD software, video editing software, and MSI’s own collection of utility software. Many motherboards don’t come with this many software goodies, so it’s surprising to see so much shipping with a graphics card, most just come with DVD playback software.
VIVO: The FX5900U-VTD256 is VIVO-ready (Video-In/Video Out) thanks to its Philips SAA7108AE encoder chip and S-Video and Composite inputs and outputs.
Cons
NBox looming: With MSI’s excellent NBox gaming bundle right around the corner, we have a feeling that some of you would rather hold out for either (a) prices to drop on existing MSI FX5900U-VTD256 cards and their older bundle or (b) purchase the NBox version of the FX5900U-VTD256, the N5900 Ultra, so you can enjoy the newer games it ships with. This could potentially put a damper on MSI’s sales in the short-term, it just depends on which cards they decide to deliver first: the 5600 Ultra and 5900 Ultra cards, or perhaps their less expensive cousins? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Price: Online prices for the FX5900U-VTD256 hover between $532 and $580, making MSI’s GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card one of the more expensive offerings out there. Typically MSI’s cards have been priced very competitively, so we have a feeling that prices will quickly fall in line with other manufacturers once supply catches up, but $500+ is still a lot to pay for a graphics card.
SIDEBAR: Looks like Price Watch removed the quick listings for GeForce FX 5800 cards and replaced it with GeForce FX 5900 128MB and 256MB.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 16 / 16 ) |