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GeForce FX 5900 XT Shootout March 01, 2004 |
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Summary: NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5900 XT is currently one of the most sought after cards in the mainstream market thanks to its NV35 graphics core and 256-bit memory interface. In today's article we've rounded up five GeForce FX 5900 XT cards from manufacturers Chaintech, eVGA, Gigabyte, Leadtek, and MSI. Some cards offer copper cooling, while others offer features like hardware monitoring or video input support. See how they stack up against each other in this article!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 18 ) |
GeForce FX 5900 XT: NVIDIA’s Ti 4200 killer?
When it was released, NVIDIA’s GeForce4 Ti 4200 was highly regarded throughout the graphics world thanks to its unique combination of performance, features, and price. Since it was based on the exact same graphics core as NVIDIA’s flagship GeForce4 Ti 4600, the Ti 4200 offered all the capabilities of NVIDIA’s best product, and with its 250MHz core, the Ti 4200 offered most of its performance as well. What consumers really appreciated though was the Ti 4200’s price – cards could easily be found for less than half the price of a Ti 4600!
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As a result, GeForce4 Ti 4200’s were flying off the shelves from NVIDIA’s board partners, many of whom went through four or more generations of Ti 4200-based products. Even today, both ATI and NVIDIA are still trying to escape the shadow of the Ti 4200, nearly two years after it was first introduced.
Mainstream cards like the RADEON 9500/9600 PRO and GeForce FX 5600/5700 Ultra are inevitably compared to the Ti 4200, and while they’ve demonstrated more overall performance when visual quality settings are maxed out, many gamers found the low prices these cards sell for to be too tempting to pass up, while many more Ti 4200 owners have been content holding on to their cards: just as the GeForce2 MX had introduced millions of gamers to the world of T&L and DX7 graphics, the GeForce4 Ti 4200 was the launch pad for many into DX8. And the bottom line was that NVIDIA and ATI had some big shoes to fill and were having somewhat of a hard time doing it. Their mainstream offerings just weren’t capturing the hearts and minds of consumers like the Ti 4200.
The RADEON 9500 PRO offered good performance, especially when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering were in use, but many felt it didn’t offer enough performance over the GeForce4 Ti 4200 to justify the purchase. ATI’s follow-up, the RADEON 9600 PRO was criticized for not outperforming its predecessor, while NVIDIA’s mainstream offering, GeForce FX 5600 Ultra was impossible to find for months.
Then, in late 2003 NVIDIA quietly launched its GeForce FX 5900 XT. The 5900 XT had been previously known as the 5900 Value. It had been announced (along with the rest of the 5900 line last spring) as a cost reduced version of the 5900 Ultra, but other than that NVIDIA remained mum on the details. When its initial launch date passed, many forgot about the project, while others assumed that if it would ever ship, it would come with fewer features, some had even suggested NVIDIA would slice its memory interface in half, to 128-bits, much like ATI had done with RADEON 9500 PRO.
Fortunately, none of this ultimately came true, in fact, the 5900 XT shares the Ti 4200’s main trait in that it supports NVIDIA’s flagship feature for feature; with the only difference being reduced performance. As a result, 5900 XTs have been quickly adopted. These cards can easily be found for under $200! Therefore we’ve decided to roundup a few of the best of these cards to see what they have to offer.
SIDEBAR: Gigabyte’s official website lists Arx Fatalis as one of the games that ships with the GV-N59X128D but we can assure you that our board came with Will Rock instead.
| GeForce FX 5900XT core | Page:: ( 2 / 18 ) |
At its heart the GeForce FX 5900 XT is based on the same NV35 graphics core as the GeForce FX 5900 128MB and GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. This is also the same core that encompasses NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5950 Ultra. If you recall, NV35 is based on TSMC’s 0.13-micron manufacturing process containing 130 million transistors. NV35 is a four pixel pipeline with two texture units per pixel pipeline (4x2) architecture, supporting NVIDIA’s enhanced CineFX 2.0 engine (which boasts enhanced shading performance) Intellisample HCT, and NVIDIA’s UltraShadow technology (which offers enhanced stencil buffer performance provided the software title is coded to take advantage of it).
NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5900 XT reference specification initially called for a 400MHz core clock frequency, the same clock speed as the GeForce FX 5900 128MB, but the spec has since been loosened to 390MHz.
We’ve found that this variable can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer (two of the cards in this roundup were clocked at 400MHz by default). With the core clock frequency even varying on 5900 XT boards from the same manufacturer: while many of the early 5900 XT cards were clocked at 400MHz, some of those same cards are now shipping at 390MHz. For those of you worrying about picking up a 390MHz card, don’t worry. The 10MHz clock difference won’t significantly hamper performance.
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In order to further reduce costs, NVIDIA and its board partners use a slightly less exotic board design (including a single slot cooler) and slower, less expensive DDR memory for the 5900 XT.
The 5900 XT’s memory operates at 350MHz (700MHz effective), 75MHz below the 5900 Ultra and 125MHz slower than the 5950 Ultra. This provides the 5900 XT graphics core with up to 22.4GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth, the same figure as ATI’s RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB and 8GB/sec more than GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, which was the previous leader in this category in the mainstream segment.
Despite the slower memory frequency (700MHz effective versus 850MHz), the 5900 XT is able to keep up with the GeForce FX 5900 128MB in many benchmarks thanks to the lower memory timings its 2.8ns BGA memory boasts.
Due to the reduced frequencies of the graphics core and memory, 5900 XT board manufacturers are able to utilize a simpler board design with reduced power and heat requirements. An external power source is still needed, but the board requires significantly less power circuitry and smaller coolers. Video input and hardware monitoring functionality are also sometimes left out in order to further reduce production costs.
Now that we’re a little more familiar with the graphics core, let’s take a look at the GeForce FX 5900 XT cards that we’ve collected!
SIDEBAR: Leadtek WinFast A350 Ultra cards were used by NVIDIA at last year’s QuakeCon event.
| Chaintech SA5900X | Page:: ( 3 / 18 ) |
Chaintech is probably best known among gamers and hardware enthusiasts for their line of high-end Zenith motherboards, but they also have quite a few NVIDIA-based graphics cards in their product lineup also. Earlier this year we took a look at their flagship Personal Cinema card, the Zenith FM6P/N, which was the first Personal Cinema card to hit the market based on NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5600 core. We found that the FM6P/N was a nice card that was only held back by the limitations of NVIDIA’s Personal Cinema software (and the capabilities of its GeForce FX 5600 core), so we were eager to see what Chaintech could accomplish when given NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5900 XT as a foundation.
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Their GeForce FX 5900 XT card goes by the name SA5900X. Chaintech clocks the graphics core at 390MHz, while its 128MB of memory operates at 700MHz.
Looking over the SA5900X’s board design, you’ll see that Chaintech closely follows NVIDIA’s reference specifications. The only addition we saw were two additional MOSFETs that weren’t present on other 5900 XT cards in the lower right corner of the board.
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Cooling and memory
The board itself has a rather elaborate cooling system. A copper base plate is responsible for pulling heat off the NV35 graphics core. Copper fins are used on two sides of the base plate to further increase surface area. This copper cooling system is then mated to a gold-colored enclosure for added panache, which essentially acts as a duct, blowing cool air over the graphics core. Looking closely at the card’s fan, it appears Chaintech has also outfitted the board with a blue LED, which is intended to shine underneath, lighting the entire enclosure and the company logo, but unfortunately the LED on our review sample was dead.
In operation, the SA5900X was the loudest of the cards in this roundup, although we should add that the noise levels weren’t unbearable. Interestingly enough, our card’s fan was configured to operate at full speed at all times, typically GeForce FX 5900 boards are designed to operate in two modes: 2D and 3D. When the board is in “2D” mode, the core clock frequency is lowered to 300MHz and the fan spins at a reduced level. In the case of the SA5900X however, the fan’s RPMs never wavered, even when running in 2D mode. When you couple this with the copper cooling we mentioned, it’s fairly obvious that Chaintech was very concerned about combating heat.
While it isn’t called for by NVIDIA’s reference specifications, Chaintech goes the extra mile by cooling the SA5900X’s memory as well. Aluminum heatsinks are placed above both banks of memory. The heatsinks are painted gold to match the cooler above the NV35 graphics core. The modules themselves (part number K4D263238E-GC2A) come from Samsung and are rated for exactly 700MHz.
Chaintech’s bundle
In addition to the SA5900X card, Chaintech includes a very thorough 50 page manual, DVI-to-VGA adapter, S-Video cable, S-Video-to-Composite adapter and an additional power adapter. Software included includes a copy of 3Deep, MDK2, WinDVD, WinDVD Creator, WinRip, and a 5-in-1 bundle of game demos (Age of Wonders 2, Serious Sam 2, Rally Trophy, Max Payne, and Tropico).
SIDEBAR: Chaintech SA5900X Webpage
| eVGA e-GeForce FX 5900SE | Page:: ( 4 / 18 ) |
As one of NVIDIA’s closest board partners, eVGA was one of the first manufacturers to release a GeForce FX 5900 XT card, the e-GeForce FX 5900 SE. In fact, we’ve heard many of NVIDIA’s board partners refer to eVGA as one of three companies that in many ways act as the retail front for NVIDIA themselves. With many of eVGA’s products being produced directly by NVIDIA (via Flextronics) this statement is certainly somewhat accurate, and in some ways could be considered a compliment.
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Board analysis
If you recall the look of eVGA’s GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, you might at first mistake the e-GeForce FX 5900 SE for one of those boards. eVGA follows NVIDIA’s reference 5900 XT design to the letter and to further reduce costs, borrows the cooler from the 5600 Ultra and places it on the NV35 graphics core.
The cooler itself is composed entirely of aluminum. A ducted design has been implemented that draws the air from within your case and blows it across the heatsink and its fins before the air escapes out the top and right sides of the cooling duct. And while the fan on the e-GeForce FX 5900 SE is the same one used on their e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra card, its pitch isn’t quite as high. It’s still one of the louder cards in this roundup, second only to the Chaintech SA5900X, but again, the fan isn’t unbearably loud. It’s located further offset of the graphics core than the other ducted designs, giving it more room to work its magic.
eVGA uses the exact same components for power circuitry as the other 5900 XT boards (including the same manufacturers), although they’ve implemented Silicon Image’s newer and smaller Sil 1162 DVI transmitter, freeing up a little more space on the board.
Like the Chaintech card, large aluminum heatsinks are used to keep the memory on the e-GeForce FX 5900 SE cool. Modules from Samsung’s Semiconductor division are used in addition to thermal pads, which sit between the top of the memory modules and the bottom of the heatsink. Thermal pads are designed to transfer heat from the memory’s surface to the underside of the heatsink, although some have argued that some actually act as inhibitors, preventing heat transfer.
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Whatever the case, keep in mind that the board’s memory modules are designed to operate at their default clock speed of 700MHz without a heatsink, so eVGA has implemented them at added cost to the company, and the DDR memory modules themselves do not get hot like DDR2 modules have proven to do. Both of NVIDIA’s DDR2 designs (GeForce FX 5700 Ultra and GeForce FX 5800 Ultra) truly needed their heatsinks, as did ATI’s RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB, which also utilized DDR2 modules.
Hardware and software accessories
eVGA packages the e-GeForce FX 5900 SE with DVI and S-Video adapters as well as an S-Video cable, a power adapter wasn’t included with our review board. eVGA also ships the board with their Automated Driver Management software, which checks to ensure that you have the drivers for your motherboard and GART driver installed, as well as NVDVD 2.0, WindowBlinds, a demo copy of Earth Viewer, NVIDIA’s 3D technology demos, America’s Army, and finally, Ghost Recon. At one point eVGA also offered their e-GeForce FX 5900 SE boards with a free copy of Call of Duty (a $50 value), but as far as we can tell, all of these boards have sold out.
SIDEBAR: eVGA e-GeForce FX 5900SE Webpage
| Gigabyte GV-N59X128D | Page:: ( 5 / 18 ) |
Gigabyte is the third GeForce FX 5900 XT manufacturer that we’re taking a look at today, which may come as a surprise to some of you, as it was only a year ago that Gigabyte was producing graphics cards solely based on ATI’s lineup of Rage128 and RADEON VPUs. At Computex last September Gigabyte announced that they would be producing graphics cards based on cores from both ATI and NVIDIA, a trend which ASUS and ABIT have also followed.
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Unlike the others however, Gigabyte has a very full lineup of both RADEON and GeForce FX-based cards. For instance, while ASUS has skipped the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, Gigabyte has one. ASUS has also elected not to bring their GeForce FX 5900 XT card (the V9950 SE) to the North American market. Gigabyte also has multiple SKUs for the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra (GV-N595U-GT, GV-N595U256V) and GeForce FX 5700 (GV-N57256DE, GV-N57128DE, GV-N57128D).
Gigabyte’s board uses a distinctive aqua blue PCB, just like the Chaintech SA5900X. Also like the Chaintech card, a copper base plate is used to draw heat off the graphics core, although in the case of Gigabyte’s GV-N59X128D board, the copper plate also covers the card’s memory modules (a slim thermal interface pad sits between the memory module and the copper plate). Copper fins are also grafted to the plate, effectively increasing surface area.
GV-N59X128D cooling
Like the Chaintech board we mentioned, the GV-N59X128D’s cooling system is housed within a gold-colored enclosure, which acts as a duct. That air then passes out the sides (and in one area, the top of the enclosure) of the board.
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Gigabyte tops the cooling system off with a blue LED, which lights up when the card is in use.
The board itself is based on NVIDIA’s reference design, just like the other GeForce FX 5900 XT cards. Gigabyte also uses memory modules from Samsung which are rated for operation at 700MHz.
In operation, the card runs quieter than the two cards we’ve previously mentioned, and is only slightly louder than MSI’s GeForce FX 5900 XT board. We should also mention that Gigabyte’s card actually has a 3D mode where the fan operates at higher RPMs, whereas the fan on the MSI card remains at the same level of RPMs, regardless of which mode it’s in.
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Packaging
Gigabyte ships their GV-N59X128D board with arguably one of the better game bundles. Eidos’ DX9 title Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is included with the card, as well as Will Rock and Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. Gigabyte also includes CyberLink’s PowerDVD 5 for DVD playback capability. These are all the full blown versions of these titles, no demos are included in the packaging. Gigabyte also includes a DVI and S-Video adapters as well as an S-Video cable.
SIDEBAR: Gigabyte GV-N59X128D Product Webpage
| Leadtek WinFast A350 XT TDH | Page:: ( 6 / 18 ) |
Leadtek has made a name for itself building NVIDIA-based graphics cards that cater towards the high-end of the market. Back when other graphics manufacturers were content to build reference designs or equip their boards with shoddy filters, Leadtek went out of its way to build boards with superior components and cooling systems. This has earned Leadtek a loyal following of consumers that swear by their products. It also doesn’t hurt that they’re one of NVIDIA’s oldest board partners with Tier One launch partner status.
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For their WinFast A350 XT TDH however, Leadtek chose to stick with NVIDIA’s reference design. The board uses all of the same components as the other 5900 XT cards in this comparison. This is likely to keep costs down and to bring their product to market faster, which is doubly important for a mainstream part that’s a hot seller like the GeForce FX 5900 XT.
Air Surround Cooling
Leadtek has also integrated the Air Surround cooler from its GeForce FX 5700 and 5700 Ultra cards, the WinFast A360 family. This cooler is composed entirely of aluminum and resembles an Orb design, with a fan at the center. The fan draws the air from within your case and blows it out the sides of the board. Leadtek even places a dust filter above the fan, ensuring that the fan is always operating at peak performance.
Dust is responsible for killing the motor of many fans, so the integrated dust filter gives the WinFast A350 XT fan an added layer of protection. We recommend that you clean the filter regularly. It can be removed with a small Philips screwdriver.
Audibly the fan reminds us of the Gigabyte GV-N59X128D in the sense that it’s nice and quiet in 2D mode, but still provides a higher mode of operation in 3D mode. Both of these cards are in between the MSI 5900 XT board, which is at the bottom of the sound scale, and the Chaintech and eVGA cards, which are at the top. Leadtek’s card is slightly quieter than the Gigabyte, as its fan doesn’t spin quite as high in 3D mode.
Interestingly enough, the WinFast A350 XT TDH was the only board in this roundup to use modules manufactured by Hynix. The modules on our board were of the 2.2ns variety. This means that they’re rated for operation at up to 450MHz (900MHz effective)!
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Software
Leadtek’s WinFox software offers hardware monitoring and includes overclocking support among its list of features. You can even monitor the temperature of your graphics core and memory over time, which can be particularly helpful when overclocking. If you don’t want to use WinFox NVIDIA’s reference driver can also be used for hardware monitoring and overclocking, although it doesn’t have the histogram feature that WinFox does.
Leadtek also bundles the WinFast A350 XT TDH with copies of WinDVD, GunMetal, and Big Mutha Truckas. Hardware accessories that ship with the board include a DVI adapter, S-Video and Composite cables, a Composite adapter, and a power cable.
SIDEBAR: Leadtek WinFast A350XT TDH Webpage
| MSI FX5900XT-VTD128 | Page:: ( 7 / 18 ) |
MSI is NVIDIA’s largest board partner in terms of shipments, a title they have held for a few years now. This is largely due to MSI’s OEM (bulk) orders, but they’ve also been quite successful at retail, offering more GeForce4 and GeForce FX SKUs than any other manufacturer. As a result, MSI is able to implement additional features such as video input and have even offered graphics cards with remote control units at one point, all without adding too much to the board’s price. And on the extreme high end, MSI offers their NBOX bundle, clearly the best game bundle for the early half of 2003.
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For their GeForce FX 5900XT card, MSI builds on the foundations that have made them so successful, namely their T.O.P. Tech Cooling solution, and, as the “V” in VTD128 suggests, video input capability. At the same time they’re able to maintain low pricing, the FX5900XT-VTD128 is one of the least expensive GeForce FX 5900 XT boards available online according to Price Watch.
T.O.P. Tech
Ever since we first saw T.O.P. Tech on MSI’s third generation GeForce4 Ti 4200 card, we’ve been in love with the technology. T.O.P. Tech was one of the first mass produced cooling solutions to offer ducted cooling. MSI has since released multiple flavors of the technology and its successor, Twin-Flow, with the solution implemented depending on the intended cost of the board.
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In order to keep costs down, the derivative of T.O.P. Tech used on the FX5900XT-VTD128 isn’t quite as exotic as some of the other MSI cards, but it follows T.O.P. Tech’s core principle: near-silent operation. Other than Sapphire’s ULTIMATE Edition card, the T.O.P. Tech cooler used on the FX5900XT-VTD128 is hard to beat in this category.
MSI uses a large heatsink that appears to be some form of copper (although its texture and weight suggests aluminum that has possibly been copper-plated), this is paired with a large, low RPM fan, which draws air in. A thin plastic enclosure is then used, surrounding the heatsink’s fins and acting as a mini-duct of sorts.
Like the eVGA board, Silicon Image’s smaller Sil 1162 transmitter is used for DVI capability, while a Philips SAA7114H chip provides video input. This is the only GeForce FX 5900 XT card that we’re aware of that provides video input support.
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The bundle
Unfortunately, the board doesn’t offer built-in hardware monitoring, although MSI does bundle the card with their 3D Turbo! Experience tool, which can be used to overclock the card. (The 3D Experience software is Flash-based, and doesn’t provide clock speed adjustments in 1MHz increments, so you may want to pass on it if you’re familiar with NVIDIA’s own Coolbits registry hack). The MSI bundle includes copies of WinDVD Creator, MSI’s own Media Center Deluxe II software (which can be used for tasks such as viewing pictures, playing videos and music) WinDVD 5.1, VirtualDrive and RestoreIT! Professional, and MSI’s 3D desktop software. On the gaming side MSI includes copies of Morrowind, Duke Nukem, and Ghost Recon, as well as a 7-in-1 collection of game demos.
SIDEBAR: MSI FX5900XT-TD128 Product Webpage
| Test conditions | Page:: ( 8 / 18 ) |
System Setup
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
ASUS K8V Deluxe
512MB OCZ EL PC3200 (DDR400) SDRAM
Chaintech SA5900X
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5900 SE
Gigabyte GV-N59X128D
Leadtek WinFast A350XT TDH
MSI GeForce FX5900XT-VTD128
Driver version ForceWare 56.56
30GB IBM Deskstar DTLA 307030 ATA/100 Hard Drive
Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX 9.0b
Benchmarks
Lock On: Modern Air Combat (Mig-29 custom demo)
Call of Duty (demo0032 custom demo)
Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (fscrusher demo)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (T2 custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (FS custom demo)
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (paris demo)
SIDEBAR: eVGA has posted the ForceWare 56.56 driver on its site if you're interested in downloading it.
| Call of Duty | Page:: ( 9 / 18 ) |
Call of Duty – OpenGL
SIDEBAR: eVGA’s website mentions that it will soon be offering a step-up program. This could be a tempting way to upgrade your current graphics card without spending a lot of money.
| IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles | Page:: ( 10 / 18 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB - OpenGL
SIDEBAR: The IL-2 expansion ships tomorrow!
| Quake III 4xAA 8xAF | Page:: ( 11 / 18 ) |
Quake III - OpenGL
SIDEBAR: How do people born on February 29th celebrate their birthday every year?
| Unreal Tournament 2003 | Page:: ( 12 / 18 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003 – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: MSI is rumored to be including UT2004 with its next NBOX bundle.
| Splinter Cell | Page:: ( 13 / 18 ) |
Splinter Cell – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: With UT2004 and Pandorra Tomorrow both scheduled for release this month this could be a busy month for gaming.
| Tomb Raider | Page:: ( 14 / 18 ) |
Tomb Raider – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: We enabled depth of field for Tomb Raider testing (V49).
| Lock On: Modern Air Combat | Page:: ( 15 / 18 ) |
Lock On: Modern Air Combat – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: Since LOMAC doesn’t offer built-in benchmarking functionality that we’re aware of, we recorded our own demo and use FRAPS for testing.
| UT 2003 4xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 16 / 18 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003
SIDEBAR: This could be one of the last times you see UT2003 used in a graphics review now that UT2004 is right around the corner.
| Overclocking/temp results | Page:: ( 17 / 18 ) |
Unreal Tournament – Direct3D
Quake 3
Temperature measurement
SIDEBAR: We used Coolbits to overclock all graphics cards.
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 18 / 18 ) |
While we normally like to declare a winner in our shootout comparison articles, it’s just too difficult to pick one this time. All of the cards we’ve presented today are designed to appeal in different ways, with the ultimate winner depending on your tastes and preferences.
Chaintech’s SA5900X has been designed to appeal to the consumer who wants all-out cooling. The board sports a cooler with a copper core, while its fan operates at the same (higher) RPMs at all times, regardless of which mode the board is currently operating in. This is great if you’re a hardcore gamer, especially if you’re overclocking, you always know that regardless of the situation, your card’s fan is working overtime to keep its NV35 graphics core cool. But what if you spend most of your time at the desktop browsing webpages? In this case, you may want something a little quieter.
MSI’s GeForce FX 5900 XT card, the FX5900XT-VTD128, is the exact opposite. It’s T.O.P. Tech Cooler was the quietest solution in this roundup, and was drowned out by the sound of our Thermaltake Silent Boost K8, which is one of the quieter Athlon 64 coolers on the market. It operates at the same low level of RPMs (we’d estimate somewhere between 2,000-3,000 RPMs) regardless of mode, making it perfect for those of you who want to build a near silent PC. It also boasts video input for those of you who would like to make your own home movies. This feature in particular is extremely hard to find among GeForce FX 5900 XT cards. Its only real weakness is the lack of built-in hardware monitoring.
The Leadtek board presents an interesting contrast in the sense that it does boast hardware monitoring functionality, as well as its WinFox hardware monitoring/overclocking tool, but the card lacks the exotic copper coolers present on the cards from Chaintech and Gigabyte. In operation, we did find that their Air Surround cooling solution ran quieter than the eVGA and Chaintech coolers, and largely mirrored the performance of the Chaintech cooler at stock speeds. In addition, the 2.2ns memory modules our board shipped with allowed us to overclock the board’s memory to unprecedented levels for a GeForce FX 5900 XT card. If this is important to you, you may want to check with your preferred retailer to see if their Leadtek boards use the same Hynix modules (it would certainly explain the higher price these boards tend to go for) our card shipped with. It’s also possible that Leadtek ran a batch of boards with 2.2ns memory modules because it was all they had on hand at the time.
Gigabyte’s cooler is copper-based for better heat transfer, and quieter than the eVGA and Chaintech cards, making it a worthy competitor as well. Gigabyte also has one of the better software bundles (although admittedly, this is subjective). Their V-Tuner software can also be used to overclock your graphics card, but unfortunately the board doesn’t offer hardware monitoring capabilities.
eVGA’s e-GeForce FX 5900 SE is one of the least expensive GeForce FX 5900 XT graphics cards on the market, and is a good all-round performer. It doesn’t offer some of the dazzling features of the other boards like copper cooling or hardware monitoring, but it is easy to find and was incredibly popular when it first came out thanks to the Call of Duty bundle all cards shipped with. As a first generation board design it has since faded away from the limelight a little, but it’s still a solid card that’s worthy of consideration.
In any case, NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5900 XT core has been popular since its inception due to its attractive pricing and good performance in today’s titles. NVIDIA has certainly delivered a card that has given the mainstream market what it wanted, a graphics solution that offers all the features of the flagship cards and much of the performance, but at a price point that is much more attractive to the wallet. The GeForce FX 5900 XT is one of the best bargains on the graphics market right now, and is truly a worthy successor to GeForce4 Ti 4200.
SIDEBAR: Which GeForce FX 5900 XT board one the comparison in your eyes? Are you surprised so few boards offer hardware-monitoring support? Voice your thoughts in the news comments!