Introduction:

Some time has passed since we have last seen a new video card from nVidia. Their last top of the line product was released over 6 months ago, and only got a small "upgrade" just recently. The Geforce 4 Ti4600 (Ti4800 in the shops now, a Ti4600 with AGP 8x support) was the fastest video card available at the time of its release. But the competition was not idling either, only a few months later ATI released the Radeon 9700 Pro. The Radeon series had already tried to take over the performance crown from nVidia before, but the Radeon 8500 just fell short of a victory against the Geforce 3 Ti500. But in the last quarter of 2002 ATI struck back and scored a win with the Radeon 9700 Pro. It blew the competition away with high performance and great image quality, the driver support team of ATI also chipped in and released a unified driver package (much like nVidia's detonator drivers) to deliver error free gaming pleasures to the masses.

Geforce FX 5800 Ultra

Since then the world has been waiting for the reaction of nVidia. When they announced their Geforce FX and its specifications a lot of people believed that they had a winner on their hands. Let’s take a look at those specs:

Graphics chip: NV30

Manufacturing: 0.13-micron

Number of transistors: ~125 million

GPU clock: 500 MHz

Memory clock: 1000 MHz / 15.6 GB/s

Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fill rate: 4 / 2000 MP/s

Ramdac: (2) 400 MHz

Memory size: 128 MB

Memory type : 128-bit, DDR-II

You instantly notice the insane high memory clock! DDR II technology delivers blistering fast memory and high bandwidth for the Geforce FX. The GPU clock has also been "upgraded" to an impressive 500Mhz!
On paper this card is the best thing around, AGP 8x support, 2x 400Mhz RAMdac for superior 2D performance and quality, support for almost all DX9 features.

Radeon 9700 Pro

What does the Radeon 9700 Pro have to counter this, a quick recap of its well known specs:

Graphics chip: R300

Manufacturing: 0.15-micron

Number of transistors: ~110 million

GPU clock: 325 MHz

Memory clock: 310 MHz / 19.8 GB/s

Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fill rate: 8 / 2600 MP/s

Ramdac: (2) 400 MHz

Memory size: 128 MB

Memory type : 256-bit, DDR

Although both the GPU and Memory clocks are a lot lower then those of the Geforce FX, it still manages to deliver an impressive 19.8 GB/s bandwidth for the memory!

Geforce 4 Ti4200

In this article I'll be comparing the Geforce FX to the older Geforce 4 Ti4200 (64Mb version) and see if it is worth upgrading. The Specs sheet for the GF4 Ti4200 64Mb:

Graphics chip: NV25

Manufacturing: 0.15-micron

Number of transistors: ~63 million

GPU clock: 250 MHz

Memory clock: 500 MHz / 8 GB/s

Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fill rate: 4 / 900 MP/s

Ramdac: (2) 350 MHz

Memory size: 64 MB

Memory type : 128-bit, DDR

Modest specifications that should normally give you okay performance in everyday gaming.

Read on to find out how Gainward delivers their version of the Geforce FX…

Gainward Geforce FX 5800 Ultra:

This card comes in a huge box, it is stuffed with all kinds of extra's. But you do pay for them. In Belgium the retail price is approx. €700. Is it worth it? Thanks to PointerX I am able to find out. He let me put this fine piece of craftsmanship through a couple of quick benchmarks!

The card

I hope you like the colour, at least you can say that it's mighty flashy!



The backside is covered by a huge heat spreader, guess that DDR-II memory needs lots of chilling



As with the Radeon 9700 Pro, this video card claims a power connector from your PSU, nVidia chose to go with the 4-pin connector and Gainward provided a splitter in the box so that you won't lose any connectors




The Y-Power-Cable splitter

Flow-FX

Flow-FX is nVidia buzz-word for their cooling system. Both the GPU and memory get hot really fast and in order to keep the FX from crashing due to overheating they had to design a larger heat sink/fan setup. This ended up in a grotesque and loud system that takes up a whole PCI Slot on your motherboard:



It is far from perfect, it is loud, only the front of the card is actively cooled, the back however also gets hot quickly and having a fan in the side-panel of your case is no longer a luxury with this video card. The Gainward FX features onboard temperature sensors for both ambient and GPU temps. Of course these results need to be taken with a grain of salt, as we don’t know how accurate this information is.

The installed Sunon fan on the Gainward FX has the following characteristics



Power Current: 0.18 AMP
Power Consumption: 2.2 WATTS
Speed: 5600 RPM
Airflow: 6.2 CFM
Noise: 44.6 dBA

If you think 44.6 dBA is silent, you thought wrong! (A 60mm Delta fan running at 6000rpm produces ~40 dBA)

The fan is placed on this massive copper heat sink that covers the FX GPU:



The backplane is held in place with metal clips which can be quite easily removed using a screwdriver:



Thermal grease has been applied on all the DDR-II memory chips for optimal heat transferral:







How does it perform?

Room Temp: 21°C

Temperature during desktop/2d work:
Ambient: 37°C
GPU: 42°C

Temperature during 3D Gaming:
Ambient: 43°C
GPU: 54°C

The results might not seem extreme, but this was measured in a well ventilated room in a case with good airflow. Placing this card in a closed case without case fans will surely up the card's temperature by a good margin.

Lets see how it compares in dimensions to the Geforce 4 graphics card line-up from nVidia...

FX vs Ti

Exactly how big is this card? When the Geforce 4 was released we saw an increase of the size of the PCB compared to the GF3 and GF2



Well the FX has the same length as the Geforce 4 Ti4600, the Ti4200 however is a bit smaller:





Of course it is alot higher "thanks" to the Flow-FX:





As we mentioned before, it take up a PCI slot when installed



This card is big, both in length as in width, installing it into a mini case will cause problems for the airflow, so be sure to have the room for it in your case.

What else is in the box? The next page will tell you…

Gainward's Goodies:

Gainward delivers this Geforce FX with a truckload of hardware! Not only do you find the Geforce FX in the box (duh!) but also the following items:

A 5.1-soundcard with an onboard chip from C-Media, it features a Digital In/Out, Game/Midi-port and a Coaxial In/Out.

What's a soundcard without.. yes indeed: headphones



They stick right into your ear, but the sound quality is nothing to be impressed about. I had to turn the volume way up to be able to hear the music or game sounds. This sort of headphone would have suited more if you were to take your FX on your bike and listen to the music while peddling around. But for long periods of use (LAN party) these things just can’t be used comfortably

The FX features a S-Video out and using this plug you can go coaxial too

For those who fancy dual monitor setups, Gainward has provided a DVI->VGA converter in the same colour scheme as the rest of the card

What does a Fire wire card have to do with a video card you might think? Well... "Video"-editing = "Video"-card? :)
A nice welcome to the whole bundle and it also includes a Fire wire cable to connect to any DV capable device

last but not least you get a collection of software and drivers to make the package a nice whole. Video editing software and Duke Nukem Manhattan project (to stress the FX for sure ;) ) are also present in the CD-bundle.

Enough with the chit-chat, how does it perform compared to the ATI and Ti4200, find out on the next page...

Test System:

As I only had a short period of testing time with the Geforce FX I used only one resolution (1024x768x32bit) and three popular benchmark games/products. Expect a more thorough benchmark portfolio in the near future of the FX in the common resolutions and AA/AF settings!

XP1700+ @ 1666Mhz

Abit KR7A

Corsair 256Mb PC3200

The system was installed with Windows XP SP1, DirectX 9.0.
The nVidia cards were tested with the Detonator 43.45 drivers
The ATI card was tested with the Catalyst 3.2 drivers

All tests were run without AA or AF and used the normal quality/performance settings in the drivers options (default)

Afterwards I re-ran the tests with the GF Ti4200 but upped the speed of the CPU to 2066Mhz (XP2600+)!

The Benchmarks

OpenGL test:

This benchmark depends a lot on the GPU power, at 1024x768 resolution it seems the FX is able
to beat the competition, when we increase it to 1600x1200 we see the Ti4200 fall behind and
increasing the CPU speed has almost no effect on the outcome here


Direct3D test:

The Radeon dominates the low FPS chart, on 2 out of 3 tests we see the Geforce FX
even fall behind the Ti4200. Overclocking the CPU has strangely enough no positive
impact on the results of the low FPS test


Again we see the Ti4200 keep up with the FX/9700Pro power.
And overclocking the CPU gives the Ti4200 the edge over the FX in 2/3 tests!


In every test we see the Radeon 9700 Pro come out first with a small but noticeable margin,
the Ti4200 in combination with the overclocked CPU takes the lead in 2/3 high FPS tests

3DMark2001:

The 3DMark2001 benchmark is pretty CPU dependant and we should see a good increase in the scores of the Ti4200 when we overclock the AXP to XP2600+ speeds.

Overall score

A respectable score from the Ti4200, with the XP2000+ / GF4 setup you are able
to play all the latest games at 1024x768x32bit!

Detail scores

A very CPU dependant test, that explains the 160+fps result the Ti4200/XP2600+,
worse however is the score from the FX which takes the last spot in the chart


Cars and FX don't mix? Might well be because it takes last place again!


Here we see the GPU power being more important, the FX trails the R9700Pro with ~15fps


The same scenario as with the low quality test.
The difference between the 2 power GPU's is reduced to 10fps, still in favour of the ATI



With the CPU speed at 1666Mhz all the results are evenly matched, with a small "win" for the R9700 Pro.
Boosting the CPU speed makes the Ti4200 the high FSP champ in this test



All very closely matched, at 1024x768 all video cards end up with +/- the same results



The only test were we see the FX take the lead comfortably, as this test plays a big role
in the calculation for the final points, we can see why it got ~2000 marks more
then the Ti4200/XP2600+ setup although the last outperformed it in most tests

Conclusion:


Do you hear that? That is the sound of a bandwagon rolling away, and guess who didn’t jump on it…

While the performance of the Geforce FX can hardly be called bad, it just does not impress. Overall it has difficulty keeping up with the competition ATI delivers and on some occasions even the older Ti4200 is able to beat it.
If this video card were to be priced less then the Radeon 9700 Pro, then maybe it could stand a chance in the current video market.

The upcoming NV35 is rumoured to perform up to 20% faster then the NV30, if this is true and they are able to keep competitive pricing with ATI's R9800Pro, then nVidia might win the performance crown back. For now this belongs to ATI and their fine Radeon 9700Pro/9800Pro video cards line-up.

Here's what I think of the Gainward Geforce FX 5800 Ultra:

Good performance
Supports DX9
Dual Monitor & Video-Out support
Lots of extra's (Firewire/Soundcard/Headphones)
Very high price
Performance not on par with competition
Takes up PCI slot
Loud cooling
Headphones are low budget
the colour, not really "cool"

I would like to thank PointerX for giving me the opportunity to test this video card. If you have any questions/remarks (or want to comment on the fact that my ear looks out of shape) you can drop them off at our forums right in this thread here (no registration required)