Overclocking:

The Gainward 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample comes clocked (in 3d mode) at 450Mhz Core and 850Mhz Ram. As this is a Golden Sample Gainward guarantee enhanced speeds without any concerns. In the case of the Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample these enhanced speeds are 470mhz core and 890mhz Ram. These can be accessed through Gainwards overclocking and tweaking software – Expertool.

Changing from normal to enhanced speeds is just a case of clicking a button!

Through use of other Geforce cards we have discovered the most reliable way to find the maximum overclocks is to use the coolbits registry hack and run the auto detect feature. Running coolbits on the Gainward 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample found a maximum overclock of 503/961. Even at this high level the card never went above 65 degrees!

Surprisingly however this massive overclock did not gain the card to many FPS in 3dmark or UT2003, the changes were as follows:

3dmark2003	Score
5900U 450/850	5494 Marks
5900U 503/961	5705 Marks

Unreal Tournament 1600x1200 0xAA 0xAF

Enhanced clocks…

As mentioned in the overclocking section the Gainward Golden Sample is guaranteed to run faster than most 5900Ultras. In this case 470/890. Gainward have informed us that this speed can be used for all 3D use, not just in overclocking situations. A nice extra for the power user.

Here is how the performance is increased with the enhanced settings in 3DMark03:

Standard (below)

Enhanced (below)

The 100points difference in 3dmark03 is just enough to warrant the use of the enhanced settings and you can expect to see increases across all games and applications. A nice bonus for free!

Conclusion

Our initial impressions of the Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample were not good, infact the card based on the reference design from our first review was a major disappointment. Having used Gainwards own design card the overall opinion is much better. Of all the Geforce FX 5900 series cards we have seen this is visually the most impressive. The heatsink and fans are very nicely styled and the red LED’s that light up in the centre of each fan add that extra touch of class. The card itself is very solid and feels like it’s made with quality components. The benefits of a single slot cooler are huge, especially with more and more people heading down the route of Shuttle style PC’s. If you’re in the market for a whole new system there is a lot to be said for Gainwards hardware bundle, it could save you a lot of shopping round for separate components.

As huge as the hardware bundle is the Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample’s retail box is lacking in software. With almost every other high end video card you receive 1-4 free games. With the Gainward you receive none. Having said that the DVD software provided with the 1600XP Golden Sample does provide full 5.1 surround sound output, where as most bundled DVD software from other companies is stereo only.

In our original review we criticised Gainward as a company for being unhelpful and unprofessional. At this time we would like to withdraw that comment in its entirety. The service and communication from Gainward over the last few weeks has been exceptional.

Based on the test results shown in this review the Radeon 9800 Pro comes out on top, especially the forward looking tests such as Aquamark3 and Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness. For this reason we cannot recommend the Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample over the Radeon 9800 Pro. We can however recommend that if you are looking to buy a Geforce FX for whatever reason and a Radeon is not an option then the Gainward Geforce FX 5900 Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample is the only way to go.