The Cards:

PNY Verto Geforce FX 5900 128mb

The 5900 from PNY closely follows the 5900 Ultra reference design from Nvidia, there are 2 minor improvements over the reference design. The first is that the PCB rather than being green is a dark aquamarine colour. The second is that despite the cooler being a 2 slot design the bracket used to secure the card to the case is only a 1 slot design. The reason for this is that unlike the Ultra which has 256mb , 128mb on the rear with the large ramsink, the non ultra has no ram on the back and its 128mb and cooling are located on the front. This has the immediate benefit that the card is much lighter than the Ultra.

The bundle provided with the PNY card contains the usual cables and software and provides 2 games, Morrowind and its expansion pack – Tribuneral. A good all-round bundle however nothing exceptional.

Hercules 3d Prophet 9800

The Hercules card uses their now expected Blue PCB, as with the 9800 Pro model we reviewed in the past this model also features the copper heatsink and ramsinks (back and front) as well as the blue led fan which lights up your case when the system is turned on

As well as the various cables Hercules provide Power DVD XP and the full version of Vietcong for you to show off your new hardware.

Installation.

PNY:
As the PNY card closely follows the reference PCB from Nvidia it is affected by the same concerns in our test system. Those being that it overhangs the IDE connectors on the test systems NF7-S and the closeness to the Dimm clips at the rear of the card. Additionally the 2 slot fan overhangs the connectors on the board between the AGP slot and first PCI.

The above image was taken without the Abit serillel adaptor and Geforce power cord being installed. When both were used the space was very tight at the rear of the card/drive. As there is no ramsink on the rear of the card it was much lighter than a 5900Ultra we tested in the past and therefore created less strain on the AGP slot.

Hercules:
The Hercules card was easily installed in the test system, because of its smaller size than the PNY card and single slot cooling there were no concerns with overhanging components or interference from the IDE slots/Dimm clips and rear of the hard drive.

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