The Geforce-FX 5900XT is arguably the best value card on the market at the moment. When we looked at our last 5900XT model we were more than impressed by its performance both at stock speeds and when overclocked. As with all Geforce models Gainward have released their take on the 5900XT. Today we take a look at that card and see if Gainward can further improve on the product.

The Card

As this is a Gainward golden sample model we would expect some excellent build quality and some changes to the recommended specifications. As the table below shows, the Ultra 1100XP doesn’t disappoint.

The card itself is based on the now standard (for Gainward) red PCB. The core is cooled by a small (and relatively quiet) fan/heatsink. The heatsink itself is highly polished and the ram is cooled by some ramsinks. TV-Out is supported and the card uses 1VGA and 1DVI port. As with all 5900 series cards a molex plug is required to power the card.

 

The card uses 128mb of 2.8ns memory all of which is on the front of the card. This means that the rear of the card is much less crammed than the front.

Where the Gainward 5900XT really differs from the reference specs is memory/core speeds. The Ultra 1100XP model is spec’d to run at 450mhz core and 780mhz memory. Here is how this compares to other 5900 Series cards:

Although the card is advertised at the above speeds in order to achieve them you are required to install the Gainward ExpertTool software. If you do not install this software the card will run at 390/680 unless manually overclocked.

Gainward don’t include more than the necessary with the 5900XT.
The bundle includes: WinDVD
Gainward Software
Svideo Cable
DVi-VGA convertor and Manual
Molex Splitter Cable

Test System:
AMD Athlon64 FX-53
Asus SK8N
2x512mb Corsair TwinX DDR3500 Supplied and thanks to www.corsairmicro.com
Sony CD300E DVD/CD writer
IBM Deskstar 120GXP 40Gb
AOC 19” Monitor
Geforce FX 5900 XT 128mb
Gainward FX 5900 XT 128mb / Ultra 1100XP – Golden Sample

Windows XP, SP1a
DirectX 9.0b
Detonator 56.64
Nforce Drivers 3.13
Need For Speed Underground
Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne
Call of Duty
FarCry
Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time
Command and Conquer Generals – Zero Hour
Unreal Tournament 2004
Colin McRae Rally 4 – Demo
Painkiller Demo

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed. Following the completion of the install the chipset drivers were installed. The only updates applied were SP1a and Direct X 9.0b. Following a reboot the Detonator drivers were installed. Next the benchmarking tools were installed and finally the hard drive was de-fragmented.
For all tests the drivers were set to best image quality and all recent game patches were applied

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Where possible each benchmark was performed 3 times and the middle result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables which follow. After changing any Anti-Aliasing (AA) or Anisotropic Filtering (AF) setting and before a benchmark was run the system was rebooted. All games/applications had their latest patches applied.

 

Next: Max Payne 2

Select 1. Introduction 2. Max Payne 2 3. Need For Speed Underground 4. Prince Of Persia 5. Call Of Duty 6. FarCry 7. Generals 8. Colin McRae 4 9. Painkiller 10. UT2004 11. AA/AF Performance 12. Screenshots 13. Overclocking 14. Conclusion