GeForceFX 5600 Ultra PC XFX $189.99 Click Here Sean Gibson - email

Introduction

XFX is a company that swept the market off it's collective feet with their introductory line of GeForce4 video cards. They had a vicious edge that the competition took a quick note of. With fantastic packaging and a bundle that catered exactly to the people they were aiming for - gamers - they were able to rack up THREE NextGen Electronics Editor's Choice Awards in 2002.

Now, the GeForceFX line is out, and XFX has come back to the market with their line of cards that offer much of the same type of fun that their GeForce4 line did - a great bundle, a good looking card, and a fantastic looking box.

technology

Powered by the same advanced technology and features as the 5800 GPUs, the GeForce FX 5600 delivers studio-quality color and amazing cinematic gaming effects, without breaking the bank.

Below is a comparison chart between the GeForceFX 5600 and 5600 Ultra.

Designed for DirectX 9 and utilizing the NVIDIA CineFX engine, GeForce FX 5600 GPUs guarantee powerful 3D experiences, with blazingly fast performance. So with the Ultra version of this card, you're getting a more powerful card that offers fasters performance.

Specifications & Features

nVIDIA, with it's GeForceFX line, is trying to reclaim it's mastery of the gamer market. Although the FX line has some hiccups with early release boards, the 5600 Ultra is really the mid-ranged price efficient package of the video card industry. Let's get into the specs...

CineFX Engine
Powers cinematic effects beyond imagination. With advanced vertex and pixel shader capabilities, stunning and complex special effects are possible. In addition, increased horsepower delivers faster and smoother gameplay.

High-Precision Graphics
By combining the incredible dynamic range of today's state-of-the-art 3D motion pictures with 128-bit studio-precision color, the GeForce FX GPUs bring you the industry’s best image quality for the most demanding applications.

CineFX Engine
Powers cinematic effects beyond imagination. With advanced vertex and pixel shader capabilities, stunning and complex special effects are possible. In addition, increased horsepower delivers faster and smoother gameplay.

nView Multi-display Technology
The nView hardware and software technology combination delivers maximum flexibility for multi-display options, and provides unprecedented end-user control of the desktop experience. NVIDIA GPUs are enabled to support multi-displays, but graphics cards vary.

AGP 8X
Provides double the bandwidth of AGP 4X—2.1GB/sec. vs. 1.1BG/sec. AGP 8X enables more complex models and detailed textures, creating richer and more lifelike environments. Uninterrupted data flow allows for smoother video streaming and faster, more seamless gameplay.

Digital Vibrance Control (DVC)
Allows the user to adjust color controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colors in all conditions.

Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Guarantees forward and backward compatibility with software drivers. Simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software.

Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Optimizations and Support
Ensures the best performance and application compatibility for all DirectX 9 applications.

OpenGL® 1.4 Optimizations and Support
Ensures the best performance and application compatibility for all OpenGL applications.

400MHz RAMDACs
Industry’s fastest RAMDACs support QXGA displays with ultra-high, ergonomic refresh rates.

DVI Support
Able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays with up to 1600x1200 resolution.

Integrated TV Encoder
Provides best-of-class TV-out functionality for resolutions up to 1024x768.

Integrated Full Hardware MPEG-2 Decoder
Delivers full-frame, full-screen MPEG-2 video on your desktop.

New 64-phase Video Scaler
Highest quality for scaling DVD and other video to full-screen HDTV resolutions.

Architected for Cg
Ensures that the newest, cutting-edge special effects in applications will run flawlessly. Speeds up content creation so game developers can get their new games out to PC users faster than ever before.
The industry’s fastest and highest quality antialiasing delivers ultra-realistic visuals, with no jagged edges, at lightning-fast speeds.

Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Guarantees forward and backward compatibility with software drivers. Simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software.

XFX has put together a fantastic bundle for nVIDIA fans everywhere. There's a ton of good software here, all the cables you'll ever need, and of course, the bang-for-your-buck GeForceFX 5600 Ultra board.

Test System

Test System Specifications:
- AMD 2100+XP Processor
- GigaByte GA-700N nForce2 Motherboard
- 512 MB RAM
- Windows XP
- DirectX 9.0

We used the following benchmarking utilities to the fullest:

- 3DMark 03
- AquaMark 3 (just released!)
- Gunmetal 2
- Quake III (32-bit color, everything maxed out)

3DMark 03 benchmark

3DMark 03 is the latest installment in the popular 3DMark series. 3DMark03 sets the new standard for easily and objectively measuring and comparing modern PCs’ 3D graphics performance. It supports the latest Microsoft DirectX9.0 and contains four new mind blowing real-time 3D game tests as well as advanced DirectX9.0 feature tests.



Showing the breakdown on the numbers...

Aquamark 3 Benchmark

AquaMark3 is a powerful tool to determine reliable information about the gaming performance of a computer system. Because the benchmark extensively utilizes DirectX9, DirectX8 and DirectX7 functionality, it represents the requirements of typical gaming applications in 2003 and 2004. The "total scores" benchmarking results:



Showing the breakdown on the numbers...

AquaMark3 demonstrates that the card doesn't come face-to-face with the higher end cards. It should be noted however that the GeForce4 Ti 4600 card scored just over a 2,000 for the GFX score, which shows that this card once again is a great upgrade over the last generation.

Quake III benchmark

If you haven't heard of the Quake III benchmark, well, come out of your hole. It's a decent benchmark that's increasingly becoming obsolete, but nevertheless good for checking out what new cards offer against the old.

At 1280x1024 resolution level , numbers represent Frames Per Second (higher is better!) ...



And at the much more impressive 1600x1200 resolution level , numbers represent Frames Per Second (higher is better) ...

Gun Metal Benchmark 2

We used the latest Gun Metal Benchmark 2 version 1.20S and used the default quality settings of the benchmark. This equates to 2XAA was enabled by the game and AF was disabled. We tested at 1024x768. This benchmark is one that seems to be wavering in popularity because it's rumored to heavily favor nVIDIA chipset cards, but we wanted to see how things performed ... so ...



Once again we're seeing XFX GeForceFX 5600 Ultra from perform admirably against cards well above it in hardware and price ranges.

Overclocking

Well , we were just dying to see what kind of ridiculous score we could get on 3DMark 03 by overclocking this sucker. Unfortunately more times than not 3D Mark 03 has yielded ... well ... inconsistent results. However for the sake of argument and to satisfy this reviewer's curiosity, lets look at the numbers.

XFX GeForceFX 5600 Ultra Score: 3203

XFX GeForceFX 5600 Ultra Overclocked Score: 3609

That's a very nice increase. The settings:

conclusion

XFX has put together a real nice solution for people wanting to upgrade to the GeForceFX line of video cards, and not break their budgets doing it. It's important for gamers as well as people utilizing things like Adobe Premiere Pro and the next generation of computer graphics programs to upgrade to video cards that specifically have DirectX 9.0 in mind. There's a big performance difference! What really shocked me is that I stepped into a retail computer store (I know, I suck ... and the place was called CompUSSR or something...) perusing around for what seems to be hot and new. They were featuring some no-name brand nVidia manufacturer and were selling the GeForceFX 5200 Ultra for the same price THIS card goes for. Don't be a fool - get the better card from the better vendor - XFX has done a remarkable job placing the right product at the right price.

The bundle included is nice, as you get all the cables you'll need for this card, as well as the VGA to DVI adapter. There's a manual in there, but if you can't figure it out on your own you might be completely daft. Installing the card is a snitch, and XFX even recommends hitting up the nVIDIA website to download the latest drivers for the card for optimum performance.

Speaking frankly, I like the bundle because it didn't have extra games left and right. A bundle is good if you're only going to actually USE the products in there. I liked how XFX has put what you need and lowered the cost to consumers - a good move.

It looks like the buys at XFX have done it again with a fantastic solution for people looking to upgrade to the nVidia GeForceFX line of product. This 5600 Ultra card performed well against card priced $150+ more and is a sleek and useful tool in gaming performance. This card comes highly recommended for purchase.

9 / 10 OVERALL SCORE 96% 10 / 10 10 / 10 10 / 10 9 / 10 9.6 / 10