Date:
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Author:
Brent Justice
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Gainward GeForceFX 5900

A GeForceFX that's thin, quiet AND fast? We show you the Gainward card that fills the middle slot (and only one slot) of the GFFX line up.

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Test Setup:

ABIT IC7-G (i875p), Intel Pentium 4 3GHz “C” operating at 800MHz FSB, 2 X 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200LL TwinX Dual Channel DDR400, Maxtor 40GB ATA/133, Windows XP Professional SP1 with DirectX 9.0a.

Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1200 XP 128MB Golden Sample - Operating at 400/850, 440/900, and 480/950 using driver version 44.03.

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB – Operating at default speeds (380/680MHz) using driver version Catalyst 3.4.

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra - Operating at 450/850 using driver 44.03.

We compared the Gainward GFFX 5900 128MB to a 256MB 5900 Ultra and a 128MB 9800 Pro, so that you get to see how it compares to the Ultra part as well as the ATI equivalent.

Unreal Tournament 2003:

A full installation of Unreal Tournament 2003 with patch 2225 was used. For our tests, we're using our own UT2003 Benchmarking utility version 2.1. Resolutions of 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200 were tested in Direct3D High Quality mode in Antalus, and Inferno. Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic levels are noted where necessary.

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In the first graph above we have the Antalus flyby demo running at 1024x768. Simply looking at the graph it looks like all the cards are actually pretty close to each other in terms of performance throughout each quality setting. When we look down at the chart we can better decipher what the scores are. With NoAA/NoAF the 9800 Pro is trailing and the Gainward card overclocked leads the pack slightly. At these performance numbers though every card is plenty fast to play without AA and AF at this resolution. Once we enabled AA and AF then we really start to test these cards. At 2XAA/8XAF the 9800 Pro leads over the Gainward 5900 at reference speeds and enhanced speeds, but once the Gainward 5900 is overclocked to its maximum overclock it does finally edge out ahead of the 9800 Pro. The 5900 Ultra is faster than the Gainward 5900 at Safe Mode and Enhanced Speeds, but not as fast when the Gainward 5900 is overclocked to its max. This same trend holds true at 4X AA as well.

The 9800 Pro cannot do 6XS AA, only the GeForceFX cards can, so in that column the GFFX numbers are running 6XS mode and the 9800 Pro is running at 6X mode. Interestingly enough, the 9800 Pro’s 6X mode is much better IQ wise compared to the 6XS mode of the GeForceFX cards.

Also in these graphs we have put the percentage decrease of the Gainward 5900 card at its Safe Mode setting so that you can see how much of a hit in performance it takes going up through each quality setting.

At 1280x1024 we start to see more stress as the quality settings increase. With NoAA/NoAF we are riding high above the 100FPS mark with all cards overclocked or not. Once we enable 2XAA/8XAF we see a 48% decline in performance and we jump down below 100FPS. What it looks like here is that the 9800 Pro is faster than the Gainward 5900 in Safe and Enhanced Mode, but once we overclock the 5900 to the max then it edges out on top. The 5900 Ultra is also faster than the 9800 Pro and the Gainward 5900 in Safe and Enhanced Mode. The same holds true at 6XSAA and 8XAA.

At 1600x1200 the Gainward 5900 and NVIDIA 5900 Ultra would not run at 6XSAA/8XAF or 8XAA/8XAF correctly. It would downgrade to 4XAA at these two settings. With NoAA/NoAF we see the 9800 Pro now trailing, with the Gainward 5900 on top. But once 2X and 4X AA and 8XAF are enabled they switch places with the 9800 Pro being faster than the Gainward 5900 in Safe and Enhanced mode. The 5900 Ultra is faster until you overclock the Gainward to its maximum overclock.

In 1024x768 all modes on the Gainward 5900 are of a high enough FPS for smooth gameplay except for maybe 8XAA/8XAF. In 1280x1024 it looks like 6XS and 8XAA/8XAF are not of a high enough FPS for smooth gameplay. At 1600x1200, according to these benchmarks, it looks like only 2XAA/8XAF would be playable.

To sum up these three resolutions in Antalus, it looks like the 5900 Ultra is faster than the Gainward 5900 in Safe and Enhanced Mode. It also looks like the 9800 Pro is faster than the Gainward 5900 in Safe and Enhanced Modes, especially with AA and AF enabled. However, that being the case, the difference in FPS really isn’t that far apart.