![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , September 29, 2003
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ABIT Siluro FX5900 OTES Review
A look at the new card from ABIT is based on the GeForceFX 5900 core and comes with a completely new OTES cooling solution. Let's see how it compares to the competition using current games.
Introduction:
ABIT has always been known to push the limits on hardware; creating new and unique ways of going about doing things. Either to make something easier such as pioneering jumperless motherboards or making voltage changes easily accessible in the BIOS or catering features directly for the hardcore community with overclocking in mind. And when it comes to overclocking one thing comes to mind right off the bat, and that is heat.
Heat is the one evil of overclocking that is very much on the forefront of everyone’s mind’s when pushing the hardware to the extreme. But, even if you aren’t an overclocker heat is a major concern with current high-end video cards.
As most of you probably already know the more transistors in a piece of silicon you have, the more heat it is going to put off. To put it simply, there is so much exchanging and switching of electricity going on inside the core of your video card that massive amounts of heat is given off. Today’s video cards have transistor counts that are in the 110 Million + range.
Die size is another issue that concerns heat dissipation. A .13 micron core has a smaller die size than a .15 micron core. This lessened physical size of the die means that there is less surface area for the heat to spread out to. So in essence you are cramming more transistors into a smaller package, and thus creating a smaller area for the heat to escape to. Albeit a .13 micron core requires less power to run than a higher micron core. This is why current high-end cards that are running at a high frequency require such extreme cooling measures.
Heat Pipe technology is one avenue that has been explored. First eVGA tried back in May, 2002. However, their implementation was, putting it nicely, not good at all. Where eVGA failed ABIT picked up the gauntlet and put the ABIT GF4 Ti 4200 OTES on our table. At that time it made perfect sense to add this type of cooling to a Ti 4200. OTES stood for Outside Thermal Exhaust System. It was a two slot design that pulled air from inside the case and exhausted it outside the case all with heatpipe technology. Here is a short description from that review on what heatpipe technology is: “A heatpipe is a hollow cylinder that contains liquid. Heat is absorbed in the evaporating section causing the fluid to come to a boil, which turns into vapor. Heat is then released from the upper part of the cylinder and the vapor condenses to a liquid. The liquid then returns by gravity to the lower part of the cylinder.” ABIT scored a homerun with the OTES system on the GF4 Ti 4200. It was a properly implemented system that did the job, and then some.
After that we really didn’t see anymore heatpipe implementations until the GeForceFX series was released with the GeForceFX 5800 Ultra. The reference design itself from NVIDIA required OTES-like heatpipe technology just to run at its default speed. It was an extremely hot GPU. Though once the NV35 GPU was announced that requirement was relaxed as better manufacturing led to a cooler GPU requiring a not so intrusive cooling system.
ABIT is not backing down however to lead innovations in cooling and providing the best way to get the most out of your hardware.
ABIT is targeting this video card directly at the hardware enthusiast gamer market. Their goal is to provide the gamer with better cooling that gives more overclocking options and a more silent computing environment. This is all wrapped up into a package called the Siluro FX5900 OTES.
ABIT claims that this cooling solution only puts out 25 decibels of sound, making for a very quite fan compared to some other solutions. OTES technology is still present with a two slot design providing heatpipe technology to draw the heat to the fins where the fan blows the heat outside of the case, helping to keep the inside of your case cooler.
To learn all about the OTES system on this card refer to this page at ABIT.
Hardware Specs:
- GPU Core : 400 MHz
- Memory Core: 850 MHz
- 300 million vertices/sec.
- AGP 8X with Fast Writes
- 128MB 256-bit DDR
- CineFX 2.0
- UltraShadow
- Intellisample HCT
- MPEG-2 Decoder
- RAMDACs at 400MHz
- TV-Out S-Video/Composite
- DVI-I
- OTES cooling system
Package Contents:
- Siluro FX5900 OTES 128MB 3D Graphics Accelerator Card
- CD Driver & SiluroDVD 4 Software
- Siluro Software Album CD: Soldier Fortune II Demo / WindowBlinds NV Edition / Earthviewer 3D Demo
- Adapter for S-Video & RCA TV-out Cable
- Composite (RCA) Cable
- S-Video Extended Cable
- Extra 4-pin Power Cable
- DVI to D-Sub Adapter
ABIT OTES FX5900:
The first thing you notice is the clear air duct system that has pieces overlapping each other in an accordion fashion. The heatsink is very large but actually made up of light weight aluminum so that it creates less strain on the GPU and PCB. The heatsink has large channels so that the airflow can move efficiently. There is also a large heatsink on the back helping to cool the back of the GPU.
Here you can see the back heatsink and how it is affixed to the back of the GPU.
The fan has 17 blades on it and are curved to produce maximum airflow but yet only produce 25 decibels of sound. There are also four blue LED that light up this whole system when the computer is on.
You will find the standard VGA port, DVI port and TV-out port on the card.
The length of the card measures in at 8.5” long. The width comes in at 4”. And remember it does take up two slots.
Above you can see how the LEDs light up the clear OTES system. In fact blue light will extend from the back of the card where the air exhausts as well.