Date:
Thursday , October 23, 2003
Author:
Brent Justice
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
Google +1

GeForceFX 5950 Ultra PREview

A preview of NVIDIA’s new flagship video gaming GPU. We take their reference GFFX 5950Ultra and show you performance compared to the competition in a way that we never have before. Real games, real Image Quality, real frame rates.

Introduction:

NVIDIA is debuting two new additions to their video card lineup: the GeForceFX 5950Ultra and the GeForceFX 5700Ultra. The GeForceFX 5950Ultra is the GPU we are previewing here today with hands on gameplay evaluation. We are calling this a "preview" as the board we are testing with does not represent a retail product, but is a refernce card from NVIDIA. We will be writing up a separate review on a retail 5700Ultra from BFG Technologies to be published next week.

The GeForceFX 5950Ultra:

Article Image Article Image

There are some key features that NVIDIA wants you to know about this card. It does operate with 30GB/sec of memory bandwidth. This compares to the GFFX 5900 Ultra, which operates at 27.2GB/sec of memory bandwidth. This is the first graphics card to reach such a high level of memory bandwidth. However, as we move into more shader intensive games it will be interesting to see how much of a role memory bandwidth plays. Another feature is that it will be equipped with 256MB of RAM; this is the same as the 5900 Ultra. The core architecture is based on that of the NV35, therefore it supports the CineFX 2.0 engine and everything that entails.

For a deeper look into the NV3X itself, please feel free to check out our 5800 (NV30) and 5900 (NV35) reviews. We see no sense in regurgitating the same information here again as little has changed outside clock speeds.

The GFFX 5950Ultra runs at 475MHz core speed and 475MHz (950MHz DDR) memory speed. The GFFX 5900Ultra runs at 450MHz core speed and 425MHz (850MHz DDR) memory speed. That isn’t exactly a big increase in core speed. In fact, its competition the Radeon 9800XT received a larger increase, 32MHz, over its predecessor the Radeon 9800 Pro. The GeForceFX 5950Ultra does have a specification advantage with its higher memory, but we shall have to see how that helps gameplay performance.

Article Image Article Image Article Image Article Image Article Image

The cooling solution is a silent, dual-slot heatsink and fan unit. We can attest to its quietness. However, one issue is very evident with this design. It takes air in through the back of the case and exhausts it inside your case. This means hot dusty air is getting ported into your PC. Now at first this seems like a truly bad solution, but if you look at the big picture, what are all other video cards doing? They are trying to cool our video cards with already warm air and heating up the case even more. The new cooling solution does have its merits beyond what might be assumed at first glance. On an even brighter side, the 5950 heatsink is made out of aluminum and is much lighter than the 5900Ultra and even the 9800XT's heavy copper solution.

The dual-slot design automatically rules this card out for most of those with Small Form Factor cases as well.

Article Image Article Image Article Image

Above you can see it compared to the 5900Ultra and the 9800XT. The 5950Ultra and 5900Ultra are the same size while being a bit larger than our 9800XT.

So to recap, the GeForceFX 5950Ultra has received a core MHz increase, a memory frequency increase, and a redesigned thermal solution when compared to the GFFX 5900Ultra.