![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , January 19, 2004
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Albatron FX5900PV Review
The GeForceFX 5900s are out in force. With many different variations available, each company is creating new and unique designs to get your attention. We have Albatron’s latest on the testbench today.
Introduction:
Albatron is relatively new in the world of video graphics. Actually the company can be traced back to 1984 where it was founded in Taipei, Taiwan and known as Chun Yun Electronics which promoted a line of high resolution TV’s and multimedia monitors. Working up from that date Chun Yun Electronics excelled in producing high-end displays and expanding their business. In 2002 they changed their name to Albatron Technology and established a new office in Chung Ho City, Taipei.
Under their new focus of Albatron Technology they setup divisions to design and manufacture motherboards, communication products and graphics cards. They also became an NVIDIA certified vendor and have a huge lineup of video cards all the way from the TNT2 up to the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra. Among this lineup they have many variations of video cards being offered based on the same GPUs but tailored for different types of users.
For example with the GeForceFX 5900 GPU they have four different video cards being offered.
FX5900 Turbo – Runs at 410 MHz core and 850 MHz 256MB RAM. It has VGA Out, DVI and VIVO (Video-In/Video Out). It comes with Power DVD and Power Director Software as well as a 3D game pack.
FX5900PV – Runs at 400 MHz core and 850 MHz 128MB RAM. It has VGA Out, DVI and VIVO (Videon-In/Video-Out). It comes with Power DVD and Power Director Software as well as a 3D game pack.
FX5900EPV – Runs at 405 MHz core and 810 MHz 128MB RAM. It has VGA Out, DVI and VIVO (Video-In/Video-Out). It comes with Power DVD and Power Director Software as well as a 3D game pack.
FX5900CP – Runs at 400 MHz core and 700 MHz 128MB RAM. It has VGA Out, DVI but lacks VIVO. It comes with WIN DVD Creator and a 3D game pack.
Don’t let the 256MB of RAM on the FX5900 Turbo fool you, that card is not the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra. The GFFX 5900 Ultra GPU is handled by their video card model FX5900UV with 256MB of RAM and a 450 MHz core speed and 850 MHz memory speed.
It would appear that the main difference between each type of card is simply the core and memory speed. The Turbo card has the added advantage of 256MB of RAM and a core that is clocked only 10 MHz higher than the PV card. The EPV card is odd in that it has a core clocked only 5 MHz higher than the PV card but the memory is slower at 810 MHz. The CP card seems to be the lesser of all the cards with a much slower memory clock and no VIVO feature.
The card we have for review today is the FX5900PV which has 128MB of RAM and is clocked at 400/850 for 3D.
Here is a quick specification list for the FX5900PV:
Graphics Engine – GeForceFX 5900 .13u
Core Speed - 400 MHz
Memory Speed - 850 MHz
Memory Bus – 256bit
Max Resolution – 2048x1536@85Hz
Bus – AGP 8X/4X
VGA Out
DVI Out
VIVO
CineFX 2.0 Engine supports DirectX9.0 & OpenGL1.4
NVIDIA Intellisample High-resolution Compression Technology
NVIDIA UltraShadow Technology
RAMDACs 400MHz
Supports nView Technology
Albatron FX5900PV:
The complete product package is shown above.
Everything is packaged up in a very sleek carrying case. The Wise Fan technology is explained on the back of the product box piece. It also lists how much sound the fans put off. 25 dBA is what one fan on this card produces, which compares to a standard FX5900 fan of >40 dBA.
As you can see the Albatron FX5900PV heatsink plate shape suggests a bird or Albatross. The PCB is exactly 8.5 inches long and takes up only one slot.
The heatsink is a copper/aluminum cooling system with three fans. In normal operational mode only two fans spin. If one fan fails then the backup third fan kicks in so that there are always two fans going at once. This is their dubbed “Wise Fan” technology. You can see the circuit board that makes this happen when you open up the heatsink.
There was a generous application of thermal paste on the core and memory as you can see above. The RAM is Hynix HY5DU283222AF-22 which is rated at 2.2ns (450 MHz). So we do have a little overclocking room with the memory since the default memory speed is 425 MHz.
There is a bright blue LED in the middle of the card that aluminates while the card is on. VGA Out, DVI-Out and VIVO capabilities are included with this card. There is an adapter which gives you S-Video and Composite out and in.