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Gigabyte R96X and NV57U Review

Step inside as we take a look at Gigabyte’s latest mainstream cards the R96X (9600XT) and N57U (5700U). We pit them head to head examining gameplay experience in eight games with some surprising results.

Introduction:

These are the first video cards we have reviewed from Gigabyte Technology. So let’s take a quick look into their background. Gigabyte Technology was founded in 1986. Gigabyte Technology is currently a worldwide operation with offices in the U.S.A., Europe, Russia, China, Taiwan, Japan and even Australia. You have probably heard of the Gigabyte brand mostly being associated with motherboards. While motherboards are a big part of Gigabyte and a product they have been very successful with, motherboards are not the only piece of hardware they excel at. Gigabyte Technology has a broad product scope with a variety or products including Desktop PCs, Mini PCs, Displays, Peripherals, Servers, Communications, Motherboards and our primary focus today, Graphics Accelerators.

Gigabyte Technology has had an interesting history when it comes to what video cards they were offering. Back before 2002 Gigabyte only produced NVIDIA based video cards. Their “Thundra” product line consisted of GeForce3 Ti200/500 based cards. Then something happened in late 2001 when ATI released the Radeon 8500. Relations between Gigabyte and NVIDIA became unstable. In early 2002 Gigabyte switched to only producing ATI based video cards. For the next year Gigabyte solely produced ATI based cards. Then nearly a year and a half later in October of 2003 Gigabyte announced a renewed partnership with NVIDIA to manufacture new NVIDIA based cards. So here we are today and Gigabyte is among many others that now offer a brand for both ATI and NVIDIA based video cards.

Gigabyte’s complete list of current graphics cards are listed here. As you can see they start the list at the top with the enthusiast level cards from NVIDIA and move down the scale. There are two very different brand names here. On the NVIDIA side the Gigabyte Phoenus N Series Graphic Accelerators make up the complete product name. There is even a webpage here dedicated to the Phoenus herself. Phoenus according to this page is the synthesis of Phoenix and Venus. There is a flash presentation and wallpapers that are downloadable. The ATI branded cards have more of a pyramid scheme with the quote “New VGA Empire”.

Today we have Gigabyte’s offerings in the mainstream market, the GV-N57U128D based on NVIDIA’s GeForceFX 5700Ultra and the GV-R96X128D based on ATI’s Radeon 9600XT.

GV-N57U128D:

Phoenus is presented proudly on the front of the GFFX 5700U box. The back of the box goes over some of the main feature points that this card exhibits. It also lists the included bundle. When you open the box up you will find everything positioned so that it does not shift around.

Gigabyte has chosen to go with a blue PCB and apply their own HSF unit. They have also used their own heatplate on the back that cools the memory and the backside of the GPU. Other than that the PCB design appears to be a reference GFFX 5700U component layout.

Our card is model GV-N57U128D with a revision of 1.0. The fins on the HSF as well as the base are copper but the top plate covering the HSF is not. The backplate is also not copper. The GV-N57U128D comes with a standard VGA and DVI port as well as a TV-Out port which supports S-Video and Composite. The cables include a DVI to VGA adapter and an S-Video to Composite adapter.

GV-R96X128D:

On the front of the box they depict some of the major features of the card as well as the software bundle included. When you open the box you will find everything tucked inside so it doesn’t shift around.

Just like the NV57U above Gigabyte went with a blue PCB for the R96X. They also applied their own HSF unit that is smaller in surface area compared to the reference HSF used by ATI on the 9600XT.

The complete model name of our card is GV-R96X128D and it is revision 1.0. While the HSF is smaller than one from ATI it is slightly heavier because it is made out of copper. The RAM modules used are Samsung K4D263238E-GC2A which means they are rated at 2.8ns and a maximum frequency of 350MHz. VGA, DVI and TV-Out is included with this card. The TV-Out cable included is one of the best types we’ve seen. It has one end that plugs into the card and at the other end it splits off into S-Video and Composite so that you have functionality of both with just one simple cable. It is also five feet long to give you some room to work with.

The HSF on the R96X also has some blue LEDs in there to make a nice blue glow while in operation.