When nVIDIA released their GeForceFX
5800 Ultra, they clearly had an inferior product to ATi's Radeon 9700
Pro.
With the NV30 performing slower, costing more, and
producing more noise and heat things did not look good for nVIDIA. it went from
bad to worse when ATi released their popular Radeon 9800 Pro earlier
this year!
With the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra however, it seems nVIDIA
have gone a step in the right direction again as the NV35 is very competitive
against the R350 in all the benchmarks! Perhaps nVIDIA was right about 3DMark03
as it's the only benchmark in our suite that the MSI
FX5900U-VTD256 Ultra did relatively poorly in. Gamers out there please note the
exceptional performance of the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra in the Gun Metal 2
benchmarks - being the only DX9 game test able to show NV35 is faster than ATi's
Radeon 9800 Pro.
While some of the other manufacturers are still
tinkering with their manufacturing process, MSI is first with their own
GeForceFX 5900 Ultra. We were extremely
impressed with the software package that MSI bundled with this product. Full
versions of Command & Conquer Generals, Battlefield 1942 and Unreal II go a
long way! There's no other computer product on the market that offers that much
(good) gaming software!
MSI also threw in a small aluminum LED mouse (with 800
dpi resolution) which is a very nice touch, and because the card supports
VIVO we also find a VIVO breakout box and some cables. Lastly there's a DVI to
analog converter should you want to use dual monitors.
Because the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra outputs a lot of power
under load, most cards employ nVIDIA's two slot cooling solution. MSI's TwinFlow
cooling system takes up less space, runs quiet, and keeps temperatures a few
degrees cooler. Our particular test sample was running 3 degrees Celsius lower
than the Albatron GeForceFX 5900PV (despite running the core 50 MHz higher!) It
was also one of the quietest active videocard cooling systems we have ever
tested to date.
With so many good things bundled in with the
MSI nBox FX5900U-VTD256 Ultra, the retail price is pretty hefty at $530USD ($740CDN). But, if what you've seen here is just what the doctor ordered, you'd better start saving your pennies!
Find out about this and many other reviews by joining
the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today!
Related Articles
Here are
a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
1. Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro Videocard Review
RSS Newsletter
