Page 1 of GeForce FX 5900 Ultra - anyone got one of these? Opinions and advice needed plz guys...

Now, my GeForce 4 Ti4400 is really playing up, and I think I need to replace it. So I`ve been looking at the GeForce FX5900 Ultra, being that it seems to be the most powerful on the market at the moment (only just).

Thing is there are so many different models and different make (MSI, Creative, Gainward, Winfast) I really don`t know who is best. I`m looking at spending around £250 on it (not inc. VAT), and this card seemed to be the one that I thought could do the job. But like I said, who is the better make of card? Who should I avoid?

Would there be a noticable difference between a GeForce 4 Ti4400 and a GeForce FX Ultra? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

I`m still unsure about the FX cards, although I`ve heard that the 5900 is easily the best yet. In terms of performance it should be a definite step up from a Ti 4400. I benchmarked my Ti 4800SE against a non-pro Radeon 9700, and the Radeon was the clear winner in 3D Mark. If the FX is supposed to be the fastest card around, even more so than the Radeon 9800 Pro, then it should kick the arse of your old card... Plus it`s DX9 compatible, which the older card isn`t (not that it matters much at present).

I keep meaning to do some research into the newer cards, but we don`t get much call for them at work. One thing`s for sure though, both ATI and nVidia are really annoying me with these stupid, and confusion namign conventions that they now use.

There would be a step up but the 5900Ultra`s can`t cut it against the Radeon 9800Pro.

Take a look here, http://www.beyond3d.com/misc/traod_dx9perf/ for real world performance in directx 9 games before buying a NVidia FX card.

The NVidiaFX cards have really bad PS2.0 performance, roughly 30% of the Radeon9800Pro, so when a game that uses directx9 pixel shaders comes along like Halflife2, Tomb raider, Deus Ex2 etc, the game is going to perform badly.

Plus the Radeon is £60-£100 cheaper than the 5900Ultra, to me it`s a no brainer.

Oh, and for another comparison just to show you more than one example:

http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/video_cards/ati_vs_nvidia/dx9_desktop/001.htm

Ok, thats confusing things now. I was settled on a GeForce FX and now someone says buy something else.... there`s so many different versions though I`m completely confused as to what is best. So what do other people think I should go with?

One more question though, will my 2 year old motherboard support the GeForceFX or Radeon? Its an Asus P4 (if I remember rightly) - and the PC was top of the range when I bought it.

Thanks for the help so far.

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"The Internet is a communication device that allows people the world over to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another."

The thing is with both the Radeon and the GeForce, they are both made to what is a refference design which the chip manufacturer supplies. In the case of the Fx5900 Ultra, NVidia makes the whole card and supplies that to likes of MSI/ASUS etc, that`s because the card is quiet difficult to make. The only thing you`ll find different on the cards is cooling.

The Radeon cards do come with varing core speeds and memory speeds if you shop around, but mainly they are the reference speeds set by ATI.

Also in smaller cases, the NVidia cards puts out ALOT more heat that the ATI one, you just need to look at the size of the heat sinks on the two card to see that. Also while on the subject of heatsinks, most 5900 come with a large heatsink that takes up an extra PCI slot next to the AGP slot.

About your old motherboard. If the mobo supports AGPx4 standard then you`ll be ok with either card.

I`m not a fanboy for either manufacturer, but look at the points.

ATI is Cheaper.
ATI is Faster in current and, most importantly, upcomming games.
ATI is cooler.
ATI needs less space.
ATI doesn`t cheat in drivers(not any more).

if you look at the above points, along with the link i supplied in my first reply, i think the best card to get is the ATI 9800Pro. Saying that, they are going to release a R300 based card with higher mem/core clocks called either 9900Pro or the 9800XT or something similar. This card is going to be bundled with Half Life2 and be roughly 15-20% faster than the 9800Pro. Probably costing the same, if not cheaper, than the 5900Ultra - this is going to happen around the end of the month.

The choice will definately be a no-brainer then.

Ok, so you`re saying wait til the end of the month? Its important I get a new card asap so I don`t want to wait too long you see; but if you`re saying there`ll be a new card at the end of this month I can wait.

This was the one I was thinking of getting.

But then again there`s this one and this one from Crucial. I really don`t know whats best???

Thanks for the advice Hominid.

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"The Internet is a communication device that allows people the world over to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another."

This item was edited on Monday, 8th September 2003, 10:00

Further to my comments above, when I next upgrade I`ll be going for an ATI card for the first time in years. They seem to have the edge in terms of performace, and I`m trying to push them on our top end systems. Trouble is most people don`t want to pay that kind of money for a video card! ;) Now that Hominid has provided the info on the superiority to the FX 5900 that choice seems clear.

We`re about to become ATI approved (so the boss tells me), so hopefully I`ll get to play around with more ATI cards soon (most of our systems current ship with nVidia). I wouldn`t pay more than £290 delivered for the Sapphire 9800 Pro though, having seen the trade prices that is.

you can get a radeon9800Pro for £269 from here:http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Submit=Search&Category=15"" target="_blank"> http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Submit=Search&Category=15

The new card will be released at the end of september, so i`d say add on a week or two from then to become available retail wise. Sapphire supposedly make the retail ATI cards for the American market to, so i think they are ok. Not much difference in all the various makes AFAIK, same core/memory clocks so no real performance boost with what ever card you choose - and they all have a VGA/DVI/TV out connectors too.

You pays your money and takes your choice.

Quote:
I wouldn`t pay more than £290 delivered for the Sapphire 9800 Pro though, having seen the trade prices that is.

S`ok, I get VAT off anyway. ;)

Cheers for all the help guys.

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"The Internet is a communication device that allows people the world over to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another."

Hehe, not paying VAT rules ;)