With its 475MHz core and vastly superior memory subsystem, the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra is able to outperform ATI’s RADEON 9600 XT in many situations. As a result, we can definitely say that the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra firmly re-establishes NVIDIA’s presence in the mainstream segment of the graphics market.
It offers all the performance to power today’s latest games, and it’s looking like it will be more than competent for many of the DirectX 9 games of tomorrow. We wouldn’t dare declare one architecture “faster” than the other at this point however, as each has their strengths and weaknesses. Let’s just call it a performance draw for right now.
What NVIDIA does offer however is better overall compatibility with a wide variety of software applications, games, and hardware (although they still need to resolve AA support with a few DX9 titles). ATI is certainly improving quickly in this regard, but they still have more work to be done. Now if someone can just tell NVIDIA’s Detonator team to give gamers trilinear filtering when he or she asks for it, maybe some of the frustration many are feeling with NVIDIA will go away.
The manufacturing problems of the past appear to be just that, a thing of the past. We’ll have to wait and see how many other card manufacturers have their GeForce FX 5700 Ultra boards ready before we can say that with confidence however.
As far as eVGA, they’ve developed another solid offering with the e-GeForce FX 5700 Ultra. While it is based entirely on NVIDIA’s reference design, you will have the peace of mind of knowing that you’ve got a card built to NVIDIA’s specs. We would’ve liked to have seen eVGA deviate from the reference clock speeds as they did with their GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card, the e-GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, but we guess they’d rather focus on the merits of their card and leave the overclocking to the enthusiasts. Our overclocking results certainly suggest the core and memory have a lot of frequency headroom.
eVGA cards tend to be priced very competitively and can be found all over Price Watch, so we have a feeling that this will probably be one of the more popular first generation GeForce FX 5700 Ultra cards. After all, it always helps to be one of the first to market. When you combine this with eVGA’s excellent service and support, you’ve got a card that should be a tempting upgrade for the guy on a budget who wants a card that performs well, yet just as importantly, is backed by a company you can depend on.
3D Performance with ARMA II Demo
Wondering which video cards perform best with ARMA II? Wonder no more. In this article we've combined GPUs ranging from the Radeon 3870 up to the GeForce GTX 295 across two different CPUs: a Core i7-965 Extreme Edition, and a Core 2 Quad Q8400. See how well the game scales across the various GPUs and CPUs inside!
ASUS Crosshair III Formula Review
With its $200 price tag, ASUS' latest Republic of Gamers board is designed to appeal to AMD enthusiasts looking for the best without busting your bank account. And thanks its dazzling array of LEDs, good cooling, and SupremeFX X-Fi audio, it's pretty feature-packed. Is it worth the premium ASUS charges though? See how it stacks up against the competition in our latest review!
Sapphire Toxic HD 4890 Review
With a beefier power subsystem, OC'ed clocks, and custom vapor chamber cooling, Sapphire's Toxic HD 4890 takes ATI's Radeon 4890 GPU to another level. In fact the card delivers performance rivaling the GTX 285 in some cases. But is it worth the price premium? Find out in today's review!
Gigabyte AM3 Motherboard Roundup
Whether you've got $80 to spend on a new AM3 motherboard, or $180, Gigabyte's got you covered. In today's article we take a look at Gigabyte's high-end and low-end AM3 offerings and find a lot to like. See how the board's compare to one another and perform inside!
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition/Core i7-950 Performance Preview
Armed with higher clock speeds and a new D0 stepping designed to deliver improved OC'ing headroom, we were eager to see how far we could push Intel's latest flagship processor, the Core i7-975 Extreme Edition, and it didn't disappoint. See what happens when the 4GHz mark is easily shattered in this article!
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition/Athlon II X2 250 Performance Preview
Packing two processing cores, 6MB of L3 cache, an unlocked multiplier, and a 3.1GHz clock speed, AMD's Phenom II X2 550 Black is targeted towards enthusiasts looking to OC. Its $102 price tag is inexpensive too. But is it a worthy competitor to Core 2 Duo? AMD's also unleashing a new Athlon II CPU today. See how both new AMD CPUs perform against the competition from Intel inside!
Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard Review
Sporting a larger, higher resolution color LCD, configurable backlit keys, and reconfigured G-keys, Logitech's G19 offers a host of improvements over its predecessor, the G15. But is it worthy of its lofty price tag? Decide for yourself in our review!
Gigabyte GV-N275UD-896H GeForce GTX 275 Review
With its 2-ounce copper PCB and 1200MHz memory, Gigabyte's GV-N275UD-896H is one of the first GeForce GTX 275 cards on the market to deviate from NVIDIA's reference design. See how it compares to the stock GTX 275 in today's review!
ASUS W90Vp Review
With two Mobility Radeon 4870 GPUs, dual 7200 RPM hard drives, an 18.4" 1080p display, and 2.8GHz Core 2 CPU, the ASUS W90Pv packs more horsepower than most desktop PCs. Remarkably of all though the system retails for $2199-$2499 depending on the SKU. Is this really the ultimate gaming notebook? Find out in today's review!
ASUS ENGTX260 Matrix Quick Take Review
With its dual-slot cooler and support for voltage adjustment, we mananged to crank ASUS' excellent ENGTX260 Matrix to speeds we've never seen from a GTX 260 card before. In fact, once OC'ed the card outran the GTX285! Read on for the full details!
What did you think of the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra? Is NVIDIA back in your mind, or were you more impressed with the RADEON 9600 XT? Speak your mind in the news comments!
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