Board Analysis

NV30, NV35, NV35 128MB

Slightly longer than NV30

Unfortunately, we don’t have a GeForce FX 5900 reference board to compare MSI’s GeForce FX 5900-TD128 against, but we do see that it has significantly less power circuitry than our reference GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card. Capacitor count in particular is significantly reduced. The length of the board is also shorter, right at 9”, which puts it slightly longer than GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, but the same length as GeForce4 Ti 4600.

MSI has equipped the GeForce FX 5900-TD128 with one massive cooler that encompasses the graphics core and memory, just as we saw on NVIDIA’s GeForce FX 5900 reference card. The main heatsink itself is slimmer than the one found on the reference GeForce FX 5900 Ultra board, but it’s still large enough to obstruct the PCI slot next to the AGP interface.

By implementing such a large design, the surface area of the heatsink is increased, allowing it to draw more heat off the core and thus enhancing its effectiveness. MSI uses taller fins in the area surrounding the graphics core/fan to increase the surface area of the heatsink even further.

Card front

FX5900 back

Surprisingly enough, a second heatsink/fan unit is used on the back of the FX5900 card. This cooler is reminiscent of the T.O.P. Tech cooler found on MSI’s GeForce FX 5200 card, the FX5200-TDR128. This cooler sits on the underside of the NV35 core, an area which NVIDIA addresses with a heatsink on its 5900 Ultra reference card.

Twin-Flow Noise output

In a move somewhat reminiscent of the failed FX Flow cooling system found on GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, MSI dubs their cooling solution Twin-Flow. Fortunately we can report that Twin-Flow doesn’t come anywhere close to reaching the noise level of FX Flow, like MSI’s T.O.P. Tech cooling, Twin-Flow is impeccably quiet. In fact, we couldn’t hear the difference between 2D or 3D mode on the FX5900-TD128. The noise output of our Pentium 4 3.0GHz cooler actually drowned out all sound from the fans of the FX5900-TD128 graphics card.

We did observe one strange noise however. In some cases the card itself would make an unusual whining sound. At first we thought it was one of the cooling fans, but the noise persisted when we stopped both of them. This sound reached a crescendo in Nascar 2003 while the game was running memory tests to confirm the screen resolution. The noise itself isn’t loud enough to penetrate a system case, but it was definitely there.

Size concerns

With an active cooler on the underside of the graphics card, one aspect that concerned us was size. On many of today’s 865PE motherboards, the North Bridge is located so close to the AGP slot that there isn’t much room for error. We started our compatibility testing with our testbed motherboard, the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe. As you can see in the picture, we had to bend one of the fins on the chipset’s North Bridge in order for the GeForce FX 5900-TD128 to fit properly. Unfortunately, no amount of fin bending could get the FX5900-TD128 to work with ASUS’ P4P800 Deluxe, the chipset is located so close to the AGP slot that there are just too many fins to bend. This wasn’t the case for FIC’s 865PE-based P4-865PE Max II, it fit perfectly with the FX5900-TD128, as you can see in the picture above. We can also report a thumbs-up for all nForce2 motherboards, as well as E7025, 845PE. Of all the motherboards we’ve tested recently, only those of you with older P4C800 Deluxe's (us included) and the DFI LANPARTY PRO875 required heatsink fin adjustment, MSI’s own 875P motherboard fit perfectly with the FX5900-TD128.

Had to bend the fin slightly

Roughly half an inch

P4C800 Deluxe

For now we’ll chalk this category up to guarded optimism provided you’re not dealing with an 865PE motherboard. For these users, all bets are off, as Intel seems to have looser restrictions on the AGP keep-out area for this chipset. We would not be surprised if there are multiple GeForce FX 5900 cards that don’t fit with these motherboards. The reference GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card fit in the P4P800 Deluxe, but as one reader (Kevin O’Neil) noted, it’s a tight fit.

UPDATE: It has come to our attention that newer revisions of the P4P800 and P4C800 now have the North Bridge heatsink mounted parallel with the AGP slot. These newer motherboards will offer more space between the AGP slot and chipset North Bridge.