Gigabyte GeForce PCX 5900 Video Card Review
Author:
Date: 04.08.2004
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Package bundle
The package bundle contains all the most needed, plus some additional "nice trifles".
- GV-NX59128D (GeForce PCX5900) Video Card;
- 15-pin D-Sub/ DVI adapter;
- S-Video/RCA adapter;
- Detailed usage manual.
- Four CDs:
a) Drivers, DirectX 9.X, Gigabyte's V-Tuner2 utility;
б) Software DVD-player PowerDVD 5;
в) games: SpellForce - The Order Of Dawn and Rainbow Six3 - Raven Shield.
Design and layout
You can judge about a person by the way he/she walks, but Gigabyte stands out with its customary blue color of textolyte. At that, Gigabyte is consistent. The manufacturer of a given video card can be told apart even without looking at the box - a quick look at the board would suffice.
*1200x705; 177kb
*1200x683; 286kb
There is 128 Mb DDR memory onboard with the 256-bit data transfer bus made as eight Hynix memory chips marked HY5DU283222AF-28, in the BGA packaging, 2.8 ns access time, which is equivalent to 350 MHz (700 MHz DDR) operating frequency. But on this particular specimen the rated operating frequency of the video memory proved to be a bit downstated to 275 MHz (550 MHz DDR). Anyway, it is really curious to take a look at the overclocking potential of memory on the board.
All the eight video memory chips are positioned over the front side of the board without any cooling.
Now, let's turn to the most important. The graphic processor. Let me put it straight - it was not easy at all to get to it. When on earth will the manufacturers consider the requests and wishes (or even prayers) from the part of consumers/reviewers/etc and cease using that "thermal chewing gum" for the thermal interface?
And even this time again, with "ritual witchcraft" we finally succeeded in detaching the radiator (whose design specifics will be covered a bit later) off the video card chip.
Our efforts were not in vain and we saw the GPU in its beauty.
That done, we experience a real astonishment. In the right-hand corner of the lid that cover the chip we found the "XT" caption. A GeForce FX 5900XT chip, isn't it? Yes, the very favorite of the middle-end sector of the market of the past round, which we mentioned above. A very interesting aftergrowth, isn't it? Has NVIDIA really decided to revive 5900XT in the PCI-Express make?
Regarding the GPU, I have to add that was made on the 32nd week of 2003 and is of revision A1, as we can see from the marking. The rated operating frequency of the GPU is 350 MHz.
At last, we got to the cooling system. Gigabyte provided cooling for the graphic core in the form of an aluminum radiator with the corporate logo put straight over the center of the component.
Looking at the cooling system, you immediately recall GeForce FX5900 ХТ made by Gigabyte. These two boards offer absolutely identical design of the cooling system, with the only difference in reduced size because on 5900XT a massive radiator covered the GPU as well, and the memory chips positioned in absolutely the same way as in PCX5900 in question.
On this board, no additional cooling is provided, which has been long regarded as a no-flaw since the users who are into upgrading the hardware would not care much of additional cooling. Overclockers and PC enthusiasts will treat any standard cooling as insufficient for their purposes. Modders would rather prefer installing radiators of their own "make" and design.
It's good that nowadays a huge assortment of radiators to any taste and color is available. At the same time, processor radiators can be easily modified and fitted on the video memory chips, provided you are a handicraftsman enough to put it all right with the respective tools.
At that, we stop our lyrical digression on the topic of radiators and turn back to the hero of today's review.
The next significant part is the HSI bridge. A radiator is also fitted on it.
The board offers a standard set of outputs: analogous, digital, and S-Video.
I can imagine how your curiosity has reached the apogee by now. OK, let's not torment you any more. Here are the results.
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