ProLink PixelView GeForce FX5900XT Golden Limited Review
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With all the graphically demanding games available and those soon to be marketed, gamers aren't asking themselves whether to upgrade their video cards, but what to upgrade to. Prolink introduces a card for enthusiasts with the PixelView GeForce FX 5900XT Golden Limited.
Introduction
With graphically demanding games like Halo and Far Cry out now and blockbuster titles like Doom III and Everquest 2 on the horizon, the question, "Is it time to upgrade my video card?" becomes more and more common. Anyone who has tried knows current games simply don't run well enough to be played at an enjoyable frame rate on low-end GeForce FX 5200s or Radeon 9200s. And while an older card like a GeForce4 Ti tackles DX8 games just fine - forget about running today's games with the intended visual quality. Now that ATI and NVIDIA have both announced their latest high-end performers and price cuts have begun for previous generation video cards, the question is no longer "Should I upgrade?" but "What should I upgrade to?"
NVIDIA groups its accelerators in three categories: Enthusiast, Performance, and Mainstream. Generally, 59xx is enthusiast, 57xx is performance, and 52xx is mainstream. One of NVIDIA's latest additions to the 59xx lineup is the 5900XT. While ATI uses the XT tag to show performance superior to their Pro cards, NVIDIA uses the XT tag to show performance inferior to their Ultra and non-Ultra cards. Clocked at 390 core and 700 memory, the FX5900XT is the slowest of the 5900 series purely in terms of clock speed. Everything else however, mainly the 256-bit memory bus, is the same.
Prolink Microsystems Corporation, established in 1989, is a manufacturer of VGA and multimedia add-on cards in Taiwan. Prolink offers everything from graphics accelerators to TV cards, MPEG II cards, and VIVO conference products. Under the trademark PixelView, the bulk of their video cards are budget accelerators like the GeForce MX4000. Their latest entry into the market however, is a shift toward the enthusiast market with a decked-out GeForce FX 5900XT Golden Limited.
Although NVIDIA and Prolink consider the FX5900XT to be an enthusiast card, its main competition comes from top mainstream cards like the Radeon 9600XT and GeForce FX 5700 Ultra. All are sub $200 DX9 compliant accelerators. Today, Dev Hardware will review the Prolink PixelView GeForce FX 5900XT Golden Limited. Lets see if it's the right upgrade for you.
Specifications & Features
The FX 5900XT is simply a slower clocked 5900. Clock speeds aside, the card specifications are identical to the 5900.
256-bit Memory Interface with Advanced Memory Control - Delivers more memory bandwidth and efficiency to power the latest games and applications at blazing speeds.
CineFX 2.0 Engine - The second-generation CineFX 2.0 engine powers advanced pixel and vertex shader processing and true 128-bit color precision. Delivering double the floating-point pixel shader power of the previous CineFX engine, CineFX 2.0 produces a visible performance boost through its more efficient execution of pixel shader programs.
Intellisample HCT - Second-generation Intellisample technology delivers up to a 50-percent increase in compression efficiency for compressing color, texture, and z-data, and powers unprecedented visual quality for resolutions up to 1600 x 1280.
UltraShadow Technology - Powers the next-generation of complex, realistic shadow effects by accelerating shadow generation. Accurate shadows that effectively mimic reality without bogging down frame rates are one of the keys to more believable game environments.
nView Multi-display Technology - The nView hardware and software technology combination delivers maximum flexibility for multi-display options, and provides unprecedented end-user control of the desktop experience.
API Support - DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 1.4.
Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) - Allows the user to adjust color controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colors in all conditions.
- 0.13 Micron Process Technology - Delivers high performance through faster clock rates.
- 400MHz RAMDACs - Industry's fastest RAMDACs support QXGA displays with ultra-high, ergonomic refresh rates.
Next: PixelView PFD II Technology >>
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