Gainward Ultra 1600XP GeForce FX 5900 Ultra Video Card Review

One of the most talked about parts of any computer is the video card and one particular card that has gotten a lot of press is the GeForce FX from nVidia. The reason behind the press is partially due to the lack product releases between the Ti series and FX. Granted there was the NV30 (FX5800) but it never really made a market debut and was quickly replaced.

The GeForce FX series currently consists of 3 basic GPUs. 5900, 5600, 5200. Each GPU comes with an Ultra version that provides better performance but unlike previous nVidia chip releases the Ultra versions are coming more quickly thus making the Ultra version the primary buying target for consumers.

For this review we have a Gainward branded, GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card mfg by nVidia. This video card shares many things with the reference design including the cooling system; general board layout and PCB color, really the only thing that makes this card different is the fancy Gainward sticker, company branding and included software.

Many of us have already become familiar with the saying "Reference Design". It basically referrers to the initial product design put together by the chip manufacturer to help promote their product. nVidia is famous for this since they don't normally build boards for the public. Instead they sell their GPUs to various manufacturing partners and let them decide what to do with it. This isn't the case with the 5900 Ultra, nVidia decided to manufacturer the 5900 Ultra cards themselves as to monitor the low yield GPU. Knowing that processors get better with age I don't think it will long before the nVidia partners will be allowed to start producing their own 5900 Ultra cards.