If you are a hardcore gamer, the enthusiast gamer, that wants to play his/her games at 1600x1200 with AF and AA then we've got the best performing product to date in our hands. At average in this resolution and with these quality settings the product will be faster then the fastest current product from the competition which is the Radeon 9800, both are close to each other though.

Creative's 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 Ultra ran absolutely stable and did not lock up once during the time we tested it, and we stressed it hard. I have played several games with it and none showed weird anomalies or driver issues. Next to the benchmarks we played  games like Splinter Cell, Formula 1 Challenge 99-02 (yeah I'm a F1 sucker), Vietcong and Chaser. Furthermore I have to state that the overclocking potential of this card is really good, a core of 500 MHz and memory at ~950 MHz is pretty shabby and I'm confident it could have gone a bit higher. Not that you'll need to overclock this card right now though as it is extremely powerful for any known game.

Are there things I didn't like about this product ? Well two actually. First of all the heatsink/fan combo still is taking up too much space. You will loose the PCI slot just below your AGP port. Secondly without a doubt, the price. No matter what I say about the 'dough' these babies will sell. It has always been that way and will remain that way. Personally I believe we are moving into a price/performance scheme that is getting too expensive. But hey, this is the high-end sector. You determine the price by buying or skipping the product. It's a sure thing though, you'll love the 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 Ultra, it's an awesome product to own.

I think Creative was in a sense clever to leave out extra games and DVD software etc as it shows it's result in the end-price. Expect a price of € 500-550 , that's including VAT. In fact a shop here in the neighborhood is already selling the product for €529 which makes it the cheapest GeForce FX 5900 Ultra with 256 MB memory here in the Netherlands.

Right now this card will make your high-end rig smoke .. if you can afford it and do not want to upgrade for a while then I can definitely recommend the 3D Blaster 5 FX5900 Ultra, it's a jawbreaker.

More info: Creative Labs Europe