Page 16 - Conclusion
Conclusion
As you where able to witness this GeForce 5600 Ultra was capable of handling current games sufficiently. Major upcoming titles however will run into problems with it and you'll likely need to switch down some quality options to be able to play it at an acceptable framerate. Example, I do not see you playing Half-Life 2 well with this product. I might be wrong though, future will tell. When we look at the direct competition (Radeon 9600 Pro) then the ball switches forth and back. Some tests are in favor of the Radeon most for Gainwards FX 5600 Ultra. I'd like to place a side note here though. Recent findings lead me to believe that the Radeon 9600 Pro will be a tad better in upcoming DirectX 9 titles as it seems that Pixel Shader 2.0 performance is in favor for the Radeon. Unfortunately there's only one game available right now to test that reasonably well, which is the latest Tomb Raider title. I refuse to make a final suggestion on this matter based upon one game though. In a few weeks we'll have new DirectX9 software which can test that precisely. AquaMark 3.0 is set to be released in week 3 or 4 of September 2003.
That being said, Gainwards GeForce FX 5600 Model Ultra/760 XP Golden Sample is definitely an interesting product. The inclusion of the FireWire controller is innovative, it has video in and out and the software to support it. Tweaking wise you will not gain much from this product as it already has reached it's maximum potential. Overclocking often differs per card though and perhaps you'll be able to squeeze a bit more out of it.
The design of the card truly is excellent. Nice red, cool fan, dandy memory sinks. Quality wise it was
build excellent from what we can see it 's based primarily at NVIDIA's reference design specification. The 5600 is definitely worth considering. It's not a powerhouse though yet quite a bit faster clocked then that reference design GeForce FX 5600 Ultra. You can play every modern gaming title reasonably with it and does what it's targeted at, mid range performance. Next to our benchmark suite I've played Formula 1 Challenge 99-02 and the new Call of Duty Demo on it, both ran excellent. The cooling solution is just awesome to see. Definitely recommended if you can't spend too much on a graphics card. If you do not want to spend heaps of money on a high-end graphics cards then we definitely recommend the product, it's very stable and for the money it offers heaps of functionality, features and decent performance.Product: Ultra/760 XP Golden SampleInfo: Gainward
Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price: 269 EUR
Spotted for 197 USD in Guru3D.com PriceWatch
