Page 16 - Conclusion
Conclusion
Let's kill a rumor first. One of the horror stories that that floats over the entire GeForce FX series right now is of course noise. Make no mistake .. only the 5800 models had that problem and NVIDIA rendered this model obsolete and replaced it with the 5900 series. The 5600 that we have tested today is simply silent, no discussion is needed about this, period.
I would like to make a sidenote though, targeted at NVIDIA, not ProLink. What I find a bit disturbing is that the 5600 performs in raw mode (no AA or AF enabled) about the same as a GeForce4 Ti 4200 which was released well over a year ago in April 2002. So I'm a tad dissapointed by the fact that DX8 wise we are still at that same performance level. We have to keep in mind that the GeForce FX series is rather efficient with Anisotropic Filtering and Anti aliasing enabled compared to the previous GeForce4 series though.
Furthermore we have an excellent performing mid-range graphics cards in our hands here. The benefits of the product are great, it's a very diverse and a recommendable product. I mean, for less than 200 USD you have a decent performing DirectX9 graphics card with a lot of features like TV in and outputs, fine silent cooling solution and of course a product that is at default clocked faster than NVIDIA default/reference specification. Next to that we make note of an excellent software package.
The Samsung memory on the graphics card is rated 3.3ns, it allows the product to be overclocked even a tad faster. Also it has onboard 256 MB memory. Quality wise this card seem to be build excellent, good components made 2D/3D display quality excellent. The software bundle is nothing good. And although right now 256 MB memory is complete overkill and will not make a big difference performance wise at this time, in future games you might actually benefit from it greatly as games will increasingly use more and more textures. I remember using this same line when graphicsv cards went from 64 towards 128 MB, and right now not one of you would opt the 64 MB right ?
This product is about 25 bucks more expensive than the competition with a 256 MB model GeForce FX 5600. Bare in mind though that this one is equiiped with 3.3ns memory and has VIVO connectivity.
If you do not want to spend heaps of money on a high-end graphics cards then we definitely recommend the product, it's stable and for the money it offers heaps of functionality, features and decent performance.
Our appreciation goes out to ProLink who submitted this card for a review.
Product: PixelView GeForce FX 5600, Ultimate Golden Limited
More information: ProlinkPrice MSRP: 210 USD
Seek the best prices for GeForce FX graphics cards in our price comparison guide.
