The GeForce FX Family

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NVIDIA's GeForce FX Family

NVIDIA's GeForce FX Family
As you have been able hear, see and read in the gossip scene for a while now NVIDIA is going to expand it's product line-up with a DirectX9 compatible product in all segments. This means a GeForce FX based graphics card in the low, mid, and high-end segment. In the end this will likely replace the GeForce 3 and 4 range of products as this series is competing directly at them at a comparable price and performance while it has the advantage of being a full DirectX 9 compatible product.

Today NVIDIA therefore officially announced the GeForce FX 5200 based on the NV34 and GeForce FX 5600 based on the the silicon NV31. Let's take a quick look at the complete new GeForce FX family:

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The three new NVIDIA silicon's in the FX family.

This preview ladies and gentlemen will be very small and basically a complete copy of the NVIDIA documents I received. It had to be this way as I got these documents and images only hours before the official launch so there was no time to dig into the content deeply enough ..

Let's take a peek at NVIDIA marketing flyer:

The NVIDIA GeForce FX family of graphics processing units (GPUs) takes your graphics experiences to a new level. Once again, NVIDIA has broken with convention by delivering a top-to-bottom family of GPUs that redefines the limits of 3D graphics technology. Powered by pure adrenaline and engineered for precision, the NVIDIA GeForce FX GPUs bring unprecedented 3D graphics performance to all PC usersfrom business and home users to extreme gamers. In addition, the revolutionary new NVIDIA CineFX engine introduces cinematic-quality special effects and studio-quality color to the PC for the first time. When combined with NVIDIAs rock-solid drivers, wide developer support, and unique software features, you have a family of GPUs that redefines the limits of graphics engineering, performance, compatibility, and visual quality at every price point.

Since all products will be based on the GeForce FX the bigger part of the chipset features is about the same except it will differ in performance. Therefore I strongly recommend you to go to this article which is our GeForce FX preview and get yourself informed on what GeForce FX is all about. Let's take a look at the feature chart as presented by NVIDIA explaining the difference in models:

  • GeForce FX 5800 Ultra  500/500 Core/Memory ~$399
  • GeForce FX 5800 400/400 Core/Memory ~ $299
  • GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 350/350 Core/Memory ~ $199
  • GeForce FX 5200 Ultra  325/325 Core/Memory ~ $149
  • GeForce FX 5200 275/275 Core/Memory ~ $99

Except the GeForce FX 5200 all frequencies have been confirmed by NVIDIA. Also note that effective speed of the memory has to be multiplied by factor 2 (DDR memory) Thus the 5800 ultra has it's memory at 2x500 Mhz thus 1 GHz.

As you can notice NVIDIA now has a top to bottom line up of GPU's that all have the CineFX engine. I.e. are DirectX 9 capable. It's a big step compared to what they did With the older Ti and MX series as they can benefit from the entire new technology that is included in the GeForce FX graphics core..

 

Feature 5800 Models 5600 Models 5200 Models
CineFX Engine
Intellisample Technology N/A
DirectX 9
AGP 8X 8X 8X
UDA
Process 0.13µ 0.13µ 0.15µ
Pipelines 8 4 4
Memory DDR-II DDR-II DDR
Verices/sec. 200 Million 88 Million 81 Million

As always we try to get some high-res images of the products in the house and well, at least I was able to get these two for you:

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GeForce FX 5600 Ultra

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Geforce FX 5200
 

All-in-all NVIDIA is making quite a very clever step here. The new lineup will bring you a graphics card at any budget that is very powerful and is fully DirectX9 compatible. The new series are cooled in a traditional way and thus are not as noisy as the 5800 Ultra is. This new step in the product line came quickly, way more quickly compared to the release of the GeForce FX 5600 ultra that we reviewed yesterday. I made a few call today and most manufacturers already have NV31 and NV34 products running in there systems. In fact I already have some benchmark numbers yet can't disclose them until we can actually review the cards ourselves or until we get a green light from NVIDIA to post them. With these new products the low and mid range section from VIDIA is getting back on track. The GeForce FX 5200 and 5600 will become a very popular gadget to buy. Will they be competitive towards ATi's new line-up ? Only the future will tell.

As always we'll keep you posted. NVIDIA is trying to get some cards our way rather quickly. Until then please have a good look at our GeForce FX 5800 ultra review.


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