BFG GeForce FX 5700 Ultra and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra

Today, we're going to take a quick look at the newest members of NVIDIA's GeForce FX family -- the 5700 Ultra and 5950 Ultra, replacements for the 5600 Ultra and 5900 Ultra, respectively. Usually this means that we have only reference cards to benchmark, but thanks to BFG Tech, we have a retail 5700 Ultra in our possession and that's what will be featured in this article. Although we don't have a BFG 5950 in our hands, we do have some pictures of it to show you. The 5950 benchmarks will be from the NVIDIA reference unit.

A lot of people have been anxiously awaiting the replacement of the 5600 Ultra since it didn't quite impress customers as much as NVIDIA had hoped. In addition to the new card, new drivers (version 52.16) are also bringing hope back into the NVIDIA camp. The mid-range performance market is certainly about to get more interesting. ATI's 9600 Pro and 9600 XT won't be the quick answer any more when someone asks, "What card should I get if I can't afford the $500 ones and only want to spend $200?" The 5950 will also be packing more punch to fight back against the 9800 XT.

The method for obtaining this boost in performance for NVIDIA's mid-range and top level GPUs is to increase the clock speeds (of course). The 5700 Ultra is boasting a 475 MHz core and 900 MHz memory clock (up from 400/800 on the 5600 Ultra) while the 5950 Ultra is sporting a 475 MHz core and a 950 MHz memory clock (up from 450/850 on the 5900 Ultra). In addition to the speed boost, BFG's 5700 Ultra is rocking some nice DDR2 memory!

Okay, let's get to the review, but before we do I just want to point out a couple things. This article is just a brief look at both cards. I have only had the 5700 in my hands for two days now, so I've done as much as I could and still get sleep. I turn 25 in a couple days, so I'm getting old and need that sleep. ;-) We just want to give you a feel for what these new cards offer and how NVIDIA is trying to get your attention back. First, let's enter the Asylum ... and discuss the BFG Tech Asylum GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, and then we'll cover the reference 5950 Ultra from NVIDIA.

Features:

• AGP 8X (compatible with 4x and 2x AGP 2.0 compliant slots)
• Up to 4 pixels per clock rendering engine
• Up to 16 textures per pass
• NVIDIA CineFX 2.0 engine
• NVIDIA nView multi-display technology
• NVIDIA Forceware unified software environment (USE)
• NVIDIA UltraShadow technology enhances performance of bleeding-edge games that use complex shadows
• Free 24/7 Tech Support
• Lifetime Warranty
• 128-bit Studio-precision color

Some Key Points Worth Mentioning About the Card:

• NV36 (5700 Ultra) is 0.13 micron @ IBM
• It is NEW ARCHITECTURE
• ASYLUM cards are built with DDR2 (not all companies will use DDR2; they may use DDR1)
• BFG's MSRP at launch is $199.99 ($219.99 with a $20 Mail In Rebate Everyday)
• BFG has implemented an upgraded fan solution on this product that exhibits superior thermal resistance to the reference fan

This will definitely be of interest to some of you. We are now starting to see IBM produced parts, and the NV36 is new architecture. Also, as I mentioned before, the Asylum 5700 Ultra uses 128MB of DDR2 memory, but other companies may just opt to stick with DDR1.

Specifications:

• GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX 5700 Ultra
• Bus Type: AGP
• Memory: 128MB DDR2
• Core Clock: 475MHz
• Memory Clock: 900Mhz (effective)
• RAMDAC: Dual 400MHz
• API Support: Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0, OpenGL for Microsoft® Windows®
• Connectors: VGA, DVI, S-Video out
• 356 million vertices/sec.
• 14.4GB/sec. memory bandwidth

Included In Box:

• Asylum GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics card
• Quick Install Manual
• DVI to VGA connector
• Driver CD, which includes:
  • NVIDIA Forceware graphics driver (52.16)
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX and GeForce4 demos
  • Full installation manual (PDF)
  • NVIDIA NVDVD 2.0 multimedia software
  • Windowblinds BFG / Asylum Windows XP skins

The included bundle is okay, but I'd like to see a game included (who wouldn't, right?). I think BFG aims to be a cost leader though, so including a bigger bundle might not be the best strategy for them, and that's understandable. No game is probably better than an old game no one is going to enjoy anyway. The inclusion of NVDVD 2.0 and the Windowblinds skins is a nice touch. The card also looks pretty cool with its blue PCB and the silver HSF (heatsink / fan) with the Asylum logo. You can also see the ramsinks on the memory chips. Overall, it's a very nice design by BFG.

A couple of things you can't help but notice (especially since I tried to use the pictures to point them out) are that this card requires a power connection and it's pretty long. The last picture shows the Asylum 5700 Ultra above the MSI 5900, and they are actually the same length! I didn't expect that, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. The extra real estate on the PCB allows for less crowding of components, which is a good thing. The length may cause issues in some systems though. I have never had problems with a long card though, so just keep all that in mind.

Let's move on to the next page to take a quick look at what type of performance and overclocking the Asylum 5700 Ultra offers.