Finally, this one is noiseless... 

CONTENTS

1. General information
2. Video card's features
3. Testbed configuration
4. Test results
5. Conclusion 

We keep on reviewing High-End graphics cards which are arriving in the market. Unfortunately, we haven't got the RADEON 9800 PRO yet, that is why let's focus on a tiny brook of the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra based cards. They are quite difficult to find yet, and the prices are hiked. Yet before the tests I can assert that such products are not worth their expenses. Our tests show that the RADEON 9800 PRO is currently the fastest 3D game accelerator. Even today, even the card's just been launched and its price is incredibly high, it's still cheaper than the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra in most cases. 

However, we shouldn't ignore this poor solution codenamed NV30 just because it became a rarity right after its release. Therefore, it costs even more than a High-End accelerator. Performance of such unique products is estimated in the following reviews. 

• Analysis of the architecture of NVIDIA NV30 (GeForce FX) 
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra (NV30) - single-page review
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra (NV30) - multi-page review
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (NV31) and GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (NV34) - single-page review
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (NV31) and GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (NV34) - multi-page review
• ASUS V9900 Ultra on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra - AA and anisotropy quality
• Gainward FX Powerpack Ultra/1000 Golden Sample and Gainward FX Powerpack Pro/660 TV/DVI on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra and 5200 - scaling (performance vs. CPU clock speed) of GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, performance of GeForce FX 5200 

The GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, however, has some advantages: first of all, its rarity (only 100,000 chips were made, 50,000 of which were used for Quadro FX for 3D professionals, 30,000 for GeForce FX 5800 for OEM companies and only 20,000 chips for retail cards, - if you divide this figure by the number of partners who had a desire to bring out 5800 based cards, the figure will be very low). 

Secondly, the speed the latest accelerators can reach is enough for most games even in the heaviest modes of AA and anisotropy. That is why RADEON 9700 PRO, GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, RADEON 9800 PRO are approximately equal, - the difference can be noticed only in the benchmarks and FPS counters. 120 or 140 fps.. it won't matter for you (I don't mean quakers who play mostly in 640x480 with the minimal graphics settings where a CPU is more important than a video card). If you enable AA and anisotropy, the gap will be even smaller. Hence the question: what else is this card able of, except 3D, how stable is its operation on different platforms and in different games, and what else can I get from the card which is as expensive as a good audio system? 

Besides, the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra will quickly be sold out with the advent of NV35, and the hiked prices for the 5800 will crash down. Such cards will be bought up by users who believe that NVIDIA's products are the best and most stable in the whole world, especially because they are few. 

But despite multiple downsides of the GF FX, these cards are still interesting for many PC users dealing with 3D graphics. Their strong and weak points are passionately discussed in many forums. That is why we keep on examining the GF FX 5800 Ultra to keep track on changes with the newer drivers. No secret that this chip is very flexible, and much depends on the software. It's also interesting whether the imperfect AA quality or its lack is done away with in certain games with the AA forced. 

The card we have today in our lab is particularly unique. Leadtek's card has a special cooling system. Leadtek is a well-known company, and we are moving right to the card in question. 

Card

Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO

Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO
The card has AGP X2/4/8 interface, 128 MB DDR II SDRAM in 8 chips on both PCB sides. 128bit memory interface.  Samsung K4N26323AE-GC1K, memory chips of BGA form-factor. Maximum clock speed is 550 (1100) MHz, hence 1.8 ns access time. The memory works at 500 (1000) MHz in 3D and at 300 (600) MHz in 2D.

Comparison with the reference design, front view
Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra

Comparison with the reference design, back view
Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO	Reference card NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra

Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO
The basic cooling element is a copper heatsink which rigidly seats on the core and half of the memory chips of the card's front side. This heatsink is cooled with fans attached to the outer aluminum case. One of the fans draws air in, the other exhausts it. Thus, air goes through the first fan, passes the copper heatsink and goes out through the second fan. The fans are positioned so that the air flows do not mix.  The smaller back part of the case serves as a heatsink for the memory chips on the card's back.  Advantages of such cooler: Relatively low noise level. It's a real wonder as compared with the FlowFX.  The card together with the cooler takes only one AGP slot.  Disadvantages:  The back is cooled worse than the front (the front has the copper heatsink).  Air is taken from inside the PC case, i.e. it's already warmed by other PC components, and then the fan throws it out into the PC case again. Thus, the effectiveness is lower.  The strong points outweigh the weak ones, and this seems to be the best version of the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra considering the cooler.

The back of the big heatsink case is not only bolted to its front but also touches the PCB itself, that is why the design is quite rigid and steady.  On the back the memory chips are cooled only by the aluminum heatsink case through thick thermal pads (which reliably press the heatsink to the memory).  In general, the design looks like some external device, for example, a modem :-), especially if you look from the direction of the external power supply connector.  Box Contents:

Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO
CD with software (including WinFast DVD), CD with Video-In software, two games, User Guide, S-Video-to-RCA and DVI-to-d-Sub adapters, TV-out extenders and VIVO adapter/splitter.

Leadtek WinFast A300 Ultra MyVIVO
A very stylish box with all information about the card.

Overclocking

Note that 

• Overclocking requires additional card cooling (for its memory, in particular): 




• Overclocking depends on a certain sample, and you shouldn't extend single-card results to the entire series or trade mark. Overclocking results are not obligatory characteristics of video cards. 

Testbed and drivers

Testbed: 

• Athlon XP 2600+ based computer: 
• AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2133 MHz); 
• EPoX (nForce2) mainboard; 
• 1024 MB DDR SDRAM PC3200; 
• Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB hard drive. 
• Windows XP SP1; DirectX 9.0. 
• ViewSonic P810 (21") and ViewSonic P817 (21") monitors. 
• NVIDIA drivers v43.51. 

VSync off in drivers, texture compression off in applications. Texture detail set to High Quality. 

Video cards for comparison: 

• Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 PRO (RADEON 9700 PRO, 325/310 (620) MHz, 128 MB, driver 6.307); 
• ATI RADEON 9800 PRO (380/340 (680) MHz, 128 MB, driver 6.307). 

Test results

Before we start examining 2D quality, I should say there are no complete techniques for objective 2D quality estimation because: 

1. 2D quality much depends on certain samples for almost all modern 3D accelerators; 
2. Besides videocards, 2D quality depends on monitors and cables; 
3. Moreover, certain monitors might not work properly with certain video cards. 

As for the sample tested, together with the ViewSonic P817 monitor and BNC Bargo cable it showed excellent quality at the following resolutions and clock speeds: