Entered CNET Catalog: 07/02/2003
SKU: 128-A8-N314-AX
Manufacturer: EVGA Corporation
Manufacturer description
The NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra Flip Chip, 128MB is a GPU that will unleash stunning 3D worlds and the most life-like character animations ever seen in interactive entertainment. Powered by the same advanced technology and features as the FX 5800 GPU's, the e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, 128MB delivers studio-quality color and amazing cinematic gaming effects. With 128MB of video memory and the latest NVIDIA Technology, such as the CineFX Engine, Intellisample Technology and High-Precision Graphics, the e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, 128MB will deliver lightning-fast, ultra-realistic visuals with no jagged edges at almost any resolution. The e-GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, 128MB includes VIVO capabilities for enthusiasts, who want do video capturing and editing.Product summary
The good: Strong performance; video-capture capability; excellent support.
The bad: Limited performance at high resolutions with advanced feature sets enabled; the software required patch upgrades to work properly in our tests.
The bottom line: The eVGA.com e-GeForce 5600 Ultra might appear to be a run-of-the-mill graphics card, but its integrated video-capture capabilities make it anything but.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 07/28/2003
In an effort to differentiate its products from the competition, many graphics card vendors attempt to add value by bundling a few games. There has typically been little else, however, to distinguish the various offerings based on the same graphics processing unit (GPU). eVGA's 5600 Ultra, on the other hand, marks a fairly new trend in graphics cards by including onboard Video In/Video Out (VIVO) functionality.
VIVO capabilities allow the graphics card to do additional duty as an analog-video-capture and video-output device. A special cable is provided, which includes composite and S-Video input and output jacks. The card itself does not capture audio, however. To include the audio portion of a video, you need to supply your own audio cable and route the audio through your system's sound card.
Conveniently, the bundled capture-and-editing software, CyberLink's PowerDirector 2.1 Pro ME, can capture video and audio from separate sources. The software is not the most intuitive, however, and it lacks the wizards that novices might otherwise find very useful. It includes all of the video-editing basics, such as transitions and title options, but it doesn't have the advanced feature sets of a more robust editing package.
During our video-capture testing, the card successfully captured video without dropping any frames. We ran into a significant problem, however, when we first installed the PowerDirector software: It crashed every time we tried to launch it. We finally resolved the problem by downloading and applying a patch from CyberLink's Web site.
We also had to download and install a patch from eVGA's site for the bundled DVD movie-playback software, NVDVD 2.0, to improve the video image quality, which was of very poor quality initially. We had better luck with the other bundled applications, including full versions of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, America's Army, and a demo version of EarthView.
The 5600 Ultra card features VGA, DVI, and S-Video ports on its backplane, and it comes with an S-Video cable and a DVI-to-VGA dongle. The card's dual-display support can be shared simultaneously among any two of the card's three outputs. In order for the card to work properly on your desktop, your system must have a 300-watt or greater power supply, with an available internal power connector that connects to the graphics board.
As its name implies, the 5600 Ultra is based on an Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GPU. The 5600 Ultra's core runs at 400MHz, as does the card's 128MB of DDR SDRAM. The 5600 Ultra GPU is the middle sibling to the high-end 5200 Ultra. Core engine and memory speeds differentiate the GeForce FX GPU family, as do more-advanced features designed into the hardware as you move up the family line. Non-Ultra versions of the GeForce FX family also exist and typically feature slower engine and memory speeds than those of their respective Ultra counterparts. All of this makes for a confusing bevy of graphics card configurations from which to choose.
The 5600 Ultra's primary competition is the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. The Radeon 9600 Pro GPU also runs at 400MHz, but its 300MHz memory is 100MHz slower than that of the 5600 Ultra (look for a review of the 9600 Pro soon).
Pitting the 5600 Ultra against the 9600 Pro garners results that track well with what we've seen lately when comparing similar GPUs from Nvidia and ATI: there is no clear performance winner. For example, of the 22 performance tests we run (we publish the results for only the 10 most-demanding tests), the 5600 Ultra and the Radeon 9600 Pro were split down the middle, with each the performance leader on 11 tests.
Focusing exclusively on the performance of the cards at high resolution and with advanced feature sets enabled, the 5600 Ultra appears to have the performance advantage. In fact, on our Unreal tests at 1,600x1,200 with 4X antialiasing (AA) and 4X anisotropic filtering (AF) enabled, the 5600 Ultra was 19 percent faster than the 9600 Pro. The 5600 Ultra's advantage is not absolute, however, as the 9600 Pro is faster than the 5600 Ultra on all of our Splinter Cell tests.
The 5600 Ultra's performance is very impressive, but it has its limits. On our most-demanding tests at 1,600x1,200, when we cranked up the AA and AF settings, frame rates slowed down to levels that many would consider unacceptable for gameplay. Of course, the 9600 Pro also displays this behavior. If you plan on playing games at high resolutions and with advanced features enabled, you'll need to consider a higher-end card.
The card from eVGA that we tested was an engineering sample. eVGA assures us that the shipping version of the card will be identical to our engineering sample.
Futuremark's 3DMark03 (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Unreal Tournament 2003 test: Flyby-Antalus (in fps) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell test (in fps) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Find out more about how we test We were impressed with both the amount and the quality of installation and problem-solving information that eVGA provides. This extra effort ensures that you'll be up and running as quickly as possible and is a few notches above what you typically find from graphics card vendors.
The manual includes a detailed list of potential problems and their respective fixes. The manual even includes something we're not used to seeing: a list of preferred system BIOS settings. All of this information is also available online on eVGA's extensive support pages. eVGA's Web site also provides drivers, patches, utilities, and a searchable knowledge base. There is even a Web-based utility that scans your system and gives you key system-components information, such as your motherboard chipset--critical information to have when you are trying to diagnose a potential hardware conflict.
The 5600 Ultra comes with a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. Technical support is available via e-mail and a toll-free phone number during normal business hours (PT).
User opinions Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 User Rating: 3.5 stars out of 9 user reviews
Pretty good!!!
Pros: Its quick and easy to use,powerful graphics,its a pleasure to use and play with.
Cons: I think Watt power supply lets it down a bit as with the ati radeon 9600 has a higher watt power system i would reccomend it more!
Review: User Rating: 3.5 stars out of 9 user reviews
eVGA fx 5600 in perasonal cinema
Pros: The multimedia is awesome,and you give a breath to your pentium 4. In gaming with 4x or 8x is faster but don't try it if you have a bad cpu(at least 2.8GHZ HT)
Cons: THe drivers,if you have the version of the driver from Microsolf just sucks,the Microsolf driver is really old,and when you try to run a new game you'll have trouble,but the eVGA drivers seems to be better than this. Another thing is the settings,you ca
Review: User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 9 user reviews
A great card for Flightsim
Pros: I use flightsim addons and flightsim and they're very demanding. I only experience slightl lag on final approach into some airports with 3-4 addons and this is experienced as well with an FX5900
Cons: Sometimes could be a little quicker
Review: User Rating: 5.0 stars out of 9 user reviews
It gives a great performance.
Pros: It has perfect shades and it's easy to use.
Cons: I don't think it has any cons.
Review: User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 9 user reviews
Very good performance!!
Pros: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! That says about all - i love my fx 5600 ultra. nvidia rules!!
Cons: None that i can think of at the moment. :)
Review: User Rating: 1.5 stars out of 9 user reviews
Wouldn'
Pros: Many useful and cool features and specs
Cons: causes system instability and can slow down performance on many games if the resolution is set to high and does not work good with microsoft XP and the price is too damn high for this decent video card. I rather have an ATI graphics card so that I can avo
Review: User Rating: 1.5 stars out of 9 user reviews
dosent work
Pros:
Cons: stoped working after a week (computer wouldn't startup), got it replaced and couldn't get the new one to work at all. i'm using my onboard vga now and it works 2/3 as well as the card did.
Review: User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 9 user reviews
Great card.
Pros: I recent upgraded from my ATI 9200 (non-pro) and the difference in my video game graphics is tremendous. I can run Raven Sheild at 1024X768 and it runs smooth as a baby's buttex! I recommend this card to any intermediate gamer.
Cons: It's not a 5900 Ultra :-)
Review: User Rating: 1.0 stars out of 9 user reviews
Don't get the FX line keep ti or Ati 9800pro only
Pros: I love nvidia, but the GeForce FX line, well it's not good. some body need to speek up and tell nvidia to do a better job then the FX line it really suck.
Cons: The FX line is vary buggy I would not Recommend the FX line to any one, I would Recommend you to Keep you Geforce MX, TI or grater, or get a ATI 9800pro. i am going to get rid of my FX 5600, I will not sell it to any one or give it away becouse it's that
Review:
out of 9 user reviews
Pretty good!!!
Pros: Its quick and easy to use,powerful graphics,its a pleasure to use and play with.
Cons: I think Watt power supply lets it down a bit as with the ati radeon 9600 has a higher watt power system i would reccomend it more!
out of 9 user reviews
eVGA fx 5600 in perasonal cinema
Pros: The multimedia is awesome,and you give a breath to your pentium 4. In gaming with 4x or 8x is faster but don't try it if you have a bad cpu(at least 2.8GHZ HT)
Cons: THe drivers,if you have the version of the driver from Microsolf just sucks,the Microsolf driver is really old,and when you try to run a new game you'll have trouble,but the eVGA drivers seems to be better than this. Another thing is the settings,you ca
out of 9 user reviews
A great card for Flightsim
Pros: I use flightsim addons and flightsim and they're very demanding. I only experience slightl lag on final approach into some airports with 3-4 addons and this is experienced as well with an FX5900
Cons: Sometimes could be a little quicker
out of 9 user reviews
It gives a great performance.
Pros: It has perfect shades and it's easy to use.
Cons: I don't think it has any cons.
out of 9 user reviews
Very good performance!!
Pros: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! That says about all - i love my fx 5600 ultra. nvidia rules!!
Cons: None that i can think of at the moment. :)
out of 9 user reviews
Wouldn'
Pros: Many useful and cool features and specs
Cons: causes system instability and can slow down performance on many games if the resolution is set to high and does not work good with microsoft XP and the price is too damn high for this decent video card. I rather have an ATI graphics card so that I can avo
out of 9 user reviews
dosent work
Pros:
Cons: stoped working after a week (computer wouldn't startup), got it replaced and couldn't get the new one to work at all. i'm using my onboard vga now and it works 2/3 as well as the card did.
out of 9 user reviews
Great card.
Pros: I recent upgraded from my ATI 9200 (non-pro) and the difference in my video game graphics is tremendous. I can run Raven Sheild at 1024X768 and it runs smooth as a baby's buttex! I recommend this card to any intermediate gamer.
Cons: It's not a 5900 Ultra :-)
out of 9 user reviews
Don't get the FX line keep ti or Ati 9800pro only
Pros: I love nvidia, but the GeForce FX line, well it's not good. some body need to speek up and tell nvidia to do a better job then the FX line it really suck.
Cons: The FX line is vary buggy I would not Recommend the FX line to any one, I would Recommend you to Keep you Geforce MX, TI or grater, or get a ATI 9800pro. i am going to get rid of my FX 5600, I will not sell it to any one or give it away becouse it's that
