5900 Ultra- Price is no object

[NotoriousTAT6]

I plan on buying a 5900 ultra in the next week or so and I have yet to see a roundup of any kind comparing different boards. I was wondering if anyone colud help me select the absolute best 5900 ultra on the market with price being no object. Thus far I have seen products released by MSI, ASUS, Leadtek, e-Vga, ALbatron, BFG.... and I'm sure there are many more... Help me out if you can

 

[Regs]

Kind of hard too. I don't think the 5900 Ultra is out for retail yet.

 

[Schadenfroh]

5900's at new egg
the 256mbs are down at the bottom. i would go with the gainward

 

[TourGuide]

If you're going to go with Gainward shop here as they have the best price.

Yeah! 1000th post!

 

[Krutoy]

I have a BFG Asylum 5900 Ultra and I like it. However I would suggest going with the eVGA e-GeForce FX 5900. Most of the cards you're going to see out are the same reference boards manufactured by Nvidia, the eVGA one comes 50 Mhz over clocked and has the manufacturers warranty on that. From what I read on this review this card is the one to get at this time.

 

[Tab]

Gainward all the way.

 

[TourGuide]

Originally posted by: Krutoy
I have a BFG Asylum 5900 Ultra and I like it. However I would suggest going with the eVGA e-GeForce FX 5900. Most of the cards you're going to see out are the same reference boards manufactured by Nvidia, the eVGA one comes 50 Mhz over clocked and has the manufacturers warranty on that. From what I read on this review this card is the one to get at this time.

This is no longer true. There is a new BIOS that will be coming out for all cards and they are clocked to factory spec, like other mfgs. Apparently they had some issues with some cards being clocked that high.

 

[Corporate Thug]

gainward

 

[Krutoy]

To all the folks saying gainward, assuming all the benchmarks are the same, what makes gainward better?

 

[TourGuide]

Originally posted by: Krutoy
To all the folks saying gainward, assuming all the benchmarks are the same, what makes gainward better?

The extras.

 

[Lawranch]

They are all built by Nvidia right now, so there is no hardware difference, so go by Price/Warranty/software bundle

 

[Corporate Thug]

gainward has been known for there incredible (sp?) build quality

 

[BenSkywalker]

As Lawranch already mentioned, all of the 5900 Ultras are being manufactured by a single supplier right now(under contract directly from nVidia). Go with the best price/software bundle you can find for the time being. I'm planning on holding out for a bit longer until Gainward starts building their own boards(they tend to have the best build quality particularly in terms of 2D quality).

 

[CtK]

Review

this might help

 

[Alphanos]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
As Lawranch already mentioned, all of the 5900 Ultras are being manufactured by a single supplier right now(under contract directly from nVidia). Go with the best price/software bundle you can find for the time being. I'm planning on holding out for a bit longer until Gainward starts building their own boards(they tend to have the best build quality particularly in terms of 2D quality).

This is from the gamepc review mentioned above, so you should check that out. After reading it myself a couple of days ago, I say you should go with either the Gainward or MSI (who include a huge software bundle). I found that the MSI boards are not as easy to find here in Canada, but I don't know about down south.

 

[Shamrock]

I got the Gainward 5900 Ultra, and it came yesterday...it came OVERCLOCKED and the Experttool that comes with it, makes it easy to overclock even more.

It came in the box OC'ed to 460/870

 

[FluxCap]

Give us some benchies shamrock

 

[Dack76]

Got mine yesterday, Gainward. Overclocked to 501/980...with 6053 in 3Dmark03 running 44.03's.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Dack76
Got mine yesterday, Gainward. Overclocked to 501/980...with 6053 in 3Dmark03 running 44.03's.

c'mon now, you need to get that thing to 500/1000

 

[Shamrock]

what benchies you want?

I have:

BF1942
UT2K3
Starseige Tribes (Old game)
Rise of Nations
C&C: Generals
F1 2002
Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast
Tribes 2
NeverWinter Nights


on a side note, that Hard OCP article in UT2k3 where the NV was getting 35fps, and ATI was getting 90? utter crap. They stated they got 35 fps @1024 x 768. On the Sun Temple map.

I did same map, with a slower machine (I have an AMD 2200+) 37 fps @ 1600x1200 8xAA/8xAF. I go indoors and get upto 83 (I havent tried @1024x768 at all)
After I get finished enjoying me new toy, me will begin benching (no 3dmark, period)

*edit* I forgot to mention I got the Gainward FX PowerPack Ultra 1600 XP Golden Sample

 

[Schadenfroh]

1942

 

[Shamrock]

BF1942

1600x1200 @85hz 8xAA/8xAF

I am a sniper so...

playing regular....15-19fps
zoomed up on scope.....35-38fps

BUT, BF42 utilizes ALOT of CPU...so you need a BIG cpu, ALOT of RAM, and a good vid card

since I only have an AMD Athlon XP 2200+, and 512 RAM, it might be hindered a bit.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: shady06
gainward has been known for there incredible (sp?) build quality

I think the people with the Ti4200's that had defective capacitors would strongly disagree with that statement.

 

[Mem]

I would go with the Leadtek model,they have even beaten Gainward on a few times in image quality ,also they just seem better value for money then the Gainward models which if you remember had a very bad run of faulty GF4 TI4200 cards awhile back,quality control?.

 

[stardust]

i heard the leadtek was pretty loud tho.. some french site clocked it at 56dba??