First Look at NVidia's GeForceFX

NVidia is touting its GeForceFX 5800 Ultra graphics board, the first to use its new 500-MHz graphics chip, as the fastest on the market. Problem is, it's also the loudest, hottest, biggest, and priciest.

PC World's exclusive tests of a GeForceFX 5800 Ultra suggest that unless NVidia can speed the board's operation significantly through updated drivers, the most noise this high-end board will make is from the dull roar of its extensive cooling system.

The GeForceFX 5800 is scheduled to appear in PCs arriving at retail in early March; NVidia partners should begin shipping retail boards priced at about $400 around the same time.

The 5800 Ultra graphics card is the first to implement the GeForceFX graphics chip announced at Comdex last fall. At the chip's introduction, NVidia representatives said that boards based on the GeForceFX chip would begin shipping by January, so it's two months late.

Faster--Sometimes

The 5800's most impressive test result: It ran our Unreal Tournament test at 126 frames per second in 1600-by-1200 resolution in 32-bit color, besting its main competitor-- ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro--by almost 25 frames per second.

At real-world resolutions, however, the 5800 Ultra couldn't outrun its older, smaller, quieter ATI competitor. For example, at 1024 by 768, our top-performing 9700 Pro board logged 175 frames per second, while the 5800 managed 168 fps. In the 1024-by-768 anti-aliased Unreal Tournament test, both the 5800 and 9700 scored 154 fps; but testers preferred the image quality of the Radeon.

I Can't Hear You

Physically, NVidia's card is sure to turn heads, thanks to a custom-designed heat pipe and fan system that's so big it blocks an adjacent PCI slot. The complex assembly is needed to cool the 500-MHz graphics chip and 128MB of 1-GHz DDR II memory responsible for the card's performance.

When running 2D graphics such as a Windows desktop, the Ultra's fan spins at a lower speed that's loud, but not overwhelming. Once a 3D application starts, however, the fan kicks into high gear, becoming so loud that it drowned out the noise made by other PC components in the test system.

NVidia representatives say they've dampened the fan noise in boards bound for retail sale, but the question remains: Will high-end gamers pay a premium for a noisy card that doesn't blow the performance doors off the competition? And while the current Radeon 9700 Pro already measures up well against the 5800, ATI plans to ship boards based on an updated Radeon chip shortly after the GeForceFX's begins shipping.

Crown Isn't Assured

For years, betting on NVidia's next product was a sure thing, but some high-end PC builders say they're not sure the GeForce FX is a winner.

"We'll be offering it," says Kelt Reeves, president of gaming-system manufacturer Falcon Northwest. "But we probably won't be actively recommending the card. It will only be right for people with very high-end resolution and anti-aliasing needs."

Given the long delays preceding the release of the GeForceFX--gamers and system-builders have been waiting for it since well before the chip's announcement--others are sure to consider the product a bit of a letdown.

"We're disappointed mainly because of where it is chronologically," Reeves says. "The card is fast, but we were announced as a launch partner at Comdex. The hype has been going on for so long, it would have had to go over the top to [measure up]."