[H]ard|OCP reviews MSI's FX 5900 XT.
MSI has been an NVIDIA only add-in-board partner since they introduced their line of video cards. As it happens in this field things do change, and usually it is the demand for a product that makes things change. Demand for a product can go both ways; there can be less of it, or more of it. As many manufacturers have found out in order to appeal with the masses they must be diverse and offer products that will ultimately sell to more people. As has happened and is continuing to happen manufacturers are finding that they need to offer products from not just one Independent Hardware Vender, but from multiple IHVs. This is currently what is happening at MSI, they may in fact be gearing up to launch some ATI based products. If so this can only help business as they would be offering both NVIDIA and ATI products so you the buyer can decide which one you want to go for.
That said today we have an NVIDIA based card to look at, one that many people have been curious about. We are talking about the GeForceFX 5900XT. Yes NVIDIA has indeed put an ?XT? at the end of 5900 for this new card. No doubt you are thinking competition with the ATI Radeon 9600XT, that is exactly what struck our minds the second we heard it.
So what is the 5900XT? The 5900XT is what was known as the ?Value? 5900 when it was announced with the whole 5900 lineup almost a year ago. The 5900XT is based off of the NV35 core which is exactly the same as the 5900 and 5900Ultra. The NV35 core as you can read about here is made from TSMC?s .13 micron manufacturing process. Its pixel pipeline configuration is 4x2 and that remains the same for the 5900XT. The 5900XT supports every feature the NV35 core has to offer, it is exactly the same as the 5900 and 5900Ultra in terms of 3D features. It also rides on a 256bit memory bus, same as the 5900 and 5900Ultra, NVIDIA did not reduce the memory bus to 128bits wide which is where the GeForceFX 5700Ultra sits at...
[read more]
