Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 Ultra

The 5200 Ultra, formerly known as NV34, is pretty much the only card in a very saturated market to be vaguely different.

This replacement for the Geforce4 MX range bears little resemblance to its Geforce FX brethren, the most obvious difference being its use of 0.15micron technology rather than the faster and less power-hungry 0.13micron used by the 5600 and 5800.

The chip runs at a respectable 325MHz and requires an external Molex power connector. The DDR memory also runs at a brisk 325MHz.

The most impressive aspect of these 9200 cards, be it the standard (£60) or this Ultra version, is that they are the cheapest cards to be fully DirectX 9 (DX9) compatible.

ATI's Radeon 9600 is more expensive than the 5200 Ultra, while the standard version's main competitor, ATI's 9200, is again more expensive, but only caters for DirectX 8.1.

Apart from clock speed and use of 0.15micron technology, Nvidia claims that the card is pretty identical to the 5600. Unreal Tournament performance is significantly slower than the 5600, though 43 frames per second (fps) is respectable and, while it could support 8x anisotropic filtering and 4x full-scene anti-aliasing, it ran at a measly 5fps.

It achieved a 3Dmark 2001 score of 9,468 - excellent for a budget card. Its 3Dmark 2003 score was equally high at 1,760 - it's impressive that such a card will run 3Dmark 2003 at all.

While these scores would last month have been impressive and deserving of an award, the arrival of the Radeon 9600 at such a low price means Nvidia will have a tough time releasing anything that can compete.

Contact: Nvidia
www.nvidia.com

Specifications:

• 325MHz core
• 128MB DDR memory running at 325MHz
• OpenGL 2.0 and DirectX 9 compliant
• VGA, DVI and S-Video outputs
• AGP4x, 8x

See also:

Matrox Millennium P750

Parhelia performance at a reasonable price.  30 Jul 2003

Nvidia GeforceFX 5600 vs ATI Radeon 9600

We compare a pair of 3D cards using 0.13micron technology.  30 Jun 2003

Hercules 3D Prophet All-In-Wonder 9000

The All-In-Wonder 9000 Pro is packed with features.  17 Apr 2003

Sis Xabre 600

Budget-conscious gamers will like this graphics card.  11 Apr 2003

Abit Siluro Ti4200 OTES

Overclocking gives this graphics card better performance at no extra cost.  05 Mar 2003

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