For
starters, 3D Velocity would like to thank Inno3D, especially Stanley for providing
this sample for review.
Now, I'm going out on a limb here and
guessing that you have heard about the fierce competition between rival graphics
card giants ATi and NVIDIA I'll take that one step further and guess that you
have heard about the controversy surrounding their latest offerings, with the
image quality debates as well as the whole bilinear/trilinear filtering and driver
optimization scandals. I see comparisons of ATi and NVIDIA on every review site
every day and from that standpoint, it looks as if NVIDIA is falling a tad behind.
What I haven't seen much of is comparison of NVIDIA last breakthrough card, the
Ti4600 to the recent top offering the FX5900, and what has improved within their
own lineage. So I will be comparing apples to apples here and putting a Ti4400
against the new FX5900.
The recent move by NVIDIA with the introduction
of their FX series of graphics cards (up to the FX5600) left fans of the line
with a feeling of disappointment. The speed increase wasn't what we expected however,
enabling features like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering didn't take as hard
of a toll on performance as they did on the Ti line, but there was a lukewarm
reception anyhow. To step things up NVIDIA overclocked their top chip of the time
(the 5800) and added a supercooler to keep it cool and still lagged behind ATi
(which did not justify having a 42db fan screaming in your ear)
Well, with
for this latest member of the FX family NVIDIA brought a chip that delivers what
we want: increased speed combined with much improved image quality. Thank you
NVIDIA for the nV35, now card manufacturers can take over and start producing
retail cards. And thank you Inno3D for sending over a Tornado FX5900 for us to
put through its paces.
Knowing that the card was arriving overnight from
Hong Kong left me stressed about getting the Ti4400 I will use for comparison
benchmarked within a day so that I could tear right in and get to work. Luckily
I drink strong coffee and am already used to staring at this screen for hours
on end. The card arrived and I was ready to dive right in.
The
box came UPS overnight and looked in good shape. The front boasts a pic of NVIDIA's
latest mascot "Dusk" (she's much prettier than their last mascot… remember
the werewolf?) We'll be seeing a little more of Dusk further into this review.
The
rear has the basics... description of features, description of contents and a
few screens of NVIDIA demos. Not a bad looking box. I am glad to see manufacturers
steering clear of the scary monster approach. Inno3D has chosen to keep their
dignity and offer a classy looking box that won't frighten small children.
