Albatron FX5900 XTV

Introduction

With the recent release of the GeForce 6 Series on April 13th, we must not forget the cards whose prices will drop. According to this Digitimes.com article,
“Nvidia is offering discounts of 10%-20% to graphics card makers, with the goal of clearing out several million graphics processing units (GPUs) from inventory before the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2005, which ends April 30, according to sources at Taiwanese makers.”

So the price drop will not be immediate, but on its way. On that note, we are going to take a look at the Albatron FX5900 XTV VIVO solution. This card features the second most recent core released by nVidia: the FX5900XT.

The FX5900XT is based on the same core technology as the 5900, 5900 Ultra, and 5950 Ultra. However, the core frequency is only running at 390MHz, whereas the 5900 runs at 400MHz. So, unlike ATI’s ‘XT’ branding, the nVidia 5900XT performs less than the 5900, which would be similar to ATI’s ‘SE’ cards. Here is a chart to help further explain this.

Now that you have an idea where this card fits in with its brothers, let’s move on to what is included with this card.

The Bundle:

• User Manual
• VIVO Connections
• S-Video cable
• Composite Video cable
• DVI-to-VGA Adapter
• Included Software:

• Driver CD
• Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
• Game Pack CD:

• AOWII
• Max Payne
• Zax
• Beam Breaker
• Rally Trophy

Albatron has put together a pretty respectable bundle with this 5900XT card. It comes with everything you need to use this card to its fullest potential. Some may complain about the lack of “new, big-name” titles as far as bundled games go, but some pretty good games are included nonetheless. The only real thing I see that is missing from this bundle is a molex ‘Y’ cable. Since this card requires external power from your PSU, you will be out of luck if you don’t have anymore power plugs.