Albatron GeForce FX5200 Ultra

Package:

• S-Video to AV Adapter
• AV Cable
• Drivers CD
• WinDVD Creator

Compared to some video card packages I have seen, the Albatron FX5200U is lacking some games and an S-video cable. Albatron gives you enough to use an AV cable, but does not give you an S-video cable if you have a TV that will allow you to utilize a higher TV-OUT picture quality.

Features:

Albatron uses 128mb of Hynix memory on this card that is rated at 700 mhz. Albatron has the memory clocked at 650 mhz from the factory. The FX5200 Ultra core is typically ran at 325 mhz, but we found that when you just take the card out of the box and plug it in, it is only running at the FX 5200 (non-Ultra) core speed of 250 mhz. This is because you have to “activate” the higher core speed via the software that the card comes with.

Below is a screen shot of the Hynix data sheet that shows the specs of the memory chip pictured above.

The Albatron FX5200U also has a decent cooling system that consists of a HSF on the core with heatsinks on the memory modules. Air is blown over the ram-sinks to allow for a type of “Active” cooling on the memory, a cooling design that has been working for Albatron for a number of video cards.

An important part of cooling is properly applying thermal paste on the ram and core to allow for optimal cooling. The picture below shows the contact that the ram-sinks and core HSF made on the card from the factory. Overall I’d say it is satisfactory, although the thermal paste really should cover the entire surface it is being applied to. When we put the ram-sinks and core HSF back on the card, we physically spread Arctic Silver Ceramique on the ram and core, attached the ram-sinks and HSF, and then took them off again to ensure that proper contact was being made for optimal cooling.

The last thing I would like to point out for this section is that Albatron has added a molex power connector to this card to give the card more power than what just the AGP slot offers. Hopefully this will allow for a rock-stable card that is showing lots of potential.

Now let’s move on to see how this card performs!