NVIDIA GeForceFX: Brute Force Attack Against the King

The Card

With the GeForceFX, the look of graphics cards has been re-defined. This reference card is a real monster! Through its large cooler, the card weighs in at 610 grams/1.32 lbs - that's about three times the weight of a GeForce4 Ti4800 or a Radeon 9700 PRO (approx. 200 grams/0.49 lbs). But more about the cooler later.

The GeForceFX (NV30) is being introduced in two formats. Apart from the card that we look at in this review, the GeForceFX 5800 Ultra (500 MHz core, 1000 MHz DDR-II), there will also be a "normal" FX 5800 that will run at slower clock speeds (400 MHz core, 800 MHz DDR-II). Some time later, NVIDIA will launch the N31 and NV34 variants, the details of which are not yet known.

The chip runs on an extravagant 12-layer board. Rumors have been going around that NVIDIA will only have complete cards available to card manufacturers and not, as is typical, the individual components - these rumors are incorrect. Although NVIDIA will be delivering a few complete cards in the beginning, so that the manufacturers can quickly introduce cards to the market, the usual kits (chips, memory, cooler) will also be made available. The manufacturers are also free to choose the cooler, as long as it meets the cooling requirements set down by NVIDIA.