VGA Card Buyer's Guide 07/2003

ABIT

The Taiwan-based manufacturer ABIT, which made a name for itself with the overclocking capabilities of its motherboards, produces not only graphics boards with NVIDIA chipsets and motherboards, but also server/ workstation systems and multimedia products such as sound cards and speakers.

You can find support on the ABIT homepage under the heading "RMA online." In addition to its support form contact option, ABIT also offers a large online forum in which you'll quickly find the help you need.

ABIT Siluro FX 5600 Ultra DT

The ABIT Siluro FX 5600 Ultra DT is based on NVIDIA's GeForceFX 5600 Ultra. Since the card we tested does not use the new flip-chip version of the 5600 Ultra, its clock speed is much lower! The card ships with 128 MB DDR RAM (128 bit DDR) in FBGA format (Hynix 28: designed for 350 MHz (700 MHz DDR)). The board is clocked with the "old" official FX5600 Ultra specs (350/ 700 MHz).

ABIT uses a blue PCB. The cooling for the chip comes from a silver-colored heat sink hidden under a large panel and beautifully offset by a fan studded with blue LEDs. Unfortunately, the fan itself is no pussyfooter; you can always tell when it's on by the racket it kicks up.