• Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones Review
• LG Electronics Flatron L1980Q LCD Review
• LITEON LVC-9006 DVD and VHS Recorder Review

Prolink GeForce FX5900XT Golden Limited Video Card Review

Company:

Prolink, www.prolink.com.tw

Price:

Suggested retail price is $219 US.

Ratings

Price:
Install/Setup:
Usability:
Support:
Average Rating:

Pros:

• Great value with exceptional performance.
• Provided Patrolman utility and mounted LCD are great for monitoring card temperatures and fan speeds.

Cons:

• The only drawback that we could find was the plastic on the little lcd display seemed a little weak, but really isn't that bad.

The Card

After years of dominance in the graphic card market, nVIDIA suffered a series of blows which have since seen their market share shrink accordingly. That said, it seems like nVIDIA is back on the road to redemption, and releasing cards like the GeForceFX 5900XT is certainly helping their cause. The Prolink GeForce FX5900XT Golden Limited videocard we are testing in this review retails for about $219 US, and is backed with 128MB of DDR RAM, has a DVI port, and even an S-Video output. With an nVidia FX5900XT chip under the hood, the results are pretty good. Prolink includes a bundle of cables along with the card as well as hardware to mount the Plasma Display on the front bezel. Also included is a utility disk and PowerDVD.

The Plasma Display Fan (PDFII)

PixelView PDFII provides easy monitoring of fan speeds(RPM) and card temperature. The Large LED Blue backlight display is very easy to read the current card temperature. It can be left mounted on the card or can be mountd in the front bezel. In addition,users can manually control the fan speeds using the PixelView Patrolman or control can be left to the self auto - detected system. The variable fan speeds keep the card cool when it's running hard and keeps itself quite when the extra cooling isn't needed.

1. Aluminum alloy Housing
2. All in one thermal system
3. VGA Fan speed & temperature Controlling and Monitoring
4. C(Celsius) or F (Fahrenheit) switch mode
5. Large Blue Icy Crystal Displayer
6. Noise Reduction Technology
7. Altnernate view angles. Inside: 3 view angles(0,90,180 degrees); Outside: Mounted in front Panel

Patrolman Hardware Monitor

A great tool included with the card is the PixelView Patrolman. This utility provides an integrated Hardware Monitor system that allows real-time control and details of card conditions. It can monitor and display fan, card temperature, voltages, as well as GPU and Memory Frequency. The real-time Fan speed and Temperature selfdiagnosis will also display at the same time both on PC monitor and PDFII display. With PixelView Patrolman you get a great utility for real time monitoring of your card.

1. Easy tune Over clocking utility (A & B)
2. High-tech VGA voltage Monitor (D, E, & F)
3. Real time Temperature Monitoring (C)
4. Real time Fan Control ling & Monitoring: 3 stages fan speed of Temperature Mode. (G)
5. Thermal Protection – if Fan is stopping or broken, Patrolman will warn user by alarm.

Detailed Specifications

Over Clocking

The PixelView Patrolman utility provides a quick and easy way to overclock both the core and the memory. You can change settings, run a test, and either revert back to the previous settings or save your new ones. This makes it quite easy to back down if things start to get unstable. When we first started to play with the Prolink FX5900XT we found the core was clocked at 390 MHz, which is about the same speed as the regular GeForceFX 5900! Starting at 390 MHz, we immediately increased the core speed to 415 MHz. Not surprisingly, the FX5900XT had no problem with that. Next we pushed it to 425 MHz, or Again this card didn't have a problem hitting that mark! At this point we stopped here to move on to the memory, but I'm sure we could have squeezed out a bit more speed.

Next up was the memory. The memory was already clocked at its theoretical max speed (1000 MHz / 2.8ns x 2 = 714 MHz). We were pretty sure the memory would be good to 760-780 MHz. Fortunately for us, the memory was up to our overclocking challenge. Starting at 700 MHz we slowly raised the memory frequency in 5 MHz intervals. We quite at 790 MHz even though there was probably more to give. At these setting the overclocked core and memory played very well together.

Benchmark Test Results

Even thought there are hundreds of benchmarks available on all flavors of the GeForce FX5900XT, we include a few results for comparison. The Prolink GeForce FX5900XT Golden Limited video card was addd to our test system at its factory settings. Our test system is made up of the following:

• Intel P4 2.53GHz Processor
• Gigabyte 8SQ800, SiS 655
• 2x 512MB PC2700 Crucial DDR Memory
• 120 GB WD Speical Edition Hard Drive
• 350W Antec Power Supply
• Windows® XP SP1
• ForceWare Driver version 56.72

Adding It All Up

The Prolink GeForce FX5900XT Golden Limited video card has found a home in my gaming PC. With the included utilites and functionality, you get a stellar performing card that looks good and doesn't sound like a jet taking off. It provides sharp clear graphics and very smooth gameplay with even the most demanding games. For the general home or business user this card might be a little much, but for only $200 why pass it up? For anyone that games but don't want to spend $400 on a video card, the Prolink GeForce FX5900XT Golden Limited is the card for you!!

Need to search for a different product or additional info?

	Web www.upgradeadvisor.com