XFX GEFORCE 5200 REVIEW

"XFX GeForce 5200 review testing the new XFX GeForce 5200 against the Gainward GeForce4 MX 440. Software used for testing was:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, Quake 3 Arena, Serious Sam SE and Unreal Tournament 2003."

THE XFX GEFORCE 5200 INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING FEATURES:-

CineFX Engine - Powers cinematic effects beyond imagination. With advanced vertex and pixel shader capabilities, stunning and complex special effects are possible. In addition, increased horsepower delivers faster and smoother gameplay.

High-Precision Graphics - By combining the incredible dynamic range of today's state-of-the-art 3D motion pictures with 128-bit studio-precision colour, the GeForce GPUs bring you the industry’s best image quality for the most demanding applications.

AGP 8X - Provides double the bandwidth of AGP 4X—2.1GB/sec. vs. 1.1BG/sec. AGP 8X enables more complex models and detailed textures, creating richer and more lifelike environments. Uninterrupted data flow allows for smoother video streaming and faster, more seamless gameplay.

nView Multi-display Technology - The nView hardware and software technology combination delivers maximum flexibility for multi-display options, and provides unprecedented end-user control of the desktop experience.

Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) - Allows the user to adjust colour controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colours in all conditions. Currently this feature is not available on Mac systems.

Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Optimizations and Support - Ensures the best performance and application compatibility for all DirectX 9 applications.

OpenGL® 1.4 Optimizations and Support - Ensures the best performance and application compatibility for all OpenGL applications.

Integrated TV Encoder - Provides best-of-class TV-out functionality for resolutions up to 1024x768.

Integrated Full Hardware MPEG-2 Decoder - Delivers full-frame, full-screen MPEG-2 video on your desktop.

New 64-phase Video Scaler - Highest quality for scaling DVD and other video to full-screen HDTV resolutions.

DVI Support - Able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays with up to 1600x1200 resolution.

350MHz RAMDACs - Supports QXGA displays with ergonomic refresh rates.

Architected for Cg - Ensures that the newest, cutting-edge special effects in applications will run flawlessly. Speeds up content creation so game developers can get their new games out to PC users faster than ever before.

Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) - Guarantees forward and backward compatibility with software drivers. Simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software.

NAME	CHIPSET	GPU SPEED	MEMORY	UK PRICE	US PRICE
XFX GEFORCE 5200	Nv34	250mhz	128Mb 400mhz DDR	£77	$74
GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX 440	Nv17	270mhz	64Mb 400mhz DDR	£43	$58

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD ATHLON XP 2000
VIDEO CARD	XFX GEFORCE 5200
	GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX 440
NVIDIA DRIVER	DETONATOR v43.45
MOTHERBOARD	ASUS A7S333
MEMORY	512MB SAMSUNG PC2100 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0a

3DMARK 2001 SE	XFX GEFORCE 5200	GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX 440
BENCHMARK	6679	5694
GAME 1 - CAR CHASE (LQ)	98	105
GAME 1 - CAR CHASE (HQ)	41	41
GAME 2 - DRAGOTHIC (LQ)	103	101
GAME 2 - DRAGOTHIC (HQ)	57	46
GAME 3 - LOBBY (LQ)	106	96
GAME 3 - LOBBY (HQ)	50	46
GAME 4 - NATURE	33	N/A
FILL RATE (SINGLE-TEXTURING)	628	443
FILL RATE (MULTI-TEXTURING)	731	846
HIGH POLYGON COUNT (1 LIGHT)	31	30
HIGH POLYGON COUNT (8 LIGHTS)	5	6
ENVIRONMENT BUMP MAPPING	73	N/A
DOT3 BUMP MAPPING	73	66
VERTEX SHADER	46	49
PIXEL SHADER	86	N/A
ADVANCED PIXEL SHADER	32	N/A
POINT SPRITES	12	10

COMMENT - "The XFX GeForce 5200 wins this test fairly easily, it has all of the features to run all of the tests which result in a higher score. The Gainward GeForce4 MX 440 lacks pixels shaders which means it's unable to run the nature, pixel shader and advanced pixel shader tests."

3DMARK 2003	XFX GEFORCE 5200	GAINWARD GEFORCE4 MX 440
BENCHMARK	1390	228
WINGS OF FURY	73	32
BATTLE OF PROXYCON	8	N/A
TROLL'S LAIR	6	N/A
MOTHER NATURE	8	N/A
FILL RATE (SINGLE-TEXTURING)	466	439
FILL RATE (MULTI-TEXTURING)	708	813
VERTEX SHADER	5	N/A
PIXEL SHADER V2.0	8	N/A
RAGTROLL	5	N/A

COMMENT - "The first thing you will notice when you run 3dmark03 with a Gainward GeForce4 MX 440 is the warning message. The Gainward GeForce4 MX 440 lacks so much of the advanced hardware needed for 3dmark03 that it can only complete one test hence the very low score. The XFX GeForce 5200 once again has all of the required hardware including dx9 support which is why it's score is so much better than the Gainward GeForce4 MX 440. If 3dmark03 was a game the scores for even the XFX GeForce 5200 would be unplayable, 73fps for wings of fury which is a dx7 flight simulator test are the only playable results with either video cards. What does this mean for the future? I don't think it means that all dx9 games will be unplayable on the XFX GeForce 5200, 3dmark03 is a benchmark which is designed to stress your video card to the max. Games companies want to sell their games to as wide an audience as possible and they will make sure that their games will perform well with even the most limited hardware. Having dx9 support will allow the XFX GeForce 5200 to use features which can't be used by dx7 or dx8 video cards which should mean the games are even more visually impressive."