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INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA

"Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra review testing the new Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra against the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200, Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra and XFX GeForce 5200. Software was:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, GL Excess, Quake 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Serious Sam the Second Encounter and Unreal Tournament 2003."

Today we are testing the latest mainstream video card from Innovision the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra. This video card uses the NV31 gpu from Nvidia and is clocked at roughly the same speed as the budget Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra. The GeForce 5600 Ultra was released to replace the GeForce4 Ti4200 and to compete against the Radeon 9600 range of video cards from ATI. The Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra is a full DX9 video card unlike the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 which only supports DX8. Powered by the same advanced technology and features as the 5800 GPUs, the GeForce 5600 Ultra delivers studio-quality color and amazing cinematic gaming effects, without breaking the bank.

In this test we have decided to compare the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra against the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 which is also from Nvidia. To show the performance increase when compared to lower priced video cards we have also included the Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra and the XFX GeForce 5200.

THE INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA 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.

Intellisample Technology

The industry’s fastest and highest quality antialiasing delivers ultra-realistic visuals, with no jagged edges, at lightning-fast speeds.

New 64-phase Video Scaler

Highest quality for scaling DVD and other video to full-screen HDTV resolutions.

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.

Integrated Full Hardware MPEG-2 Decoder

Delivers full-frame, full-screen MPEG-2 video on your desktop.

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.

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.

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.

NAME	CHIPSET	GPU SPEED	MEMORY	AGP SPEED
INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA	NV31	350mhz	128Mb 700mhz DDR	8x
INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA	NV34	325mhz	128Mb 650mhz DDR	8x
XFX GEFORCE 5200	NV34	250mhz	128Mb 400mhz DDR	8x
MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200	NV28	250mhz	128Mb 512mhz DDR	8x

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD ATHLON XP 2500
VIDEO CARD	INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA
	INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA
	XFX GEFORCE 5200
	MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200
NVIDIA DRIVER	DETONATOR v45.23
MOTHERBOARD	ASROCK K7S8X
MEMORY	512MB CRUCIAL PC2700 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0b

	INNO3D GEFORCE FX 5600 ULTRA	MSI GEFORCE4 Ti4200	INNO3D GEFORCE FX 5200 ULTRA	XFX GEFORCE FX 5200
3DMARK 2001 SE	9630	10395	9119	7656
GAME 1 CAR CHASE (LQ)	144	163	125	103
GAME 2 DRAGOTHIC (LQ)	152	179	158	124
GAME 3 LOBBY (LQ)	144	144	136	121
GAME 1 CAR CHASE (HQ)	54	58	53	48
GAME 2 DRAGOTHIC (HQ)	82	103	80	66
GAME 3 LOBBY (HQ)	66	67	64	59
GAME 4 NATURE	60	48	50	35

COMMENT "This is a disappointing result for the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra because I expected it to reach atleast 10,000 points and it was beaten by the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 in all of the benchmarks apart from one. However the one benchmark the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra performed much better than the rest of the video cards tested is the most important. All of the game demos like Car Chase, Dragothic and Lobby are using DX7, the Nature demo is using DX8 pixel shading technology and the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra delivered an impressive 60fps."

	INNO3D GEFORCE FX 5600 ULTRA	MSI GEFORCE4 Ti4200	INNO3D GEFORCE FX 5200 ULTRA	XFX GEFORCE FX 5200
3DMARK 2003	2880	1464	1919	1431
WINGS OF FURY	115	98	99	79
BATTLE OF PROXYCON	21	9	10	7
TROLL'S LAIR	17	9	8	6
MOTHER NATURE	14	N/A	10	8

COMMENT "The Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra beats the second placed Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra by 961 points and the XFX GeForce 5200 by 1449 points which was a very impressive result. The MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 does well for a DX8 video card and although it's unable to run the DX9 Mother Nature it does well in the other demos."

GL EXCESS

XSMARK

	7562
	6936
	7311
	5844

FILLRATE

	7657
	5908
	7845
	4783

POLYGON COUNT

	10212
	9588
	8916
	6296

INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200
INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA XFX GEFORCE 5200

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
1024x768 Resolution
Scene 1 Intro
Scene 2 Waver
Scene 3 Facescape
Scene 4 Exploding Logo

COMMENT "The Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra puts in a great performance with this benchmark, it delivered the highest xsmark and polygon count. However it didn't manage to beat the Inno3D GeForce 5200 Ultra's impressive fillrate which was a surprise."

QUAKE 3

800x600

	232
	232
	223
	212

1024x768

	219
	215
	198
	159

1280x1024

	201
	198
	174
	132

INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200
INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA XFX GEFORCE 5200

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Four.dm68 Benchmark
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Compress Disabled
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometric Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

COMMENT "Now we start the important benchmarks, the games benchmarks. As always we have started with Quake 3, although the Quake engine is now getting old it is still used in a wide range of different games. The Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra starts off strongly and manages to draw or beat the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 by a small margin at all of the resolutions tested. Let's turn on 4x FSAA and see what happens."

QUAKE 3
4x FSAA

640x480

	223
	200
	180
	135

800x600

	200
	153
	128
	90

1024x768

	141
	98
	84
	55

INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200
INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA XFX GEFORCE 5200

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Four.dm68 Benchmark
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Compress Disabled
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometric Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

COMMENT "With 4x FSAA now enabled it's clear to see the impact it's had on all of the video cards but especially the XFX GeForce 5200. The Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra puts in a fantastic performance and leads the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 by a big margin."

QUAKE 3
4x FSAA & 8x ANISOTROPIC

640x480

	199
	174
	152
	112

800x600

	157
	124
	107
	77

1024x768

	110
	81
	73
	49

INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200
INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA XFX GEFORCE 5200

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Four.dm68 Benchmark
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Compress Disabled
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometric Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

COMMENT "With 8x Anisotropic filtering as well as 4x FSAA enabled the XFX GeForce 5200 is starting to struggle badly. The Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra still manages to stay ahead of the MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 but not by as big a margin as in the previous test. What is especially impressive about the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra is the 110fps it manages to achieve at 1024x768 which is impressive."

QUAKE 3
ANISOTROPIC

2x ANISOTROPIC

	202
	193
	177
	138

4x ANISOTROPIC

	184
	170
	163
	126

8x ANISOTROPIC

	168
	153
	152
	117

INNO3D GEFORCE 5600 ULTRA MSI GEFORCE4 TI4200
INNO3D GEFORCE 5200 ULTRA XFX GEFORCE 5200

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Four.dm68 Benchmark
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Compress Disabled
Lightmap Lighting
High Geometric Detail
Full Texture Detail
Trilinear Texture Filtering

COMMENT "Anisotropic filtering improves image quality and with most modern video cards there is no reason to have it disabled. This test is designed to show the performance hit you will get with the different levels of anisotropic filtering. As you can see at all levels of anisotropic filtering the Inno3D GeForce 5600 Ultra is able to deliver better performance than the MSI GeForce Ti4200 which is why it should always be used."