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XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT) REVIEW

In this review we feature two different XFX Geforce FX 5200 video cards, one has a 128bit memory bus and other has a 64bit memory bus. Software used for benchmarking is as follows:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, GLexcess, Quake 3 Arena, Serious Sam SE and Unreal Tournament 2003.

VIDEO CARD	MEMORY	CORE MHZ	MEMORY MHZ	MEMORY BUS	AGP SPEED
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200	128	250	400	128	8x
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200	128	250	333	64	8x
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 OC	128	250	400	64	8x
VIDEO CARD	MEMORY	CORE MHZ	MEMORY MHZ	MEMORY BUS	AGP SPEED

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD ATHLON XP 2500
VIDEO CARD	XFX GEFORCE FX 5200
NVIDIA DRIVER	FORCEWARE v53.03
MOTHERBOARD	ASROCK K7S8X SIS746 FX
MEMORY	512MB CRUCIAL PC2700 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0b

SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS

3DMARK 2001 SE

	7656
	5356
	4638

3DMARK 2003

	1431
	1090
	952

GLEXCESS

	5844
	4798
	4404

XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (128BIT) XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT) OC
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT)

COMMENT - "The 64bit memory version of the XFX Geforce FX 5200 resulted in a 31% performance hit with 3dmark 2001 SE, 24% performance hit with 3dmark 2003 and an 18% performance hit with Glxcess when compared to the 128bit memory version. Using the 64bit versions default memory speed of 333mhz the difference was even greater, this resulted in a performance hit of 40% with 3dmark 2001 SE, 34% with 3dmark 2003 and 25% with Glxcess."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS

3DMARK 2001 SE
1024x768 Resolution
32Bit color
D3D Hardware T&L
Antialiasing Disabled
Double Frame Buffer
Compressed Texture Format
24Bit Z-Buffer Depth
3DMARK 2003
1024x768 Resolution
No Pixel Processing
Optimal Texture Filtering
4x Max Anisotropy
Optimal Vertex Shaders
No Repeat Tests
No Fixed Framerate
GLEXCESS5
1024x768 Resolution
Scene 1 Intro
Scene 2 Waver
Scene 3 Facescape
Scene 4 Exploding Logo

QUAKE III ARENA

1024x768

	159
	106
	87

8x ANISOTROPIC FILTERING

	117
	90
	74

4x FSAA

	55
	34
	27

XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (128BIT) XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT) OC
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT)

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

COMMENT - "The 64bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 is 34% slower than the 128bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 and using default memory speed it's 46% slower. The limitations of the 64bit memory doesn't seem to hurt performance as much when using anisotropic filtering but the 64bit memory still resulted in a 24% performance hit and at default speed a 37% performance hit. We are using FSAA and the 64bit memory of the XFX Geforce FX 5200 has now resulted in a 39% performance hit and at default speed a huge 51% performance hit."

SERIOUS SAM SE

CITADEL

	47
	36
	30

GRAND CATHEDRAL

	42
	33
	28

ELEPHANT ATRIUM

	46
	41
	34

XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (128BIT) XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT) OC
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT)

ENCHMARK SETTINGS
1024x768 Resolution
Fullscreen Enabled
Extreme Quality Settings
Large Texture Size
Optimal Texture Quality
Detail Textures Enabled

COMMENT - "When using the Citadel benchmark the 64bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 was 24% slower than the 128bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 and 37% slower when using default speeds. With Grand Cathedral the 64bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 was 22% slower than at default speeds it was 34% slower. Elephant Atrium had the closest performance, the 64bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 was 11% slower and at default speed it was 27% slower."

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003

FLYBY

	64
	45
	38

BOTMATCH

	41
	30
	25

XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (128BIT) XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT) OC
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT)

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Antalus Benchmark
Character Shadows Enabled
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled

COMMENT - "The flyby demo uses very little cpu power so we should see the biggest performance difference. The 64bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 was 30% slower than the 128bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 and at default speed it was 41% slower. The botmatch demo is more of a game benchmark than the flyby demo so the results should be a bit closer together. The 64bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 was 27% slower than the 128bit XFX Geforce FX 5200 and 40% slower at default."

VIDEO CARD	3DMARK01	3DMARK03	GLEXCESS	QUAKE3	SS2	UT2003
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 OC	-30%	-24%	-18%	-31%	-19%	-29%
XFX GEFORCE FX 5200 (64BIT)	-39%	-33%	-25%	-43%	-32%	-40%
VIDEO CARD	3DMARK01	3DMARK03	GLEXCESS	QUAKE3	SS2	UT2003

CONCLUSION - "When the XFX Geforce FX 5200 (64bit memory bus) is clocked the same as a regular XFX Geforce FX 5200 (250mhz core and 400mhz memory) it's performance is reduced by between 18% and 31%. The XFX Geforce FX 5200 (64bit memory bus) at stock speeds (250mhz core and 333mhz memory) delivers performance between 25% and 43% slower than a regular XFX Geforce FX 5200. To be fair to the XFX Geforce FX 5200 it's available cheaply and isn't being sold as a gamers video card and it's performance is fine for light gaming especially overclocked."