GEFORCE FX 5200 PERFORMANCE

"In this article we test the Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 using 1944 Battle of the Bulge, Aurora Watching, Cronicles of Riddick, Comanche4, Codename Panzers Phase Two, Delta Force Extreme, Earth 2160, Far Cry, GT Legends, King Kong, Lego Star Wars, Quake 3 Arena, Quake 4, Scooter War3z, Scrapland, Serious Sam 2, Trackmania Sunrise, Tribes Vengeance, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, Warhammer Dawn of War, World Racing 2 and Xpand Rally."

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 FX 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.

1944 - BATTLE OF THE BULGE LOW QUALITY 52 35 24 17 MEDIUM QUALITY 10 8 7 6 HIGH QUALITY 7 6 5 4 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200 COMMENT - "1944 Battle of the Bulge was playable with the Geforce FX 5200 but only at 800x600 using low quality settings. When medium or high quality settings were used the Geforce FX 5200 suffered a huge performance loss of between 65% to 81%." BENCHMARK SETTINGS St. Vith Scenario LOW QUALITY Texture Detail Low Particle Density Low Shadow Resolution Low Water Disabled Decals Disabled Fog Enabled Wire Physics Disabled Grass Disabled MEDIUM QUALITY Texture Detail Medium Particle Density Medium Shadow Resolution Medium Water Disabled Decals Enabled Fog Enabled Wire Physics Disabled Grass Enabled HIGH QUALITY Texture Detail High Particle Density High Shadow Resolution High Water Enabled Decals Enabled Fog Enabled Wire Physics Enabled Grass Enabled

AURORA WATCHING LOW QUALITY 28 22 17 12 MEDIUM QUALITY 22 17 11 8 HIGH QUALITY 13 10 6 4 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200 COMMENT - "We expected better from the Geforce FX 5200 with Aurora Watching but it's performance using any resolution or quality setting left Aurora Watching unplayable." BENCHMARK SETTINGS "Worst Hangover Ever" Level LOW QUALITY Quality Shadows Disabled Texture Resolution 25% Pixel Shaders Disabled Fullscreen Effects Disabled Decal Textures Disabled High Particle Count Enabled MEDIUM QUALITY Quality Shadows Enabled Texture Resolution 50% Pixel Shaders Disabled Fullscreen Effects Disabled Decal Textures Enabled High Particle Count Enabled HIGH QUALITY Quality Shadows Enabled Texture Resolution 75% Pixel Shaders Enabled Fullscreen Effects Disabled Decal Textures Enabled High Particle Count Enabled