FX 5900 vs. FX 5700 Ultra

[jonwes]

I just bought a 5700 Ultra last week and I'm pleased with the performance, but I have realized that I can get into a 5900 (non ultra) for about $50 more. Would this be a worthwhile way to go? Although the 5700 has faster RAM, the 5900 has a 256 bit core versus the 5700's 128 bit core.

[Neo19]

The 5900 non ultra is better. even with the higher core and memory on the 5700. the 5900 beats it in benchmarks because of the 256 bit memory bus and you can easily overclock the 5900. i can get mine to 475 / 950 no problem which is 5950 clock speeds. id say if you have the money get the 5900 if not stick with the 5700

[jonwes]

Took your advice and returned the 5700 Ultra tonight and got the BFG Aslylum 5900 (non-ultra). Does anyone have this card that can comment on it? It's massive and very heavy with blue neon fans that light up your whole case.

[tgxiii]

Where did u buy your 5900?

[BenQ]

i have the evga version.:)

[Neo19]

Thats what i got only i took off the heatsink. I added ramsinks and threw on my maze4 water block. i having it running at 495/911. Benching about 13695 on 3dmark01, 4957 on 3dmark03. im very happy with this card havent had a problem yet.

[BenQ]

what your comp. specs.?

[Neo19]

Amd athlon xp rev. b 2100 @2.2ghz 170fsb X 13 multiplier
Soyo KT400 dragon ultra platinum Edition
1gb mushkin pc3200 2-2-2-1t timings
BFG Geforce 5900 128mb @ 500/900
52X24X52 liteon
16X DVD
maxtor 100GB primary
maxtor 120gb secondary
600 watt power supply
windows XP Pro
custom water cooling:
Hydor L30 pump
Maze 3 shd on cpu
Maze 4 gpu on videocard
swiftech RAD676 radiator with dual 120mm fans

[jonwes]

Back to the original question, I picked the BFG Asylum FX 5900 up at Fry's Electronics, locally here in Southern California. It just made sense. I paid $219.99 for the FX 5700 Ultra less a $20 mail in rebate, so why not just pay another $30.00 and not have to deal with any rebates. I tried a few titles last night and it seems to be performing very well. I'm finding that 1280x1024 with 4XAA and 8XAF is a good compromise between quality and performance. Freedom Fighters runs perfectly even on the levels with the snow coming down, which is what originally provoked me to upgrade from a GeForce4 MX 440 that slowed down to 2-3 FPS on those levels. I tried the autodetect option on the Coolbits overclocking tab and it came up 436 core and 922 memory. Do you think it's safe to go beyond that? I know the guy above this message mentioned he's running water cooling and doesn't exceed the low 900's on the memory. . .

[Neo19]

acutally youll get more of a boost on core clock speeds than memory. i can get my memory to 1ghz if i lower the core to like 420. i also had it at 475/950. it really depends you have to mess around benchmarking it to see where the best performance is and if it will run stable or not. try increasing the core till u get artifacting then decrease it like 10 or 15 mhz, then increase the memory till u see artifacting and decrease it 10 mhz or so