The letters “XT” in the name of a graphics card may mean quite opposite things, although they are usually perceived as an indication of a high class of the product. This is really true for GPUs from ATI Technologies, but NVIDIA applies the XT suffix to graphics processors that are worse than their mates, usually in the frequencies.

Graphics card manufacturers usually use a simplified PCB and cheaper components for the XT-marked models to reduce the cost of the end product and make it more appealing to people who want a reasonably fast and modestly-priced device. But is it always true that XT-marked graphics cards on GPUs from NVIDIA have this simple PCB design and work at reduced clock rates?

That’s what we’re going to find out today, examining the Gainward FX Ultra/1300XT Power Pack! Golden Sample graphics card!

Package and Accessories

The received the device in a nice-looking box with a gold sticker announcing that this graphics card bears a GeForce FX 5900 XT graphics processor and 256MB of memory. The Golden Sample denotation implies that we have something very special here. The design of the package is pleasing to the eye with its mild color scheme. The right part of the box depicts the face of a cute girl against a background of a mysterious planet.

The backside of the box lists the capabilities and characteristics of the product and has a table of supported screen modes. There’s nothing unusual there. We open the box up to find the following (besides the graphics card proper):

• User manual;
• Gainward sticker;
• DVI-I-to-D-Sub adapter;
• S-Video-to-RCA adapter;
• S-Video cable;
• CD with drivers;
• CD with InterVideo WinDVD 4;
• CD with the Arx Fatalis game.

The pink translucent adapters are funny enough, but aside of that, the accessories are sufficient. Maybe an RCA cable would be of use, but many modern TV-sets come with an S-Video or SCART connector; in the latter case, you have to buy an appropriate adapter. After glancing over this stuff, we take the board into our hands.