Closer Look

The Gainward FX Ultra/1300XT surprises us from the start – there’s no sign of cheapness and simplicity here! All components are present at their respective places and the PCB design resembles strikingly the reference design of the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, although there are minor discrepancies…

Let’s take an ASUS V9950 card (on GeForce FX 5900) for comparison… That’s it! The Gainward board has the same design as the one used for producing GeForce FX 5900 and 5900 Ultra cards! After we remove the cooling system, we have no doubts left at all – the memory chips are placed in the likewise order, differing from a majority of GeForce FX 5900 XT versions where they form the letter L. Moreover, the amount of graphics memory is 256MB on the Gainward card, rather than 128MB so there are 8 additional memory chips at the backside of the card. The memory is manufactured by Hynix; it has 2.2ns access time, i.e. it can work at 450 (900DDR) MHz – the PCB from the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra permits that. However, the memory is only clocked at 350 (700DDR) MHz here. The lid of the graphics processor reads: “GeForce FX 5900 XT”.

The manufacturing company claims it uses specially selected and tested GPUs for the Golden Sample series. In this case, the graphics core works at 400MHz, which corresponds to GeForce FX 5900. Not bad, considering that an XT-stigmatized GeForce FX should typically belong to a cheap product series with simple design and, as a rule, low frequencies.

Gainward seems to have saved on some components, though. For example, there’s a THine THC63DV164 TMDS transmitter onboard instead of the widely-used chip from Silicon Image. Next to the transmitter, there’s place left empty for a VIVO chip.

The cooling system consists of a massive aluminum heatsink with two small fans. The fans are not quite ordinarily placed: they are closer to the right side of the PCB and they blow air towards the card’s mounting bracket, while many manufacturers prefer placing fans to the left or in the center of the heatsink.

On the backside, there is a massive ribbed aluminum plate. An ordinary white-color compound serves as a thermal interface, while at the front, between the heatsink and the memory chips, there’s also yellow bubblegum-like stuff. The front heatsink is decorated with a red flame-shaped casing. Both fans are highlighted with red LEDs so people who are into PC modding should be satisfied. These LEDs cast a beautiful glare at a SoundBlaster Audigy2 card which was three slots down.

Overall, the Gainward FX Ultra/1300XT is a well-made product in which high potential seems to lurk. Gainward sticks to its corporate style using the bright-red PCB and the “flaming” cooler.

Besides the FX Power Pack! series, Gainward is producing cards of the CoolFX Power Pack! series equipped with a liquid-cooling system and the SilentFX Power Pack! series with noiseless cooling system on heat pipes.