NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 LE

NVIDIA’s attempt to make the GeForce FX 5700 cheaper resulted in 5700 LE graphics cards. They have lower operational frequencies of the GPU and memory compared to products on the regular GeForce FX 5700 chip.

The GeForce FX 5700 LE graphics card comes from Leadtek:

The board carries 128MB of graphics memory in chips from Hynix with a cycle time of 5ns (Hynix HY5DU281622ET-5). The nominal frequencies are 250/400 (200DDR) MHz – in other words, we have a 40% GPU frequency reduction compared to the GeForce FX 5700, while the graphics memory now works only 100MHz slower. The overclockability of our card was really astonishing: 480/600MHz. That is, the GPU clock rate nearly doubled and exceeded the nominal frequency of the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, while the memory frequency grew by a half.

Well, 600MHz is a really phenomenal case for memory that is rated for 400MHz, according to its model number. 480MHz for the GeForce FX 5700 LE GPU seems to be an expected result because such graphics chips don’t principally differ from the GeForce FX 5700/5700 Ultra that work at 425 and 475MHz. The high overclockability of the GeForce FX 5700 LE is just the consequence of the manufacturer’s having greatly reduced the clock rate beforehand.

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600

GeForce FX 5600/5600 Ultra chips were precursors to GeForce FX 5700/5700 Ultra. They nearly match the newer chips in functionality, but have less powerful vertex and pixel processors. Launching the GeForce FX 5700/5700 Ultra, NVIDIA improved considerably its positions in the mainstream sector where the RADEON 9600 had ruled.

But let’s get back to the GeForce FX 5600. This graphics processor is represented by a no-name graphics card:

The card carries 256MB of DDR SDRAM from Hynix (Hynix HY5DU561622CT-5; 5ns cycle time). The nominal frequencies are 325/400 (200DDR) MHz.

The graphics processor turned to be ready for overclocking, while memory didn’t: 440/410MHz.