Since the NV31 will reportedly substitute the already quite affordable GeForce4 Ti powered graphics cards, probably a lot of you are looking forward to get one, especially because NVIDIA said that all the GeForce FX-derivatives will support DirectX 9.0 features, although we assume that some capabilities will be carried out by the CPU of system. We managed to examine an NVIDIA NV31 VPU-based reference graphics card from NVIDIA itself recently and now can share some brief ideas about the newcomer with you.

What is definitely good about the NV31, also known as the GeForce FX 5600, is that it is not going to be the widest graphics card on the planet and to occupy a PCI slot just because of its extreme Flow FX cooling system. It is also not going to be the loudest one, as no hoover is supplied with the graphics card.

What is not so good at all is that NVIDIA, still needs to utilise an external TV-Out or VIVO controller with its high-end products, as the company still does not want to integrate such devices inside the graphics processor, while the arch-rival ATI Technologies does it easily. As all modern graphics cards from NVIDIA, the GeForce FX 5600 (NV31) will support multi-monitor capabilities via nView technology. Reference card is equipped with D-Sub, DVI-I and TV-Out connectors.

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 will utilise ordinary DDR SDRAM memory in BGA packages. I am not sure if there are cooling systems on retail graphics cards, but they are absent on the reference card we have seen.

The PCB design of the novelty is not too complex, hence, I believe there are not going to be a lot of problems with building the GeForce FX 5600 powered solutions. Therefore, at least, such products will not be too expensive.

Specially for all those who disliked the power connector even on the RADEON 9500-based graphics cards, NVIDIA installs it on the GeForce FX 5600 in order to improve stability of this power-hungry beast.

If you do not know much about the code-named NV31 (GeForce FX 5600), I suggest you to read our news-coverage about it:

- NV31, NV34, NV35 and NV40 Details Unveiled! Remember About NV33 and NV36!
- GeForce FX Derivatives NV31 and NV34 Will Not Support All DirectX 9.0 Features?
- GeForce FX, NV31 and NV34: More Details on NVIDIA’s Graphics Business This Year
- First NV31 and NV34 Benchmark Scores Appeared. NVIDIA Vigorously Fights the 3DMark03?
- NVIDIA to Announce NV31 and NV34 on the 6th of March