Poll: Is the GeForceFX a good product.

[titanmiller]

 

[vss1980]

Its not a bad product........ its just not quite been the right product at the right time for nvidia........ definitely over-hyped.

 

[Reliant]

It isn't bad, but everyone expected a 9700 killer and they were disappointed.

 

[sandorski]

I didn't vote. That said, sure, it's a good card, but not exclusively the best. It makes a lot of noise, I'd either get a Radeon 9700Pro, or wait for one of the newer Radeons or next gen Geforces(be awhile for these though).

 

[ProviaFan]

Well, that can't be answered with just a yes/no poll. In my opinion, yes, it is a good card, if you have the option of either wearing earplugs while working on your computer, or having the computer itself in another room that is isolated from the room in which the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals are located in. Does it compete with ATI's current products? Sort of. Would I buy a GFFX instead of a Radeon 9700 Pro? Probably not. Would I buy a GFFX instead of a Radeon 9800 Pro? Definitely not!

 

[nRollo]

JLiechty:
"yes, it is a good card, if you have the option of either wearing earplugs while working on your computer, or having the computer itself in another room that is isolated from the room in which the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals are located in."

Really? How about the Gainward Ultra that has a 40db fan instead of nVidias reference 52 db fan?
Quiet FX Ultra specs
"Gainward's unique powerful cooling Fan, it's difference with nvidia's fan and the noise of fan only has 40db, which is less than the fan of nvidia, which has 52db. "

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: Rollo
JLiechty:
"yes, it is a good card, if you have the option of either wearing earplugs while working on your computer, or having the computer itself in another room that is isolated from the room in which the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals are located in."

Really? How about the Gainward Ultra that has a 40db fan instead of nVidias reference 52 db fan?
Quiet FX Ultra specs
"Gainward's unique powerful cooling Fan, it's difference with nvidia's fan and the noise of fan only has 40db, which is less than the fan of nvidia, which has 52db. "

Rollo is pretty much right on this one. Manufacturers have complete comtrol over how loud of a fan they put on the FX. The reference board is just that, reference. It gives a general feeling as to how the card will perform. Manufacturers have total control over the cooling, RAM, etc.

The FX (line) is a pretty good group, IMO. While a bit late, for $79 you can get the 5200, fully DX9 compatible.

~Aunix

 

[rickn]

nvidia hasn't put out a really bad product in years. the FX will be short-lived. I'm gonna wait for nv35.

 

[sxr7171]

I guess my opinion will be a dissenting one in this thread. I think the FX line just reeks too much of 3DFX style brute force engineering to be considered an elegant design. We have always gotten in the past from Nvidia innovative designs that didn't need to resort to brute force and this one just breaks that trend. Why are they having so much trouble getting this thing on store shelves? The product is struggling to be competitive with the R300 about 6 months late, and honestly if there were no R300 they would have released it with a slower clock and slower memory and it wouldn't be putting out the performance that it has in benchmarks (which is respectable performance if you ignore the cost at which that performance is offered).

I have bought Nvidia cards for every one of systems since my first TNT 16MB. I hope they get their crap together by NV35's launch because competition is a good thing.

 

[sash1]

"The product is struggling to be competitive with the R300"

Uhm, the card isn't even out yet, how are you to claim how it's competing?

"guess my opinion will be a dissenting one in this thread. I think the FX line just reeks too much of 3DFX style brute force engineering to be considered an elegant design. We have always gotten in the past from Nvidia innovative designs that didn't need to resort to brute force and this one just breaks that trend."

I dunno where you are going with this.

The GeForce FX has much more impressive technological advances over the GF4 (pixel and vertex shaders, etc. alike) and the CineFX engine looks good from what I can tell.

"Why are they having so much trouble getting this thing on store shelves?"

nVidia doesn't get the thing on shelves, manufacturers (ASUS, Gainward, etc.) do. nVidia just supplies the chips.

 

[Lonyo]

Unanswerable.

The FX 5800 isn't a very good product, especially compared to the 9800PRO, and we don't know much about the 5600/5200, so we can't answer based on them, so the only real choice for anyone not an nVidia fanboy is no, since they 5800 isn't all that great at all.

Maybe if you ask again when there's some real, non beta stuff about the rest of the ATi cards and nVidia cards, people can make informed votes.

 

[kylebisme]

i voted no, mostly based on prices of the lineup and the overall low performance i expect from the 5200. however, its not really "bad" stuff, i think if they nocked off slower 5200s and kicked everything down a bit in price it would be really competitive. granted i have to guess on the 5200s and 5600s abilities, but so do the rest of you for now.

get on with the benchmarking already!

 

[THUGSROOK]

a bit on the vacuum cleaner fan.....

not all manufacterers will be using that monstosity ~ plenty will be using the smaller heat-pipe heatsink and even more will be using the gf4 cooler.

the pics @ HOCP show the gffx has a standard gf4 bolt pattern for the HSF and its very easy to remove.

i think most ppl are just concerned about that huge POS cooler on there

can you say "serious dust problem"?
i knew ya could

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
a bit on the vacuum cleaner fan.....

not all manufacterers will be using that monstosity ~ plenty will be using the smaller heat-pipe heatsink and even more will be using the gf4 cooler.

the pics @ HOCP show the gffx has a standard gf4 bolt pattern for the HSF and its very easy to remove.

i think most ppl are just concerned about that huge POS cooler on there

can you say "serious dust problem"?
i knew ya could

Good to hear (no pun intended ) that not all of them will be using that leaf blower / dust buster thingy.

My only other objection, that won't be solved unless Nvidia decides to start cracking down on this (and I doubt they will) is the less than optimal (though sometimes ok, it's sporatic) analog 2D quality of the cards their OEMs put out. Because I use good quality CRTs, and need high 2D IQ on them, that is one of the main reaons that has kept me with ATI so far, and is making me consider taking a big leap backward in 3D performance by making my next video card a Matrox G550.

 

[titanmiller]

Just curious what exactaly is 2d quality. How can you tell the difference? ghosting, non true colors? I guess it doesnt bother me.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: titanmiller
Just curious what exactaly is 2d quality. How can you tell the difference? ghosting, non true colors? I guess it doesnt bother me.

General things like color saturation (though that depends more on the monitor in most cases), and the sharpness of the image. Most people here will label me a nvidia basher / ATI fanboy because of these statements, but they generally don't run high enough resolutions and refresh rates on analog with a good monitor, or else they use the DVI connection with a LCD (which will get you a perfect picture every time with any video card, because there are no DACs being used, and thus no chance of having image quality affected by a low quality DAC).

Also, since most people (aka hardcore gamers who don't do any real work where 2D quality matters, like in the applications such as Photoshop or Maya) care more about 3 extra FPS in UT2003, they are willing to sacrifice in the area of 2D quality for those almighty FPS.

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: titanmiller
Just curious what exactaly is 2d quality. How can you tell the difference? ghosting, non true colors? I guess it doesnt bother me.

link on 2d quality of 5800. FS makes a very good point that, "In addition, NVIDIA-based card manufacturers have traditionally manufactured their own boards (and thus, may implement lower quality filters), so any visual quality observations made with NVIDIA?s reference card could be entirely different than real, shipping hardware."

So just be aware, that it is impossible to say how 2d quality will be. The higher-end manufacturers (ASUS, etc.) will have better 2d quality than the lesser known manufacturers. But as is common with past cards, ATi is usually better when it comes to 2d quality.

~Aunix

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: AunixM3

Originally posted by: titanmiller
Just curious what exactaly is 2d quality. How can you tell the difference? ghosting, non true colors? I guess it doesnt bother me.

link on 2d quality of 5800. FS makes a very good point that, "In addition, NVIDIA-based card manufacturers have traditionally manufactured their own boards (and thus, may implement lower quality filters), so any visual quality observations made with NVIDIA?s reference card could be entirely different than real, shipping hardware."

So just be aware, that it is impossible to say how 2d quality will be. The higher-end manufacturers (ASUS, etc.) will have better 2d quality than the lesser known manufacturers. But as is common with past cards, ATi is usually better when it comes to 2d quality.

~Aunix

That's an excellent point, as the same holds true to a lesser degree with ATi boards as well. Many Powercolor/other OEM owners have complained about sub-par 2D quality in comparison to actual "Built by ATi" boards. Also, from various reports in the GF4 threads, it seems 2D IQ has improved greatly from GF3 to GF4 across the board, so a similar improvement in the FX line would be no great surprise. 2D in both Analog and DVI were excellent on my Albatron Ti4200 Turbo. On my GF3 Ti200's there was a difference between my PNY and VisionTek, where the PNY was clearly superior.

Chiz

 

[kylebisme]

good points chizow, however i should point out that the original argument only holds true for the 5800 ultra.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
good points chizow, however i should point out that the original argument only holds true for the 5800 ultra.

Actually, if 2D varies, I'd expect it on the 5200/5600 boards, as there haven't been any reports that nVidia will be controlling the mfg. specs of these boards. IIRC nVidia contracted out the manufacturing of 5800/Ultra boards to a few fabs specifically b/c of QA reasons; the boards required expensive/complicated 10-12 layer PCBs, so they felt it most prudent to control the manufacture of PCBs, leaving memory choice and cooling up to the various AIB makers.

Chiz