Palit
Daytona GeForce FX5200 Ultra Review Page 1 of 5
By Jonathan Martini - September 16, 2003
INTRODUCTION
We all know
that not everyone is open to
the idea of spending over $500 on a new computer (let alone on a single
component such as a video card). Let’s face it, to truly take advantage of a
high-end graphics card, you’re going to need a high end system. Without the
former, or the latter, you’re just hindering the better of the two.
And with
that in mind, we take a look at nV News’ second review of a lower-end GeForce
FX card, the Palit Daytona GeForce FX 5200 Ultra. Our first was Tim's review
of the
Soltek
SL-5200-XD. The first question that comes to the mind of most is what
separates the Ultra from the standard 5200. In the case of the 5200 class, the
difference is 75MHz on the core. No doubt, Ultra provides better performance for a
marginally higher price tag than its non-Ultra sibling.
Palit is a
relatively little known manufacturer over here in North America, but they seem to be much more
popular in the Asian marketplace. Palit’s lineup of NVIDIA-based graphics cards
tend to focus on the low to middle-end segment, which tend to be the bread and
butter of the market. As such, Palit who’s been around for the past 12 years
provides exactly what this market is looking for, performance and stability at a
low cost. The card I received arrived with only an S-Video cable and a Driver
disk. A sparingly bare bundle,
but as long as it keeps the price down, most consumers won’t mind.
Retail Packaging
The Included Gear
The card itself
is built upon a purple PCB. A rather unique color that may look good in
window-sporting cases, but I doubt you’ll be finding any other components
that’ll match with it. The card sports an extremely reflective metallic active
cooler emblazoned with an NVIDIA sticker. As required, the memory modules for
the 5200 Ultra are of the BGA format. The BGA format occupies less surface area
and allows for higher access speeds. Palit has also included an S-Video TV-out
to take advantage on the on-chip TV-output capabilities while providing the
consumer with a value-added feature. Another feature that has become fairly
common and overlooked is the incorporation of both a DVI and VGA output
connectors. Not only does this allow the user to not be required to purchase a
new video card if they purchase a new monitor, but it also allows the user to
take advantage of the nView multi-monitor capabilities of the card. Very cool.
Palit Daytona GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
Palit Daytona GeForce FX 5200 Ultra - Back
However, in
their price-saving efforts, we see that the Palit Daytona GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
doesn’t arrive with the extra Molex connector that some of the other GeForce FX
5200-based cards arrive with as well as having trimmed a few capacitors and
other components off the PCB. We’ll be examining how this affects the stability
of the card under normal circumstances and whether the missing Molex connector
hinder the overclocking potential of the card.
