Just bought Gainward's Geforce FX 5800 Ultra

[Badash]

Well I just got 2 of these and they have the reference FX flow fan and heatsink on them, not the HSF you've seen in reviews. They are OEM cards. One came bundled in a large rectangular styrofoam with gainward tape all over it. So they will be the exact same noise as the rest. Is the reference fan a 50mm or 60mm? There is a panaflo that should easily swap with the ystech that's 28db that should also keep it colder. I'll post the details of the replacement fan when I find out the MM on the ystech. Thanks nrdstrm for the heads up on the loc of one of them.

[RobHague]

Hmmm strange.... that really is false advertising. :S Well dodgy.

But welcome to the FX club :D please dont fondle the fairys on your way in. ;)

[saturnotaku]

Did you order the cards and were they specifically advertised as the Power Pack? This doesn't sound good because I ordered one of these cards myself. I hope I'm not getting gyped. :|

I'll know for sure when the card arrives tomorrow.

[marcocom]

Originally posted by Badash
Well I just got 2 of these and they have the reference FX flow fan and heatsink on them, not the HSF you've seen in reviews. They are OEM cards. One came bundled in a large rectangular styrofoam with gainward tape all over it. So they will be the exact same noise as the rest. Is the reference fan a 50mm or 60mm? There is a panaflo that should easily swap with the ystech that's 28db that should also keep it colder. I'll post the details of the replacement fan when I find out the MM on the ystech. Thanks nrdstrm for the heads up on the loc of one of them.

tell us more!

does your experience have a fan of this type that may be upgradeable or replaced?

(btw - if you dont have the opaque and flimsier cooler shroud, then you dont have the original reference model that everyone bitched about. theres a newer revision that the higher-end mfrs are using (most definitely gainward. my asus has it) that has a clear, much stronger and redesigned version of the same flowFX system .)

im actually stoked on the cooling and see alot of possibilities for a fun summer of cooling solutions to try out. probably get something like the gainward solution and check that out for it, prolly try the water-cooled solution. theres a thermaltake fan-less solution that they claim is tested with the nv30! so i see the flowFX as a nice perk on this card (i also havent had room for a PCI card in the first slot ever due to always having better cooling on my GPU and frankly not one post-440BX motherboard i know of supports using the first PCI slot if the AGP slot is used.)

[Solomon]

You ordered a GeForce FX 5800 Ultra Saturnotaku ?

Regards,
D. Solomon Jr.
*********.com

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by Solomon
You ordered a GeForce FX 5800 Ultra Saturnotaku ?

Yes, yes I did. Not that I'm unhappy with my Radeon, far from it. I want it to play with and well, because it's an anomaly of a video card. Kinda like the Voodoo5 6000 in a way, but not. :cool:

[Solomon]

How much did you pay for it? And where did you order it?

Regards,
D. Solomon Jr.
*********.com

[Badash]

It's clear, exactly like the one that I had last month from PNY except it has a ainward sticker. Yes it was advertised as the retail card including a sound card, etc. you know the package. Anyways I knew they didn't know crap when I ordered it, I wasn't even sure it was an Ultra cause I called them and they didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Anyways PCClub and GameVE.com were selling the OEM Gainward with the regular reference fan. The Gameve.com comes with 4x4 EVO and some game lite disc, drivers/expert tool dvi adapter and a svid to rca plug. I only wanted the Gainward for the copper on it. Would have been easy to mod. However I'm just going to mod these.
5800 OEM (http://www.buyxtremegear.com/gain2.html)
Xtreme Gear is advertising one now.

There are 2 fans that should fit exactly where the ystech is depending on the speed/cfm/db that you want.
Panaflo FAL3F12LL (http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/components/pdf/fal3f.pdf)

[VoodooNinja]

I called XTREMEGEAR and they said that they are selling 'Retail Boxed' versions. Trusting that this is the truth is another story.

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by Solomon
How much did you pay for it? And where did you order it?

I bought mine from GameVE (http://www.gameve.com) for $392. I'll have to see what I get when the package shows up tomorrow. My order lists it as the Power Pack, which should be this card here:

http://www.gainward.com/ProductImages/GFX_Ultra1000_Plus_128M_DDR_500x375.jpg

Unfortunately, immediately after my card shipped, GameVE pulled the product off their site. This isn't boding well. However, I will be fully prepared to take any action necessary should the card I receive not be the Power Pack. It's nice to have a cousin who works for a law firm and is about ready to take the Bar. ;)

[Badash]

I ordered one of them from gameve.com also, let me know if you get the retail card. Mine came in a styrofoam rectangle with Gainward tape, I'm sure you'll get the same thing. The reference fan is too loud for me I will have to remove or replace it. I wish the one from Gameve was the one in the pic. They also had the full spec list with sound card included, uhh I don't see one?

[VoodooNinja]

I remember when they showed up at GameVE the other day. I E-Mailed them and asked if these were truly the 'Retail Boxed' versions shown in the picture. They never answered my E-Mail and they pulled the product from their site.

Badash, so the reviewers were correct in stating that they are LOUD?

The Gainward fan that is in the picture is supposed to be a few decibels quieter. I wonder if it is really that much more quiet as a few reviews on the Gainward state that there is still a fairly high pitched whine.

[mileswb]

I have bad news (I suspect) for those of you who purchased from GameVE.com--I got mine today and it's the "reference" Gainward. Standard Dustbuster cooler.

At first I wondered if GameVE.com had simply put a sticker on a PNY product or something. But now I'm pretty certain it *is* a Gainward product--it has an internal identifier (uncoverable using the latest version of Sisoft Sandra) which identifies it as a "CardExpert Technology GeForce FX 5800 Ultra [NV30.2]." Gainward's earlier GeForce cards were called "CardExpert."

Still, it's clearly not the product GameVE.com advertised. I'm tempted to ream GameVE.com on www.reseller.com but keep the card and put a Zalman ZM80C1-HP cooler on it when it comes out.

[Badash]

Yea they are loud but the Gameve Gainward comes with the standard nvidia fx flow not the one pictured. Here is the fan that comes with the Geforce FX 5800 Ultra reference ys-tech BD1250159B-21 (http://www.ystech.com.tw/FanHtml/BD5015.htm) 46.5db(yeah what was it a 90 year old deaf guy?)

Panaflo FAL3F12LL
http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/components/pdf/fal3f.pdf

[saturnotaku]

mileswb, did you get an invoice/packing slip with your card? Does it read "Gainward GeForce FX Power Pack"?

This is clearly a case of bait and switch if it's not, especially if you didn't get the IEEE1394 card, sound card, DVI-VGA and other accessories. Those finks better not have double-crossed me on this one or else holy hell is going to break loose.

mileswb, PM me your order information, including date of order and order number. Also, please take and post additional photos so we can have some hard evidence. Thanks. :)

[Badash]

mine are the same as mileswb's. until now I was unaware that Gainward was making ANY with the reference fan. so this will cool the geforce fx enough? ZM80C1-HP (http://www.zalman.co.kr/news/2003/cebit2003/12.gif)
Zalman products always work good.
Zalman's new video card coolers (http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/news/2003/20030404.htm)

[mileswb]

The packing receipt doesn't identify it as a "Power Pack" Gainward, but that's precisely what GameVE.com advertised. Interesting that the page on their website doesn't even *exist* anymore.

The receipt identifies it as a "Gainward GF FX5800 128MB Retail." Even that information isn't correct, because it was clearly an OEM product. As the attached photo indicates, it came in a simple styrofoam container with other stuff in a plastic bag (no sound card, no IEEE1394, but there was the DVI-VGA, a power supply "Y" connector (woo), and an S-Video to RCA adapter).

[mileswb]

Gah! I haven't figured out how to post more than one pic in a reply yet, sorry... here's a pic of the styrofoam container before I opened it; it's still resting in the cardboard shipping box.

(Rumor has it that the ZM80C1-HP will cool it sufficiently, Badash; the heatpipe plus the attached (very quiet) fan is supposed to do the trick, although it probably will run hotter and therefore won't have much overclock potential.)

[Badash]

Same package I got from them, came with 4x4EVO game lol.
Anyways bad news from gameve, but good news from Zalman. If it's coming out real soon I will wait to modify mine. I just don't want to deal with returning it. They were deceptive with the "Retail power pack" but they didn't know about the reference fan because their ignorant. But hey, we got the gainward sticker!

[Rogozhin]

HM

This doesn't bode well.

I was thinking about picking a gainward up just to test and then sell on ebay.

Guess not. ;(

rogo

[omghi2u]

Originally posted by VoodooNinja
I called XTREMEGEAR and they said that they are selling 'Retail Boxed' versions. Trusting that this is the truth is another story. I'd stay away from xtremegear. Had two bad dealings with them. One was with a 4200 for my friend. They didn't reply to any emails for 2 weeks...so I called them and said they no longer have it in stock. They don't even tell you or email you if they run out. Got my refund after the hassle.

They tend to boast a lot of products but never actually have it.

[Badash]

I'll say one thing though, the Gainwards fan seems to function flawlessly so far and the PNY one I had was weird. They may have different bios's, also the newset drivers that were out when I had the PNY were 43.03 I think, and I'm using 43.51 on the gainward so that could make a difference. Personally I like the cards a lot besides the noise. Once it's modded it will be very nice.

[saturnotaku]

Thanks for the pics, miles. I've saved the HTML of my order status from their web site and I've also taken a screen shot of the same page.

The way I see it, if I get what you did, GameVE has 2 options:

1) Issue me an RMA and refund every last cent I paid for this card

2) Refuse to RMA the card (or RMA with a restock fee) then I call the BBB, my credit card company and my attorney to gather a case of bait and switch. Clearly, this is what has taken place here.

They can do this the easy way or the hard way and that's exactly how I'm going to bring it up to them.

[RobHague]

Strange really - Gainward have their own cooling system and now they dont...

If you ordered a card as OEM is it possible that gainwards OEM cards are the reference cards to save 'cost' on their part? If you find a 'true' retail product it should look how its pictured - i know ive seen reviews of such so they must exist lol.

Here is a pic of mine btw which as you can see is the same as all yours apart from the sticker.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=108901

Does it really matter though? :confused: Unless of course you paid extra for it.

[Badash]

well it matters if you thought you were getting the retail pkg with sound card firewire headphones and better copper heatsinks. Personally I thought there was a good chance it was an oem or non ultra when I ordered it even though it said fx ultra retail, because of where I was buying it. However I didn't know it would have the nvidia fxflow instead of the gainward hsf in reviews. What they should do is either refund the money OR when the retail box comes out exchange it for what they advertised. Keep us posted, I will be happy with the Zalman heatpipe, just don't want to wait long.