Was the FX series a failure?

[Pantherman]

We all know how ATI won the NV30 vs. R3xx round the last generation and the struggles of the FX series in DX 9.0 games, but do you think the FX series was an overall failure for Nvidia? Even the 5950 Ultra was pathetic in DX 9.0 games whe compared to the 9800 XT. The FX series was not so bad in OpenGL and DX 8.0 games, but I don't think that was enough to save the series. Nvidia messed up big time, but the 6800 series brought it back. I think we should put the FX series behind us as ASAP.

[ClosetFanBoy]

i remember i avoided the fx series like the plague after all the crap and flaming it took. i planned on holding off till the next gen (this current gen 6800) but i finally got 5900 and quite honestly i love it, i mean in situations compared to the 9800 line with aa/af ati obviously pulled away, and i may not be getting those frames, but im not sitting here saying "man this card is a piece of crap" either. it may have been a failure on the corporate battle level, but it has easily satisfied my gaming needs. so for me it wasnt a failure at all.

[chaotic]

i am happy with my fx5800u , works very well in doom3 and farcry ;)

[Gator]

It probably could be considered a failure because it couldn't nearly match up to the success the GF4TI is/was. And yes the DX9 performance isn't the best. 6800GT sells well to ethusiasts, and once they get the more affordable 6600's it could be considered the biggest win for Nvidia yet. But we'll have to wait and see. The Radeon 9800 remains king in many people's minds, and managed to cross over into OEM builders (something Nvidia held the crown for years). Actually the FX5200 is a mild win if you consider how many cheapo OEM computers have those.

From a personal stand point, I really very happy with my FX5900XT. I upgrade from a TI4400 and I did see an improvement in performance. Admitedly the AA/AF isn't as good as R9800 and the DX9 makes me :rolleyes: but other than that a very solid piece of hardware. I plan to keep this beauty as long as I possibly can :)

[-=DVS=-]

Big failure , so big Nvidia buryed first NV30 to begin with :D and NV35 was hardly better i still hate Nvidia for such a doodoo , speed wise ATI doing mutch better :drooling:

[NightFire]

Define failure, if you will. If you mean failure as in, as bad as Matrox and XGI in terms of gaming preformance, it don't think it really qualifies. Yes, it lost to ATi, and people are still buying them. I guess it's just a really small success.

[theultimo]

Although how many people hate the 5200, it was a GLARING success because of its very cheap cost.

Performance though..... *shudder*

[Pandora's Box]

i am happy with my fx5800u , works very well in doom3 and farcry ;)


you better not bork that card. if it does die or you replace it. you better not throw it out. get a glass box for it and put it in it.

[OWA]

I liked my 5900U and it was close enough in performance that at the time I didn't feel the need to game on the AIW 9800 Pro (that was in my other system) very often. I actually bought a few of the Fx series (5200U, 5600U and the 5900U -- also traded to get a 5700U). I do think nvidia had rough year but for the most part I was pretty pleased with the Fx line.

[quik_2_win]

We all know how ATI won the NV30 vs. R3xx round the last generation and the struggles of the FX series in DX 9.0 games, but do you think the FX series was an overall failure for Nvidia? Even the 5950 Ultra was pathetic in DX 9.0 games whe compared to the 9800 XT. The FX series was not so bad in OpenGL and DX 8.0 games, but I don't think that was enough to save the series. Nvidia messed up big time, but the 6800 series brought it back. I think we should put the FX series behind us as ASAP.

:lame:
Exactly what was the point of this post? It's like "look at my big fat sig with $6000 worth of PC equipment thrashing last generation's hardware that I can't be bothered with running- any excuses people?"
Pantherman, have you ever actually used an FX-series card? Honestly there hasn't been a game released to date that can't easily be played on most FX cards. Granted, they're not a mighty 6800GT, but some of us have been using these products for a long, long time and they still remain very enjoyable...

i am happy with my fx5800u , works very well in doom3 and farcry ;)

:clap: Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout!

[Rollo]

We all know how ATI won the NV30 vs. R3xx round the last generation and the struggles of the FX series in DX 9.0 games, but do you think the FX series was an overall failure for Nvidia? Even the 5950 Ultra was pathetic in DX 9.0 games whe compared to the 9800 XT. The FX series was not so bad in OpenGL and DX 8.0 games, but I don't think that was enough to save the series. Nvidia messed up big time, but the 6800 series brought it back. I think we should put the FX series behind us as ASAP.

:lame:

Pantherman, what do you do for a living? Are you the second best in the world at it? Is the company you work for?

My point here is why does the unknown Pantherman take time out of his day to visit the nVidia fan forums and say we need to collectively distance ourselves from the nV30?

Why Pantherman? I have a 6800NU and a 6800GT, but I'll tell you this: If I had a 5900 in my box right now the only games I own I'd be noticing the difference on are Doom3 and Far Cry?

I wasusing a 5800Ultra between March and June, and had no issues with it whatsoever. I traded my 9800Pro for it.

Owning a nV3X card isn't some badge of shame, and you need to stop thinking about nVidia like it was some guy you know. They're a hardware manufacturer, not your best buddy, you don't need to disassociate yourself from them if they make a product that's second best once in a while instead of first. It's hard to be first all the time, I'm thinking the people who make posts like this haven't worked yet.

[ricercar]

The NV30 Bortherhood l1v3z! My 5800U plays Doom3 better than my 5700U. FarCry is nice, too, but I've never done an A/B comparison.

[Kev1]

My 5900 is fantastic! No problems in anything! I got one of the earlier very fast ones and its great :)

[Grechie]

i upgraded from a Ti4200 to a FX5900XT, i havent had any disapointing moments yet, but aye, i dont use AA/AF:)

[rewt]

So far i've seen more people having problems with their Geforce 6 than their Geforce FX, simply because the FX a more mature card driver wise. But this will all change in the future, when newer driver versions increase the stability and performance of the Geforce 6 (over its entire lifespan, as nVidia has done with the FX).

Overall, I say no the FX series wasn't a failure at all. They perform very well, and at excellent image quality. Even better with the newer Forceware drivers (that allow you to turn on/off the optimizations).

[Skrot]

/me pats his pretty 5900XT. I love ya baby! She pushes past 5900u speeds, dontcha? Yes you do! Yes you do!

The best performance per dollar I've spent on, well.. probably any piece of hardware I've had. Doom3 runs amazingly well, and looks ****in incredible.

Oh, and don't forget to mention that nvidia have really good linux drivers. That's no small thing.

[Lfctony]

It offered great DX8 and OpenGL performance, and below average DX9 performance. Far from a failure.

[zakelwe]

I think the problem with the FX series was that it got off to the bad start with the nv30 and actually later got another kicking later. The nv30 came out of the blocks and was expected to be quicker than the current ATI, but it was not, so a general ill feeling developed. The later kicking was when DX9 games came out and round 2 of the nv30's failings became apparent.

Two hardware flaws in the 128 bit bus and 4xN pipeline seemed to be the main problem, as well as nvidia's DX9 shader problems. They could not do too much about the last two, but they did go to a 256 bit bus for the 5900 series and at that point things started to look up. Also the drivers actually managed to give it some polish and make the best of a fairly poor lot. The 5900XT was an excellent card for the money for the majority of games in it's timeframe.

5200 -> bad
5200U -> poor to average for it's price point
5500 -> bad
5600 -> poor
5600U -> poor to average.
5700 -> average
5700U -> good
5900-> good
5900U -> good
5900XT -> very good for it's price point
5950u -> good

the main success the FX achieved was actually connected toit's bad points in that those bad points made nvidia learn some lessons. I think you can see how well it learn;t those lessons in the 6800 series today

Regards

Andy

[jimmor]

We all know how ATI won the NV30 vs. R3xx round the last generation and the struggles of the FX series in DX 9.0 games, but do you think the FX series was an overall failure for Nvidia? Even the 5950 Ultra was pathetic in DX 9.0 games whe compared to the 9800 XT. The FX series was not so bad in OpenGL and DX 8.0 games, but I don't think that was enough to save the series. Nvidia messed up big time, but the 6800 series brought it back. I think we should put the FX series behind us as ASAP.

This thread is pointless !

If it had been headed "The FX series is a Failure", then it would fit in more with your negative but obviously uninformed view of things !

Have you ever owned a FX card, and if so, what harm did it do to you. And, never mind saying it was not as good as percieved by a ATI card user for certain games etc. That actually doesn't matter, as the only real criteria is whether it worked within your needs, for what you paid.

Also, the best graphics card in the world will work crap when installed in the worst performing computer. So what you get from your graphics card has just as much if not more to do with the rest of your computer setup !

What is your problem or agenda, are you a ATI fanboy or what ?

In spite of some bad Press and/or Political hype, the FX series of card has actually shown to perform very well, especially the 59xx series. Which is why so many, including myself, bought one, and don't regret it !

[ChrisRay]

You know what? The FX series wasnt perfect. But my 5900 @ 400/900 runs most everything out there great. Even on my lowly Athlon XP 2000+ # 333 FSB with 640 Megs of Memory.

People who say the FX series "Sucks" are just grossly exxagerating. And probably have some kind of superiority/inferiority complex to have something superior. No FX user will probably deny ATI had a nice DX 9 capable card last gen.

But I am surely not embarrassed about the 5900 In my rig.

Chris

[Knot3D]

Ehm. right now I have a 6800GT :drooling: , but before I had a QuadroFX1000 which is NV30. The workstation versions of the FX
series performed very well in apps like 3DsMax, Cinema4D and Maya.
Splinter Cell performance on the Quadro was not great, but not
terrible either.

But the GT does at least equally good in those 3D programs PLUS
gaming, so I'm happy I sold the Quadro even though it served me well.

[jnd3]

I can't quite say that going from a Ti4200 to an FX 5800U constitutes a "failure" as such in my book. The dustbuster's handled everything I've thrown at it. Looks great (especially compared to the 4200), plays great (significantly better than the 4200). Driver maturity helped the NV30 out quite a bit, methinks. FX5800 squad, tench-HUT! (salute)

[Slyder]

I have no problems with my FX5700, and it do's DX9 110% thank you very much. So in answer to the original question, I dont think the FX series was a failure, far from it. TBH, anybody having DX9 issues with an FX card really should think about RMA'ing there card, as I know DX9 is a key feature of my card.

[Daneel Olivaw]

'Gives a big wet kiss to his 5900xt.'

[I/JG53_Jaguar]

I have MSI NBOX5900Ultra, thanks to Jimmor I flashed the bios to 5950Ultra specs - rock stable and fast, I do play Flight sims a lot every day. I love my "5950 Ultra" now just as much as I did my GF2 Ultra. I wasn't much impressed with GF4 Ti 4200 128MB (second gen.). FarCry and Doom3 work well as well as my flight simulator Il2FB, I mostly play in OpenGL though. Stable card, great drivers I'm very happy - best card I ever had. In fact I'm going to skip NV4x completely and go to NV50 - I don't need 6800. Next version of my flight sim should be out in late 2005 so by then I will get NV50Ultra.