Most of you have heard horrors about the FX5200, the underprivileged sibling of the FX5600. However, here is the truth, all laid out. Among the onslaught of video cards based on the NV34 processors, come the FX5200, FX5200 Ultra, FX5600, and the FX5600 Ultra. The budget card, the FX5200 is very appealing, DirectX 9, 8X AGP, 128MB DDR and loads of outputs. This low-end card, costs a mere $64.85, and you can find the card here.

The differences between the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra and standard 5200 series are simply clock speeds. The 5200 Ultra has a 325 MHz GPU clock, whereas the standard 5200 series has the core dropped by 23% to 250 MHz. The memory clock also drops by nearly 40% from 650 MHz to 400 MHz. In comparison, nVidia's ultra-high end GeForce FX 5800 Ultra series runs at a 500 MHz GPU clock with 1,000 MHz DDR memory.

Packaging:

The card comes nicely packaged. It flaunts a full color retail box, with some non-cheesy graphics. As soon as you open it up, you notice one thing, red. Everything is red. The card itself is red, as is the enclosed DVI to VGA adapter, and the S-VIDEO to RCA adaptor. Surprisingly though, the packaging does not include any games or bundled software. That is a check mark under cons. However, you would not expect games from a budget card.



Chip: NV34
Manufacturing process: 0.15-micron
Transistors: ~45 mil.
Core clock speed: 260 MHz
Memory clock speed: 440 MHz / 6.9 GB/s
Pixel Shader: 2.0
Vertex Shader: 2.0
Pixel Pipelines/Pixel Fill rate: 4 / 1040 MP/s
TMU's/Texel Fill rate: 1 / 1040 MT/s
RAMDAC: (2) 400 MHz
Amount of memory: 128 MB
Type of memory and interface: 128-bit, DDR-SDRAM
In- and outputs: VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Out
Extra peripherals: DVI-VGA adapter, S-Video-Composite adapter
Software: Expert Tool

The clock speeds stated above are using Gainward's 'Enhanced Mode'. This is a mode in their tool called Expert Tool that overclocks the card slightly. This overclocking is endorsed by Gainward and does not void your warranty. Since the tool is provided by Gainward and the overclocking is applied through the click of a button I decided to test the board using these speeds for all the benchmarks.

The Card:

Gainward's GeForce FX 5200 series cards are based on bright red PCB's, something that ATI and MSI have also picked up on since Gainward started this trend. The card uses a PCB size that is roughly the same size as a GeForce4 Ti4200 card, so there should not be any space issues that we can foresee. Unlike the high-end GeForce FX 5800 series cards, neither of these cards takes up two case slots.



Surprisingly, the card only uses passive cooling. You would think that this would cause overheating, but since the core only runs around 250Mhz, it does not pose a problem.

Overclocking:

While the chip goes up noticeably - up to 315 MHz, the memory has clambered up to 405 MHz from 400 MHz. You will see that the card's performance is much limited by the memory, and GPU alone does not boost the performance. Please take notice that overclocking will most likely require better cooling



Test Setup:

The test bed is a budget gaming system costing about $350, so it will be close to what people buying this card will be using. The cards used for comparison are sadly just an old ATI Radeon 7200 32MB PCI card and an ATI Rage Fury Pro 128 32MB 4X AGP. The benchmarks will be taken from 3DMark2001 SE.

AMD Duron 1.8Ghz
Mercury KT166A FDSUX
512 PC2700 DDR
Western Digital 160GB 7200 RPM
Windows XP Pro SP1; DirectX 9.0.
nVidia v43.45 drivers
Rage 128 Drivers 6.13.3279
Catalyst 4.3 drivers

Tests:








Conclusion:

I did not bother showing frame rates, because the FX5200 obviously murders the two other cards. Both older cards did not have hardware support to complete some tests.

The GeForce FX 5200 is a good substitute for the GeForce4 MX, and would probably hold its own against the Radeon 9000. Buyers should realize that this is not GeForce FX 5800, but only its shadow bundled with all the same functions. This fact should be accounted for in the price.

On the one hand, GeForce FX 5200 Ultra is a solid card with a striking accessory pack. Nevertheless, some accessories are not needed for all users. On the other hand, its performance is not top notch, but those who would be buying a card like this, budget gamers, will find it enough to play Unreal Tournament 2004, Halo and the likes.

Highs:
High build quality
Nice accessory pack
Inexpensive
Silent
Low profile

Lows:
Poor performance compared to cards as of now
Bundle lacks software

PimpRig Rating:
(6.5 Pimp hats)

Nice review but can a 5200 really play Halo at a decent framerate? 27 FPS at 800x600?
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/....56/page10.asp

Halo is a first person shooter, and I don't think you'll be getting a lot of frags with a 5200.

thank you. yes, it gets low frame rates, but it is acceptable for occasional gamers.

I love that review - it what sums up exactly what I think of my graphics card - a leadtek 5200 (256mb). It can play both UT 2K4 and Halo so long as the refresh rate is at 60HZ. The only problem I have encountered with UT2K4 is when you have an endless number of BOTS on a multi or single player game - it does slow down to about 10FPS when there is a large explosion infront of you with several bots.

Otherwise, UT2K4 performs admirably on a 5200 at 1024x768. Halo on the otherhand seems to have no problems at the same resolution (1024x768) and even when blinded by a rocket, plasma grende (or 3) or a banshee flying straight into you, the graphics stay stable and smooth throughout lifes littlelunders (like falling off the bridge on the control room asault).

No crashes what so ever, cheap and chearfull card.
Sorted.

I used a 5200U on a 2.8 p4 and it ran ut2004 perfect...

having some problems with images??? Maybe GK should start hosting them eh GK?

i host all my images at www.imagetown.net and they appear for me.

I got me a 5200 I bought one when they first came out ($110 at best buy at the time) and its my current card now. I O\C'ed the hell out of it though and took off that sorry looking heatsink and fashioned my own.......its not pretty but it works well for a ebay bum.

What do you mean Directron "kindly let me review this card"?

Good job on the review. We seldom see budget card reviews.

Maybe I should do a review on my Voodoo 5500........

Quote: Originally Posted by putwig What do you mean Directron "kindly let me review this card"?

Found out through BA's thread of rules about member reviews that this was pushing it, so I removed it. For the record, I personally paid for this video card and was not reimbursed by anyone.

I hope you didn't state that you were reviewing the card for PimpRig.

It was a good, concise review, but nobody except GlitterKill himself decides what items PR reviews.

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita I hope you didn't state that you were reviewing the card for PimpRig. It was a good, concise review, but nobody except GlitterKill himself decides what items PR reviews.

Don't worry, I just said I was doing a member review to be publicly posted on a godly forum. I know that GlitterKill gets to decide who and what PimpRig reviews.