23rd May 2004, 15:22
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#1 |
| Madshrimp
Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium
Posts: 79,021
|  Albatron FX5700U3 Video Card
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Having owned and tested a few FX cards before Albatron allowed us to test this version I must say that I'm very impressed with this card. As far as overclocking is concerned I would like to think that there would be more headroom. We did observe a small factor in this, and it has to do with a few design flaws not necessarily on Albatron's part. First of all, this card has two voltage functions, 2D, and 3D mode. In Windows, 2D is almost always being used, and the card is only using perhaps 70% of its voltage capabilities. When you start a game or a benchmark, the card then kicks into 3d Mode and operates at its full voltage capacity, which in turn creates heat. When the card heats up it's going to use the heatsink to dissipate this heat, but the problem lies here. There is a time constraint within the time it takes for the third fan to kick in, and the amount of heat the card will take before the programmed thermal sensor decides to clock the card down. What we observed in testing is that the third fan kicked in all right, but not in time for the card to start throttling down, which caused the newest nVidia drivers' "overclock testing" utility to not work right. We could literally sit and test each overclock and we could only achieve a worthy overclock well after the third fan was functioning. I think that this card was rushed out a bit too soon, and understandably so, but with some water cooling on the core you can bet that we can achieve some excellent overclocks vs. the Albatron's triple fan arrangement
| http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/video/...00U3/index.htm |
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Albatron FX5700U3 Video Card @ ClubOC
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