When PCI Express was announced, enthusiasts were overjoyed and waited anxiously see an increase in performance over AGP. Intel was the first to release motherboards that supported PCI-E, but there was a problem. Although there were high end PCI-E video cards announced, based on both the X800 and 6800, none of the manufacturers were releasing cards to the retail market yet. Finding one would prove to be extremely hard, as well as expensive.
Users building new platforms based on the LGA775 had to settle for mainstream video cards, which was quite a disappointment for the enthusiast's crowd. The choices for ATI were either the X300 or X600, while for Nvidia it was the PCX5300, PCX5750, or the PCX5900. Gamers, or even casual gamers, know to stay away from the X300 and PCX5300 solutions. These graphics chipsets are only intended to provide image to the screen and have no reasonable gaming performance whatsoever. Therefore, enthusiasts looked to the X600 and PCX5750 for their initial solutions.
X600XT reviewed a while back provided good performance but did come with a hefty price tag for the mid level gamers market. A slightly cheaper alternative would be the PCX5750 at a cost in performance. Today, we have Gigabyte's offering of the PCX5750. The price of the video card is definitely lighter on your wallet than previous releases, but the results will show whether the performance loss is worth saving your money in the long run. Read on and see where the PCX5750 stands.
