We all know that Intel is the leader in the computer industry when it comes to hardware advancement. While it shows interesting potential for future alternatives, new introductions of hardware are not necessarily the best. The best example is the move to RDRAM. Everyone knows that the use of RAMBUS memory was a terrible choice. Fortunately for Intel, they realized the fault and changed to use the preferred DDR.
This time around, Intel introduced the long awaited PCI Express graphic accelerating port. Such a move is a sure winner, as PCI Express provides higher bandwidth for graphic processing over the standard AGP slots, but the move was a little too early. When Intel's new motherboards came out supporting PCI Express, the options for PCI Express graphic cards were limited. ATI and Nvidia promised consumers high-end solutions but constantly delayed shipments. The only cards available were budget solutions that didn't provide much performance. The best performing cards were X600XT and PCX5900 from ATI and Nvidia respectively. The drawback of these cards was the outrageous high price. This forced consumers to make a purchase on lower end cards such as the X300 and PCX5750. The previous review of the Gigabyte PCX5750 left us with little performance. It was indeed a better solution over using on-board video, but all graphic cards should be. The performance of the PCX5750 was sub-standard, only providing enough horsepower to allow enthusiasts to play older games. Today with Gigabyte's offering of the Nvidia PCX5900, we just hope to see that the performance is as what Nvidia claimed.
