From the results obtained, the PCX5900 doesn't provide that much of an increase over the little PCX5750. The latest games were still only playable with the lowest resolution of 640x480. The more powerful FX5900 GPU does provide more power, but is just a bit shy of providing smooth gameplay in high resolutions.
The thing to note is that the card failed to run benchmarks based on Direct3D when Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering were turned on. At first I thought the game was corrupted so I did a fresh install. The same thing happened. I moved on to thinking that the benchmark utility was corrupted, and proceeded to do a fresh install. That didn't help either. I thought this to be rather strange since Doom 3 benchmarked fine. I then realized that Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004 were games based on Direct3D, while Doom 3 was based on OpenGL. I fired up Unreal Tournament 2004 to see if the problem continues, and sure enough, the game would fail to load. Turning off Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering fixed the problem. Nvidia always had a strong OpenGL performance and was slightly weak in the Direct3D department. It is about time they fix that. The problem could have been with the 61.77 Forceware drivers since PCI-E is still far from being mature, but without newer official drivers, no further tests could have been done.
The PCX5750 reviewed was a little weak, and the PCX5900 was not much better. Gigabyte's offering was light on the bundle but easy on the price tag. The review of the PCX5900 may be a bit late, as Nvidia's proud 6600GT has just been released and now available for sale. The 6600GT offers performance that rivals the AGP Geforce 6800 and should definitely provide enthusiasts the performance they've been looking for. With the 6600GT costing just a little over the PCX5900, I find it hard to make a purchase on the older generation.
