Aopen - Aeolus 5950 Ultra-DVC256 review
Fast and expensive 3D graphics card
Review date: 05 January, 2004. Review by: IT Reviews Staff
Slight modifications to the manufacturing process have allowed Nvidia to increase the core clock and memory speeds of the 5950 Ultra over its older sibling. The core clock speed has been raised by 25MHz to 475MHz, while the memory speed is up 50MHz to 475MHz (950MHz DDR) with the card using 256MB of memory.
The increase in memory speed bumps up the memory bandwidth to 30.4GB/s from the FX5900 Ultra's 27.2GB/s. The 256-bit memory bus remains the same, as does the rest of the feature set. Physically, the new card uses a new design of CPU cooler which, although featuring a larger fan than the FX5900, is quieter, and the PCB is designed differently.
The cooler is a huge affair, with the fan, heatsink and cooling plate shrouded under a clear plastic cover, while the back of the card has an equally big heatsink. A word of warning; this card runs hot, and the top parts of the cooling plate not covered by the shroud get very, very hot, so watch your fingers. The end plate is a double-sized unit taking the space of two expansion plates.
AOpen's Aeolus 5950 Ultra-DVC256 is an AGP 4x/8x card which uses the reference Nvidia design, including the large cooler. This isn't a card for a small form-factor case, as not only does the cooler take up the space of two expansion slots, but it also renders two PCI slots unusable. The rear bracket has the usual 15-pin D-Sub and DVI-I connectors along with a combined TV-Out / Video-in port.
The software package AOpen bundles with the card is pretty basic with no added frills in the shape of games or game demos. Having said that, there are some useful utilities provided; Live Update Wizard, like a normal BIOS update wizard, can auto-detect the VGA driver/BIOS version, link to AOpen's Web site and download and automatically install BIOS and driver updates.
There's also E-colour 3Deep, a utility which provides colour and lighting correction to the gamma settings of the card and monitor to get the best out of your game. You also get copies of InterVideo WinCinema and WinProducer. The hardware bundle consists of a VIVO cable and a DVI-I adapter. There is also a useful little installation poster.
So what we have here is a stunningly fast graphics card based on the Nvidia reference design, producing high quality 3D output at high frame rates and with few frills cluttering up the package.
Verdict
AOpen's Aeolus 5950 Ultra-DVC256 is a basic, no-nonsense 5950 Ultra card which performs well, but like all other high-end graphics cards it's pricey, so it's really one for the dedicated games brigade only. This is especially true given that it'll take up a large proportion of the available upgrade space in your PC.
Company: Aopen
Contact: 0870 429 3220
