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PNY FX 5900SE cards are really FX5900's in case you didn't know

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br0adband

Registered
Joined
Dec 28, 2001
Location
Norfolk, VA
Well I picked up one of these FX5900SE cards last Saturday locally. The first thing I noticed is that IT'S FREAKIN' HEAVY so it must have a huge heatsink (this was the box I was holding).

Once I got home and opened it I was suprised at how large the card is (not only lengthwise but the fact that it requires two slots, it blocks the first PCI slot next to the AGP slot). Then I decided to do some testing.

I noticed the default clockspeeds on the core/memory are 400/850 but the box says it's supposed to be 390/700. After some more checking around I found the following two pics:

Reference FX5900SE

and

Reference FX5900

You can see the difference between those two cards right off the bat, one is a thinner single-slot solution while the other is a dual-slot solution. The FX5900 is the card I found in the box. Compare your card to the pictures and you'll probably discover you have an FX5900 too.

:D :D :D

So, until PNY gets up to speed they're selling actual FX5900 cards in FX5900SE boxes. The funny thing here is that PNY doesn't even sell an FX5900 model, they only have FX5900SE and FX5950 Ultra cards listed on their website.

So I got an FX5900 non-Ultra card for the price of an FX5900SE.

If you're looking for an excellent midrange price card ($150-250) this one is tough to beat. Spread the word.

br0adband
 
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Well geez, I thought I had posted some useful info, not one comment, Eh?

Ok, how about I spice it up a bit. After some more playing around I've discovered these cards are really Asus V9950 FX 5900 Ultras.

Did that get your attention? Yep, I thought it might.

PNY is offloading Asus 5900 Ultra cards in PNY FX 5900SE boxes. They're yellow along the bottom of the box and they DO NOT have any games whatsoever inside.

Small price to pay for getting a card that can be BIOS flashed into a 5950 Ultra for $250-300 less, right?

br0adband
 
Man, be for real once...Will ya?

You seem to be the only one that has this, or else it would be wide spread by now. And even so, a 5900NU for $199 is not all that great. Some got there's for $155 or even less, take it was the BFG. Get that ram running at 1G or more, I heard ASUS cards do that with ease.

I seen your system specs on other boards, so I'm sure you have a digi? Post a few pics man, we would love to see what you are seeing.

BTW........Someone at brighthand would like for you to ship them a cable you forgot to add to a 2215, so take care of that, ok?
 
hrhrhrFOOT said:
Didnt he say it was a 5900 ULTRA? Can you show us some pics of your card?

He did, while also saying it is a non ultra. Going back to his original post from Guru3d, he stated the default clock speed was that of a non ultra not ultra. So I will just like to see the card, that would help.

To really solve the issue, just take the heatsink of. It would state on the GPU what you really have, no guessing.


hrhrhrFOOT

You would not have to know me to sale the card, you would have the money first. Anyway, I can understand it would be better to just exchange it, thnx!
 
I also just purchased a PNY 5900SE. It is a 5900 Ultra as far as I can tell. Windows XP identifies it as one also. The card bios at boot however does say 5900SE. I have not had time to remove the fan to see the actual chip. But it is the double slot card that looks like pretty much all the other 5900 non SE's I have seen.

I got it at Circuit City for $219.99. Yes, I know I could have found it cheaper online, but I was there and didn't want to wait.
 
Yeah-im sorry football. I just dont want anything to go wrong. I would feel real bad if i got 200 dollars and something happened to my fx along the way and you couldnt get it to work :(
 
The no longer offer the 5900nu for that price i dont think.... but i have a 5900se and the only way to know is that my mem speed is 700 not 800... either way... the gpu is a 5900nu and windows will install it as such
 
Buhammot,

Does your board look like a 5900SE reference? I just bought a PNY 5900SE and its the 5900SE reference as broadband posted. I got CoD with this but not the card I had hoped like broadband.
 
Sorry to bump this, but I just purchased the pny 5900se from circuit city for $189. I found the box that was heavier than the rest, but this was the only one that had call of duty in it, so that might have been where the extra weight came from. In any case, like others have mentioned, it looks like the 5900 regular reference board with the dual slot thing and everything, but posts as a 5900 se. I pryed the heatsink off, and it is indeed a normal fx 5900 chip under there. There were no references on the chip to being an xt or an se. Thing is though, all the stickers on the actual board refer to it as being an xt.

Here's where it gets interesting though. I run linux, and the only program I've been able to find that can identify the core and memory speeds is called nv_clock, but it doesn't fully support the fx line yet. Anyway, it identifies the memory as a predictable 850Mhz, but the core at 300Mhz, which I find a bit weird. I have no way of knowing if that is accurate though. The command lspci, which lists information about devices in the pci bus reads "nVidia Corporation NV35 [GeForce FX 5900] (rev a1)"

Can anybody shed some light on this? I'd really like to know which card I have. Is it a newer version of the SE? Is it the normal 5900? Or is it the asus 5900 ultra (don't think so on that last one). Has anyone else heard of this?

edit: Ok, nevermind. I just did some testing and aparently the core is 300Mhz until some 3d stuff is done. So I ran a test opengl program and checked the core speed at the same time: 400Mhz.

In any case, I guess I can confirm that some of the Geforce FX 5900SE's are in fact 5900s. Just look for the yellow-ish box that is heavier than the others. So now what's the deal with the ultras? Are any of those still around?
 
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If the PCB is green and has a heatsink on the back, it's an Ultra. if the PCB is an aqua color without a heatsink, it's an SE.
 
Well, it'a aqua color, but the thing is, it's the same speeds as a 5900 regular, not to mention that the chip itself is a 5900 and is identified as just a 5900 in everything except the post..... Are you sure about that?
 
do you have a digital camera? maybe you can post some pictures of the back of the card.
 
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