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Alba 5700U Review

S

splinter3k

Guest
I thought the lack of CPU scaling in this review was pretty intersting, any chance we could see pretty much the exact same review with competing high end cards, say a FX5950, FX5900SE, 9800 Pro and 9800XT? I know it's a lot of work, but I find it more than a little interesting that games are starting to really flex the GPU and finally remove more load from the CPU, something the vid card makers have been touting for years.
 
Good review Brent. :) Were you able to see if the lighting problems you found were only with the 53.03's ?
 
I'm not knocking the 9600xt, but I would hardly call those numbers a "win", those percentages are too close to call anything but a draw.
 
Originally posted by splinter3k
I'm not knocking the 9600xt, but I would hardly call those numbers a "win", those percentages are too close to call anything but a draw.
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Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a draw as the 9600xt wins mosts of the tests. However, the differences are slight enough for me to tell people to get whichever is cheaper. Nice to know that we are beggining to see some direct competition between these two companies. Come'on ATi/nVidia, wouldn't you like to have a nice price war?
 
The three fan thing is pretty neat. I wish there was a way to keep the "backup" fan on at all times, maybe that would help overclocks. Is that 25db with two fans, or all three?

edit (sorta OT), something odd with all [H] reviews for me. I get no pictures if I use Zonealarm+IE6. I have to turn off Zonealarm to get them. Yet Zonealarm+Mozilla works fine, pics and all. All other websites with pics works fine. I really dont want to turn down the settings on Zonealarm to let the pics in when its running. Any ideas :confused:
 
Originally posted by Killa|3yte
Please go back to the old graphs.... the scribblegraphs just dont do it for me.
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Don't doubt their way of thinking, manfool. That will get you banned.
 
Its not really "their" way of thinking. They posted a thread asking for ideas on how people would like to view data. So you can say it was the "peoples vote". They refined it, and looks pretty good to me. I dont see whats wrong with it personally, it gives you low, average, and high in a box below the graph.
 
Originally posted by splinter3k
I thought the lack of CPU scaling in this review was pretty intersting, any chance we could see pretty much the exact same review with competing high end cards, say a FX5950, FX5900SE, 9800 Pro and 9800XT? I know it's a lot of work, but I find it more than a little interesting that games are starting to really flex the GPU and finally remove more load from the CPU, something the vid card makers have been touting for years.
Click to expand...

Right now there aren't any plans for such a comparison, but you never know.

I think the round of games we are using are very video card oriented as well, as we move into more shader use that will continue to be the case as that will be the limiting factor.
 
Originally posted by nleg
Good review Brent. :) Were you able to see if the lighting problems you found were only with the 53.03's ?
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I also experience them with driver 52.16.
 
Originally posted by Killa|3yte
Please go back to the old graphs.... the scribblegraphs just dont do it for me.
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Well, those graphs didn't graph performance every second of gameplay, all they did was graph min max and avg.

With these graphs they graph actually gameplay every second in a 'worse case scenerio'.
 
Originally posted by LabRat
Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a draw as the 9600xt wins mosts of the tests. However, the differences are slight enough for me to tell people to get whichever is cheaper. Nice to know that we are beggining to see some direct competition between these two companies. Come'on ATi/nVidia, wouldn't you like to have a nice price war?
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I think performance wise in current games the 5700U and 9600XT are very competitive. However, IQ wise the 9600XT is superior.

Now, when it comes to future games like D3 and HL2, who knows what will happen.
 
Originally posted by fallguy
The three fan thing is pretty neat. I wish there was a way to keep the "backup" fan on at all times, maybe that would help overclocks. Is that 25db with two fans, or all three?

edit (sorta OT), something odd with all [H] reviews for me. I get no pictures if I use Zonealarm+IE6. I have to turn off Zonealarm to get them. Yet Zonealarm+Mozilla works fine, pics and all. All other websites with pics works fine. I really dont want to turn down the settings on Zonealarm to let the pics in when its running. Any ideas :confused:
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25db EACH fan

I haven't heard of that issue with zonealarm before, might wanna pop an email to Kyle about it
 
Originally posted by NOTD665
Don't doubt their way of thinking, manfool. That will get you banned.
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It will not. There is nothing wrong with questioning our methods, we listen to all input that people have to say.
 
Originally posted by fallguy
Its not really "their" way of thinking. They posted a thread asking for ideas on how people would like to view data. So you can say it was the "peoples vote". They refined it, and looks pretty good to me. I dont see whats wrong with it personally, it gives you low, average, and high in a box below the graph.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it was the user feedback that influenced our decision to make sure to post a min/avg/max table below each graph. I think it helps and was a great addition.
 
Originally posted by Brent
If you have any suggestions on ways to improve them I'm all ears, feel free to pop us an email anytime.
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K, I'm gonna think of something ;)
 
Originally posted by Brent
Indeed, it was the user feedback that influenced our decision to make sure to post a min/avg/max table below each graph. I think it helps and was a great addition.
Click to expand...

Hell yes. And I can read these graphs just fine. Keep up the good work Brent.
 
Im not sure how db's works. Im pretty sure its just not 25db+25db=50db's though. So does anyone know how many db's two 25db fans make? Or even three 25db fans?
 
I'm sorry Brent. You're a good guy. It's that fellow with the beard that irks me...

Anyway, I'm bitchy. It's that time of the month.
 
Originally posted by NOTD665
I'm sorry Brent. You're a good guy. It's that fellow with the beard that irks me...

Anyway, I'm bitchy. It's that time of the month.
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I wonder if Brent has a beard...
 
The 5900NU should have been included. At $177 now, it really is in the same price bracket ($3 more than a 5700U).
 
+3dB is twice as loud. So at least in theory, two fans would be 28dB and three would be 29.5dB.

Take manufacturer's dB ratings with a large grain of salt.
 
Originally posted by Brent
Right now there aren't any plans for such a comparison, but you never know.

I think the round of games we are using are very video card oriented as well, as we move into more shader use that will continue to be the case as that will be the limiting factor.
Click to expand...

I think if this trend continues we may have to start taking 3DMark03 a little more seriously, should be an interesting year.
 
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