The FX5200 Chipset
The FX5200 chipsetThe GeForce FX5200 graphics processor is based around nVIDIA's NV-34 GPU. Like its GeForce 4 predecessors, it uses a 0.15 micron process - unlike the 5600 and above which use a 0.13 process. As this is now a mature technology (to say the least), it helps to keep the 5200 based cards price well below its 5600 brothers. The GPU itself can render a maximum of four pixels per clock (four single textured pixels, or two dual textured pixels) and is the first budget chipset to be fully Direct X 9.0 compatable. This leaves ATi somewhat lagging behind, as even their new 9200 card is only 8.1 compatable. One could, however, argue that by the time Direct X 9 titles arrive, the FX5200 will be sorely lacking the horsepower to cope with these titles, or will it?
The GeForce 4 featured four pipes with two texture units per pipe, where as the 5200 (and indeed the 5600 as well) has four pipes with just one texture unit per pipe. This will be deleterious to performance where bandwidth isn't a limiting factor. To compensate somewhat, the clock speeds of the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra weigh in at a very impressive 325MHz core clock, and a 325MHz DDR memory clock. This is extremely rapid for a budget card when you consider that even the Ti-4600 only has 300MHz / 325MHz. The RAMDAC runs at 350 MHz so 2D quality should be pin-sharp.
One of the biggest thorn in the 5200 Ultra's side is a total lack of any compression algorithms on its DDR memory bus, with both the colour and z-compression found on the more expensive models absent in this budget card. Another way nVIDIA was able to reduce the cost of this part is by reducing the number of transistors needed in its rendering pipeline vs its mid and high end FX stablemates. This is because the NV31 (featured in the mid-ranged FX5600), being geared for higher clockspeeds, require extra stages in its its pipelines to make this possible. Nevertheless, the NV34 is a fully functionally equivalent.
This isn't close to the level of castration the MX line of GeForce 4 cards suffered (which were more akin to GeForce 2s), but should still be enough to make the 5200 have its work cut out to keep up with existing bang-for-buck solutions from both ATi and nvidia.
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