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Closer Inspection of the Apogee AA5700U |
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Can
you say "bling-bling"? |
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CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW
We have
usually been impressed with Chaintech's attention to
manufacturing detail in the past, and the AA5700U was no
exception. The card was quite hefty, weighed down by
the large copper heatsinks placed on both sides of the
card. These heatsinks help cool not only the CPU,
but are sandwiched firmly around the RAM as well.
Normally, DDR-II RAM runs a bit hotter than standard DDR,
and the solid copper should not only keep them cool, but
perhaps give us some headway when overclocking the memory.
The AA5700U is also long, make that very long - in fact,
probably the longest card we have had in the labs in quite
a while. While this doesn't necessarily pose a
problem in most setups, Small Form Factor (SFF) owners may
have some difficulty trying to install this into their
cramped confines.
The
main difference between the newer AA5700U and Chaintech's
earlier entry, the SA5700U, was the addition of twin fans
that are lit up with blue LEDs. These provide a
steady blue glow, but, unfortunately are pointed downwards
so the full effect may be lost in most scenarios
(obviously, they wouldn't even be seen at all in
non-windowed cases.) Other than the upgraded
cooling, the core and memory speeds of the two cards, and
thus the performance, should remain the same. It
might not make much sense then to upgrade to the AA5700U
unless you are currently using something older, such as a
GF4 based card or a current 5200/5600 owner. For a
new builder or someone who is looking to add a little
flash to their rig, however, you couldn't go wrong as the
card should provide solid performance while appealing to
the eye.
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Comparative Screenshots |
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Fighting for freedom never looked so good |
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We had
originally chosen the Far Cry demo for some reference
screenshots in order to compare the quality of the 5700
Ultra versus the most direct competitor, that being the
ATi 9600XT. After slugging it out on the beaches,
and getting what we thought would be a prime view of the
shoreline, we were disappointed to find that we could not
get anything from the demo when using 4XAA. Thus, we
quickly scrounged through our exhaustive collection of
games and settled on EA's Freedom Fighters. We took a few
shots of the the "freedom fighters" homebase, with and
without 4 samples of anti-aliasing and then again after applying
some anisotropic
filtering. |
Freedom Fighters Screenshots
1600x1200x32 - High Quality Settings
Chaintech Apogee AA5700U
Standard
4xAA
4xAA+AF
ATi Radeon 9600XT
Standard
4xAA
4xAA+AF
At first
glance, the pictures may seem kind of drab and gloomy -
hey, they are in a sewer don't you know - but closer
examination of the lighting effects and certain elements
found in the base made for some perfect quality
comparisons. We're going to direct your attention to
two sections in particular. First, check out the
railings and the slopes of the structure on the left,
especially where they contrast with the background.
The graphics are consistently jagged with both cards
without anti-aliasing, but at 4xAA, each card has smoothed
out the lines considerably. Touches like this add to
the realism and ultimately the enjoyment of playing the
game. I would be somewhat concerned if the edge of
my desk was just as jagged as the initial screens were.
Adding in the anisotropic filtering "cleans" up some
sections, most readily noticed in the grating in the lower
left. Try switching between a 4xAA and a 4xAA+AF
screenshot, and you will notice blotchy sections at 4xAA
that turn into nearly perfect grids. It's purely
subjective here, but we gave a slight edge to ATi in the
comparisons. At 4xAA+AF, the guy standing in the
distance seemed to be just a bit more defined on the
9600XT than on the 5700 Ultra.
The Test System and our first benchmarks
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