Chaintech APOGEE FX71
FX5600 Ultra
August 26, 2003
Manufactured by: Chaintech
Introduction
After having so much success delivering high quality graphics cards during the GeForce 4 days, its been a while now since Chaintech have launched another VGA product on the market. This was really sad as their videocards is just starting to get noticed by enthusiasts and overclockers alike. Their card's innovative designs, stability and excellent overclockability matched with very aggressive pricing was surely welcomed in the highly competitive market.
During the days of the GeForce FX (NV30) hype, we all knew that they were gonna come up with a new series of graphics cards aimed for the enthusiasts supporting the latest NVIDIA GPU then. They even showcased it in one of their shows in Europe and everybody surely agreed that it was the first and only of its kind to implement such designs. It was to be named APOGEE which will be based on the newest GPU at the time, the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra. However with supply problems on NVIDIA's end and the very late arrival of the NV30, production was stopped and totally scrapped.
They knew however that such a design should not go to waste. And I'm sure that those of you who have seen it will agree with me. But more importantly, Chaintech has to fill in the void the GF4 Ti4200 left. The most important market where the money is, the mainstream! So today at Octools, we will find out if Chaintech will once again capture your attention with their latest VGA card offering, the first in their APOGEE series of graphics cards. Introducing, Chaintech's GeForce FX 5600 Ultra offering, the APOGEE FX71!
The APOGEE FX71 GeForce FX5600 Ultra
Based on the new GeForce FX5600 Ultra GPU, the APOGEE FX71 is Chaintech's answer to the position that the GF4 Ti4200 or even the Ti4400 has left vacant. As you know, this is actually the second FX5600 Ultra card that they have produced. However the first one was based on the old FX5600 Ultra core which proved to be not what everyone expected it to be. With the new core though, the FX5600 Ultra not only received a considerable speed boost but more importantly, a better packaging. Below is a table comparing the FX 5600 Ultra against NVIDIA's top cards and against its likely competition, the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro.
| Graphics Card | Core/Memory (MHz) | Memory Interface | Memory | Maximum Bandwidth |
| FX 5900 Ultra (NV35) | 450/850 | 256 bit | 256 mb | 27.2 Gb/s |
| FX 5800 Ultra (NV30) | 500/1000 | 128 bit | 128 mb DDRII | 16 Gb/s |
| FX 5600 Ultra (NV31) | 400/800 | 128 bit | 128 mb | 12.8 Gb/s |
| Radeon 9600 Pro | 400/600 | 128 bit | 128 mb | 9.6 Gb/s |
| GF4 Ti4400 | 275/550 | 128 bit | 128 mb | 8.8 Gb/s |
| GF Ti4200 | 250/450 | 128 bit | 128 mb | 7.1 Gb/s |
As you can see on the pic below, the original APOGEE design was applied to the FX71 giving it a very unique and cool look. Being different is something that Chaintech managed to do since they joined the high performance bandwagon. This was evident in their Zenith and Apogee motherboard offerings that has really changed how manufacturers present their boards now. This time, it's the graphics card look that they will aim to change. Let's have a look at what this APOGEE is made of.
