fx-5900 or 5950's are easier to find I don't think I have ever seen a 5800 ultra

candle_86 wrote:

So I'm trying to find an FX 5800 Ultra, I've always wanted one, I do check ebay from time to time, but I havn't seen one in 5+ years now. Anyone know a good place to find one these days. I know they are expensive, but id be willing to pay for one 🤣

Good luck. I've been trying to find one for 5 years. They were recalled so there aren't many out there. The nearest you're likely to get is a FX5800 vanilla.

I had one always back I found on eBay for something like 8$. Nice card fan even worked fine and it was the stock one too. I had no clue they were a rare card. It dided not long ago.

It was recalled?

I know the card is a blowhard, but really?

sliderider wrote:

candle_86 wrote:

So I'm trying to find an FX 5800 Ultra, I've always wanted one, I do check ebay from time to time, but I havn't seen one in 5+ years now. Anyone know a good place to find one these days. I know they are expensive, but id be willing to pay for one 🤣

Good luck. I've been trying to find one for 5 years. They were recalled so there aren't many out there. The nearest you're likely to get is a FX5800 vanilla.

they wern't recalled they where just very late, they got 2 months on the market before the 5900 Ultra hit

leileilol wrote:

It was recalled?

I know the card is a blowhard, but really?

AFAIK, and perhaps sliderider knows more, nVidia had retailers send unsold stock back at some point after release. There are also weren't may 5800Us built to begin with - I've heard estimates as low as 100,000 total NV30s, and the majority of those ended up on Quadro FX 1000 and 2000 boards for OEM customers, and then the next biggest block ended up on vanilla FX 5800s. FWIR the yields were fairly bad in general, and cores that could actually hit 500MHz were even less common (and 5800Us aren't known as great overclockers either - the HWBOT average is 528MHz, and most reviewers back in the day were only hitting 520-530; I forget exactly what mine did with Coolbits, but it was somewhere in that neighborhood).

To the OP's request: there have been a couple of 5800Us spotted in the "ebay auctions, special for you/me" thread in the last few months. One of them was a claimed pre-production/review sample (which I seriously doubt, based on its appearance) and sold for some hilarious sum (over $200 US), another was sold DOA for under $20. They're not extremely common cards (and do seem to sell fairly quickly), but they're not as rare as something like Voodoo5 6000. I'm sure there are other places they crop up from time to time too, maybe also look at places like Amibay and other online auction sites.

The easiest path to an NV30 would be Quadro FX 2000, which has the added bonus of dual-link DVI (which the GeForce FX cards don't feature). Those are fairly cheap (generally under $50 US) and common on ebay, and will offer performance similar to the FX 5800. The Quadro FX 1000 is also NV30-based, and will perform similarly to the 5800 Ultra in idle/low-power clocks (the 5800U will run like this in a lot of older games). I'm not sure if they support the same 16x MSAA that the NV35-based Quadro FX cards have, but that might be another bonus.

The 5800's had poor high-end yield and were space-heaters compared to the ATI 9800 series. The FX line in general was kind of a disappointment.

QBiN wrote:

The 5800's had poor high-end yield and were space-heaters compared to the ATI 9800 series. The FX line in general was kind of a disappointment.

I agree, better to look for 9800Pro or XT.

Cheaper alternatives are Quadro cards. While they aren't for "gaming", they are often overlooked. I got Quadro "versions" of hard to find cards such as the GF4 4800 (4600 with AGP 8x) and FX 5800. Tested with "tricky" games such as Splinter Cell and they work well 😀

Well, another added bonus is that Quadro cards should theoretically have more reliable drivers too. nVIDIA and ATI/AMD are very conservative when it comes to enterprise display cards. You actually pay a premium for the drivers.

I dont want an FX 5800 Ultra to use it, I want it for my display case 🤣, i have always loved how the card looks, and its rarity 😁

obobskivich wrote:

leileilol wrote:

It was recalled?

I know the card is a blowhard, but really?

AFAIK, and perhaps sliderider knows more, nVidia had retailers send unsold stock back at some point after release.

That was the way I heard it, too. The complaints about the card being loud and hot made them scramble to replace the ones that remained in the retail channel before all those sales went to ATi. Nobody was buying the FX5800 anyway because the Radeons were kicking their ass across the board during that generation. Even the FX5900 and 5950 didn't completely close the gap. nVidia didn't make it a close race again until the 6800 squared off against the x800/x850.

sliderider wrote:

obobskivich wrote:

leileilol wrote:

It was recalled?

I know the card is a blowhard, but really?

AFAIK, and perhaps sliderider knows more, nVidia had retailers send unsold stock back at some point after release.

That was the way I heard it, too. The complaints about the card being loud and hot made them scramble to replace the ones that remained in the retail channel before all those sales went to ATi. Nobody was buying the FX5800 anyway because the Radeons were kicking their ass across the board during that generation. Even the FX5900 and 5950 didn't completely close the gap. nVidia didn't make it a close race again until the 6800 squared off against the x800/x850.

well in Quake3 engine games the FX was faster, even the 5800 Ultra was faster at alot of the big games, like Jedi Outcast, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Quake 3, it lost in D3D but was faster in OpenGL. I remember I eventually bought an FX 5900XT over a 9700np was because I played alot of OpenGL quake3 engine games, and it simply was faster. Now granted the FX was terrible for true DX9 but the only two games that showed us that the FX was lacking where Halo and Spilnter Cell. By the time we got true DX9 titles the GF6 and x series cards where out anyway.

sliderider wrote:

obobskivich wrote:

leileilol wrote:

It was recalled?

I know the card is a blowhard, but really?

AFAIK, and perhaps sliderider knows more, nVidia had retailers send unsold stock back at some point after release.

That was the way I heard it, too. The complaints about the card being loud and hot made them scramble to replace the ones that remained in the retail channel before all those sales went to ATi. Nobody was buying the FX5800 anyway because the Radeons were kicking their ass across the board during that generation. Even the FX5900 and 5950 didn't completely close the gap. nVidia didn't make it a close race again until the 6800 squared off against the x800/x850.

well in Quake3 engine games the FX was faster, even the 5800 Ultra was faster at alot of the big games, like Jedi Outcast, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Quake 3, it lost in D3D but was faster in OpenGL. I remember I eventually bought an FX 5900XT over a 9700np was because I played alot of OpenGL quake3 engine games, and it simply was faster. Now granted the FX was terrible for true DX9 but the only two games that showed us that the FX was lacking where Halo and Spilnter Cell. By the time we got true DX9 titles the GF6 and x series cards where out anyway.

Just keep an eye out especially on bulk lots and sold for parts auctions, you be surprised was turns up being sold for dead or as is. The non reference versions are very interesting in their own right but I never did get to own a 5800 but only vanilla 5900s.