Conclusion
After looking at what makes the card tick, and then running it through our gauntlet benchmarking run, what do we think ? The feeling that we're left with is that the NV35 is what the original NV30 should have been. The NV30 will be remembered for cyclonic cooling rather than NVIDIA's leap into cinematic graphics.
The NV35 seeks to better the NV30 in almost every way. Having a high GPU output only makes sense with oodles of bandwidth, especially when one knows that antialiasing and anisotropic filtering are what most users look for in a high-end card. The NV35 tries to solve the bandwidth problem by running a 256-bit memory interface (4 x 64-bit controllers) coupled to 850MHz RAM. A total, theoretical 27.2GB/s of bandwidth should serve the 450MHz core well.
The cooler has undergone a makeover in the interim period between 5800 Ultra and 5900 Ultra releases. It's difficult to be objective, but it appears to put out no more than half the 5800's racket when running full tilt in 3D mode. Loud but bearable is how we'd put it. The short space of time between the NV30 and NV35's launch tells us that the changes relate to bandwidth, primarily. Sure, there's a touch more bandwidth-saving going on and some advances in rendering shadows, but the NV35 is just an evolution of a decent design.
Performance was largely as expected. Running with the same 256-bit memory interface as a 9800 Pro, the NV35 uses a faster core and greater memory bandwidth. The stumbling block comes with the use of only 4 pixel pipelines for the common coloured pixel rendering approach. Balance it all out and you can see how and why the 5900 Ultra manages to match or surpass the 9800's benchmarks in the majority of cases. 256MB of on-board memory does appear to be a little excessive for today's applications. A cut-down 128MB version will be offered, albeit it with slightly slower clocks.
NVIDIA have got it right this time. Key performance determinants such as pixel-pushing power, bandwidth and driver support seem to be in place. These allow one to enjoy high resolution gaming with high levels of image enhancing algorithms working away in the background (although the need for AA and AF at high resolutions is questionable). We expect the NV35 to really shine with the imminent release of the Detonator FX drivers. Pricing is a little sketchy currently. Expect the deluxe version to ring in at the wrong side of £350. NVIDIA's brief for the NV35 was relatively straightforward, it seems. Beat the 9800 Pro in whichever way you can. Has it succeeded? Yes, ....... probably.
Highs
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Hugely fast
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Bearable cooling
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Excels at high antialisaing and anisotropic filtering
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The fastest card in town
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Decent 2D
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Lots of memory bandwidth
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About as future-proof as you can currently get.
Lows
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Most likely to be hugely expensive
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Retail availability may be some time off
