Explorer Technology FX5200
Reviewed by James Sams on 08.01.2003
Provided by: Explorer Technology

Analysis and Conclusion:

The 5200FX gets the job done. On the other hand, as computer hardware advances and manufacturing becomes more reliable, it becomes ever more difficult to find new products that don't do what they should.  With that environment, hardware reviewers are having an ever more difficult time distinguishing products that are designed to be middle of the road products.  Several distinguishing characteristics keep this card from offering anything more than Xabre had to offer several months back.

 The lack of ANY fan on the heatsink, especially on a .15u chip, is incredibly nerve-wracking.  It is my opinion that anything that gets so hot as to need a heatsink now deserves to have some kind of powered air flow over that heatsink to keep it operating at a decent level.  This 5200 card fails to achieve that.  The .15u process keeps the card from being overclocked to any significant extent, as does the 3ns timed memory.  The difficulty of overclocking the card is another big minus, as the registry must be edited to bring the option to overclock the card up.  Furthermore, the overclock must be repeated after each boot, not exactly something I can imagine anyone wanting to do, especially on a Windows 9x box. 

I must say, the multi-monitor support found in the nView application is appreciated.  The features aren't extensive, but create a great experience when using two monitors on this card.  Even in Linux, setting up the card was not difficult to do, though the need for a high performing card diminishes greatly for most people worried about *nix compatability.  In the end, however, the Xabre card's configuration and performace were, on the whole, better than the 5200.  The easy driver tweaking and stock ability to overclock win me over in this competition.  For to keep customers, it must do better than their effort shown here.