ION LE vs GeForce FX 5900 XT

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureRankine (2003−2005)Tesla (2006−2010)
GPU code nameNV35ION
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date12 May 2003 (21 year ago)3 June 2008 (16 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA coresno data16
Core clock speed400 MHz450 MHz
Number of transistors135 million282 million
Manufacturing process technology130 nm65 nm
Power consumption (TDP)35 Watt20 Watt
Texture fill rate3.2003.600
Floating-point processing powerno data0.0352 TFLOPS
ROPs44
TMUs88

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

InterfaceAGP 8xPCI
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x Molexno data

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeDDRSystem Shared
Maximum RAM amount128 MBSystem Shared
Memory bus width256 BitSystem Shared
Memory clock speed350 MHzSystem Shared
Memory bandwidth22.4 GB/sno data
Shared memoryno data+

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-VideoNo outputs

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX9.0a11.1 (10_0)
Shader Modelno data4.0
OpenGL1.5 (2.1)3.3
OpenCLN/AN/A
VulkanN/AN/A

Pros & cons summary


Recency 12 May 2003 3 June 2008
Chip lithography 130 nm 65 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 35 Watt 20 Watt

ION LE has an age advantage of 5 years, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 75% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce FX 5900 XT and ION LE. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce FX 5900 XT is a desktop card while ION LE is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 XT
GeForce FX 5900 XT
NVIDIA ION LE
ION LE

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.4 14 votes

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3 2 votes

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Questions & comments

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