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GeForce 6800 GT, best high end card out there?

B

Biff Hardbody

Member
I've been reading a few different pieces on the GeForce 6800 GT. One is here-

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjM3LDE=

As I understand it, its an underpowered Ultra for around $400 (some places even sell it bundled with Far Cry). I'll probably be upgrading my Radeon 9800 (non pro, damn) in a few months and this card seems like a good one to go for. The only things that make me are Nvidia's lack of support for good drivers, instead using Beta's. One thing I like about ATI is the driver support, it seems like there's a new one out there every couple of weeks.

That, and I'm not sure if its for my needs. $400 is still quite allot of cash to drop on a video card, especially when I just like playing on 1024X768. Maybe there will be a price drop in the next 2 months. Basically, this card seems like the next best thing for someone not wanting to drop 5-600 on the X800XT or Ultra.

Anyone have it? Are my impressions off?
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
I was considering the X800 Pro, but this seems a little better to me. The becnhes in that review have the GT overclocked, and I don't plan on using it. So, I don't know how much better it is. Still, I like the look of it. X800 Pro seems cool to.
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
Yeah, I think I'll buy it to. 600 bucks for the ultra is what I saw on newegg, and if this thing isn't that far behind it I think it sounds like a great buy.
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
Bluemercury said:
Between the GF 6800 ultra and the Ati X800xt which one should i go for?
Click to expand...

No clue, man. I've seen tests where the ultra looks better, but allot of people say go for the X800XT. Both are a little to rich for my blood right now, so the 6800GT looks like the best bet for me.
 
G

golem

Member
if GTs fall to around 350.. i just might have to take the plunge, they seem like a really great deal
 
E

EekTheKat

Member
This card can easily hit 400/1100 (Ultra speeds). Relatively single slot (depending on who you talk to, the cooler seems to interfere with the 1st PCI slot on some PC's), single molex, and it's pretty damn fast too.

I've been running it for a while now, and it was a very significant upgrade over my old 5900 Ultra.

It retails for 400 but I think you can get it in the 350's range. Mine was shipped from bestbuy for $329 or so.
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
EekTheKat said:
This card can easily hit 400/1100 (Ultra speeds). Relatively single slot (depending on who you talk to, the cooler seems to interfere with the 1st PCI slot on some PC's), single molex, and it's pretty damn fast too.

I've been running it for a while now, and it was a very significant upgrade over my old 5900 Ultra.

It retails for 400 but I think you can get it in the 350's range. Mine was shipped from bestbuy for $329 or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, sounds great.
 
G

golem

Member
good deal, although i already have far cry.. i see on pricewatch a retail box for 380ish... so 350 or so shouldnt be too far away especially if white boxes come around soon
 
D

DaveT

Member
The anti-aliasing with the Radeon is just much better than the GeForce 6800 cards...I'd take the improved quality for a few frames per second when I will be using a resolution where the frame rate difference won't be noticeable.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
You get a GT you can easily bump up to 1280 X 1024 to game. At 1024 X 768 that power is sort of a waste.

6800GT review:

http://www.gamers-depot.com/hardware/video_cards/pny/6800gt/002.htm

This firing squad article is from June 14 but a good one:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_performance_and_overclocking/

A good preview of the 6800GT:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/135/

I just bought a 9800 PRO (Because I game at 1024 X 768 on my PC). However, looking at the $400 range of video cards, I would go with the 6800GT over the X800PRO. The X800Pro is no slouch though. In fact, from various message boards I've visited, the X800PRO is an overclocking monster. They all seem to easily hit XT speeds, if not much higher. But even so, I'd still lean towards the 6800GT. It keeps on pace with the X800Pro, plus once PS 3.0 games become more readily available you'll get a small speed boost. I dunno, it's a tough choice. But neither one really is a wrong one.
 
A

AntoneM

Member
Biff Hardbody said:
The only things that make me are Nvidia's lack of support for good drivers, instead using Beta's. One thing I like about ATI is the driver support, it seems like there's a new one out there every couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

This really cracks my shit up. If there is one thing you can depend on Nvidia to deliver, it's good driver support. ATI has had a head start since the underlying architecture in the x800 series is about the same as the 9800 series. Unbiasedly (that is too a word) ATI has the best DX9 support with Nvidia on it heels; Nvidia has the best OpenGL and Linux support with Ati close and lagging behind respectively.
 
B

bogg

Member
If you have a radeon 9800, even if its non pro, I dont see any reason to upgrade now. You will be able to run HL2 Doom3 and all the games in the coming months with ease. Just wait untill there are games that really require a card more powerfull than the 9800 to run with great quality and speed, and by the time those games come out, the next gen of cards will be out.
 
T

tenchir

Member
Tre said:
It doesn't matter how often ATi releases drivers, they still suck. nVidia's drivers are *keen*.
Click to expand...

Do you know how often Nvidia release their drivers? They release a bunch of buggy beta drivers for people to test then release the most stable and "keen" one, sometime even claiming rediculous performance improvements. ATI on the other hand release their driver every months with bug fixes and performances.
 
N

Nos_G

Member
I'm going to hold on to my 9800pro* (flashed with a 9800xt bios) until the next set of cards...

And with 1024x768 your 9800 non pro should suffice as well.

Save your money for a rainy day. ;)
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
Tenchir: I know first hand how often they released their drivers and hey, at least games worked without a hitch with my GF4. Oh, and let's not mention linux support. ATi's doing a little more than lagging there. It's practically non-existant.

"It doesn't matter how often ATi releases drivers, they still suck. nVidia's drivers are *keen*."

The statement still stands.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Well, I just went to my first ATI card (9800 Pro) and I haven't had any driver problems.

In fact, I can now play the one game I couldn't with my GF4 TI 4200 (System Shock 2).

Their linux support is pretty damn bad, though.
 
B

BeOnEdge

Banned
$600 a "great buy" for a graphics card? when you buy the most powerful card, how long does it last for before you "need" a newer one? TVs are $600 bux and last a good 5-10 years.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
System Shock 2 had no problems with my 4200. So far I've changed drivers like 6 times to find a version I'm happy with. So far I've stuck with 4.5's but I can't say I'm particularly thrilled.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
<-- is on a 9800 Pro currently. PC gamer said the game ran/looked reasonably well with a GF4MX, so I figure you'll be ok on the minimum setting.

"$600 a "great buy" for a graphics card? when you buy the most powerful card, how long does it last for before you "need" a newer one? TVs are $600 bux and last a good 5-10 years."

That's a stupid analogy. TV technology isn't ANYWHERE near as fast-paced as Video cards.
 
S

Shompola

Banned
YUp, with their several different paths for various chipsets there will possible be not that much sacrifise in terms of speed. So a gf 4 Ti should run it just fine although obviously it won't look as nice as a DX 9.0 card.
 
B

BeOnEdge

Banned
i just cant think of anything else that you buy 1 year and 2 year later its not good enough anymore. i think i remember feeling outdated like 2-3 months after i got my geforce 4 even.
 
B

BeOnEdge

Banned
why cant they make it more like consoles? instead of churning out new cards every 6 months, why not find a different way to program for them to make them run better? i mean has any graphics card ever been maxxed out like a console has?
 
S

Shompola

Banned
Antivirus software are updated even faster than graphic cards. But thankfully you pay for updates that normally last atleast 12 months :)
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
If I were to buy a new card, it would be Built by Ati X800XT.

If you look at benches with the 6800 at maximum image quality settings at 1600x1200, you'll see that it craps out, while the X800XT takes a much smaller hit in performance.

The 6800 needs over 400 Watts to run at full speed. Ati doesn't.


But then again, I wouldn't buy a new card now, because a 9800 Pro can handle everything at the moment. The day it slows down, I'll upgrade.


That article compares the best Nvidia card to the 2nd end Ati card. It also avoids max image quality settings. Seems biased.
 
M

marsomega

Member
Verdict is still out on PS3.0 as well as the performance crown. Especially since there is a new Far Cry Patch in the works specifically for the X800 line just like the one before for PS3.0 for the 6800 cards; The 6800 GT is a sexy buy though. The X800 however, really is a testament to the design of the R3XX series. There is also a demo already showing dynamic branching on the X800 cards with the same performance benefits of SM3.0, one of the highly touted features of the 6800 cards.

The 6800 Ultra and 6800 Extreme don't look so good. The X800 XT is cooler, requires less to run, and is just as fast and if not, faster. Even though they are neck and neck, at high resolutions and IQ settings the X800 shines which goes for both the XT and PRO. For this generation is hard to tell from unbiased and biased. Nvidia really has all its dogs on the prowl saying anything it can and not concerned about saving face. Word on the net is the 6800 Extreme is not worth the extra $50 in retail price with the X800 XT in the picture. It’s not even worth the extra $50 with 6800 Ultra in the picture even.

Word to the wise on the drivers; the 6800 series is supposedly having lots of troubles with older games the 5XXX and the 4XXX ran like butter.


The 6800 Ultra supposedly has been tested on a 300 watt PSU. However, you won't be overclocking the Ultra since it requires two connectors, not just any cheap generic PSU will work, the power draw will eat your PSU alive. Some thing about the using two connectors and the output current of the PSU comes into play. Keep in mind that with the Ultra you may have to shell out for a new PSU while the x800 XT PE will work just fine in what you have.

This goes without saying, ANYTHING under 3 GHZ will bottle neck the cards. Don’t even think of running Far Cry at MAX Settings and MAX IQ settings. You will not get playable frame rates unless you got something fast enough to feed these.

Try to keep in mind that you will have to pay WAY OVER retail to get your hands on a 6800 Ultra/Extreme or X800 XT PE right now. 6800 yields are supposedly really, really bad and ATI underestimated demand for the X800 XT PE and is just getting destroyed by the demand. The memory manufacture can't even shell out enough GDDR3 modules which supposed is hampering production. But that’s all speculation.

Best Buy, CompUSA, Gateway, CDW etc. All have preorders from May (me hee hee) that won't be fulfilled until AUGUST if they are lucky. CDW has 600 backordered with Gateway rumored to have 400 backordered. BestBuy and CompUSA have shipped some, they have a backlog of back orders just as bad and they get priority. Unless you pay WAY more you, won't be getting one.

Here is a taste of the demand.
Link 1

I lost the link to the other, which was at $700 last time I checked before it ended.

Right now its best to go to CompUSA and BestBuy. They are now selling all next gen cards (6800/X800) for $50 less then retail. (Means 349 for GT/Pro and 449 for Ultra/XT ). They are the ATI Launch partners and they get first dips on 6800 stock.

Happy Hunting.

By the way, here is a sexy beast you might want to check out. Word on the net, it’s the fastest card. Sure is sexy..
sexy link to sex..
 
I

ItalianStallion

Banned
marsomega said:
Verdict is still out on PS3.0 as well as the performance crown. Especially since there is a new Far Cry Patch in the works specifically for the X800 line just like the one before for PS3.0 for the 6800 cards; The 6800 GT is a sexy buy though. The X800 however, really is a testament to the design of the R3XX series. There is also a demo already showing dynamic branching on the X800 cards with the same performance benefits of SM3.0, one of the highly touted features of the 6800 cards.

The 6800 Ultra and 6800 Extreme don't look so good. The X800 XT is cooler, requires less to run, and is just as fast and if not, faster. Even though they are neck and neck, at high resolutions and IQ settings the X800 shines which goes for both the XT and PRO. For this generation is hard to tell from unbiased and biased. Nvidia really has all its dogs on the prowl saying anything it can and not concerned about saving face. Word on the net is the 6800 Extreme is not worth the extra $50 in retail price with the X800 XT in the picture. It’s not even worth the extra $50 with 6800 Ultra in the picture even.

Word to the wise on the drivers; the 6800 series is supposedly having lots of troubles with older games the 5XXX and the 4XXX ran like butter.


The 6800 Ultra supposedly has been tested on a 300 watt PSU. However, you won't be overclocking the Ultra since it requires two connectors, not just any cheap generic PSU will work, the power draw will eat your PSU alive. Some thing about the using two connectors and the output current of the PSU comes into play. Keep in mind that with the Ultra you may have to shell out for a new PSU while the x800 XT PE will work just fine in what you have.

This goes without saying, ANYTHING under 3 GHZ will bottle neck the cards. Don’t even think of running Far Cry at MAX Settings and MAX IQ settings. You will not get playable frame rates unless you got something fast enough to feed these.

Try to keep in mind that you will have to pay WAY OVER retail to get your hands on a 6800 Ultra/Extreme or X800 XT PE right now. 6800 yields are supposedly really, really bad and ATI underestimated demand for the X800 XT PE and is just getting destroyed by the demand. The memory manufacture can't even shell out enough GDDR3 modules which supposed is hampering production. But that’s all speculation.

Best Buy, CompUSA, Gateway, CDW etc. All have preorders from May (me hee hee) that won't be fulfilled until AUGUST if they are lucky. CDW has 600 backordered with Gateway rumored to have 400 backordered. BestBuy and CompUSA have shipped some, they have a backlog of back orders just as bad and they get priority. Unless you pay WAY more you, won't be getting one.

Here is a taste of the demand.
Link 1

I lost the link to the other, which was at $700 last time I checked before it ended.

Right now its best to go to CompUSA and BestBuy. They are now selling all next gen cards (6800/X800) for $50 less then retail. (Means 349 for GT/Pro and 449 for Ultra/XT ). They are the ATI Launch partners and they get first dips on 6800 stock.

Happy Hunting.

By the way, here is a sexy beast you might want to check out. Word on the next, it’s the fastest card. Sure is sexy..
sexy..
Click to expand...

I only have a Pentium 4 2.8ghz HT. That will bottle neck GT?
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
I don't think a 2.8 C would be a bottleneck. 2.8 B might, but c?

Even so, overclocking would fix that.

2.8s can get up to 3.6-3.8 GHz and way surpass the 3.4 Extreme Edition and AMD FX53 in performance.
 
T

The Shadow

Member
Biff:

Honestly, why are you going to get a new video card if all you care about is 1024x768? The 9800 non-pro should be fine for a while if that's all you want, even with newer games.

You should upgrade to a 6800 or an X800 if you're really behind on upgrading, or if you absolutely have to have the latest or greatest.
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
The Shadow said:
Biff:

Honestly, why are you going to get a new video card if all you care about is 1024x768? The 9800 non-pro should be fine for a while if that's all you want, even with newer games.

You should upgrade to a 6800 or an X800 if you're really behind on upgrading, or if you absolutely have to have the latest or greatest.
Click to expand...

You are right. I'll most likely save my money. I don't care about higher res or even AA that much (its nice, but I just want that res and really good framerates).
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
marsomega said:
Verdict is still out on PS3.0 as well as the performance crown. Especially since there is a new Far Cry Patch in the works specifically for the X800 line just like the one before for PS3.0 for the 6800 cards; The 6800 GT is a sexy buy though. The X800 however, really is a testament to the design of the R3XX series. There is also a demo already showing dynamic branching on the X800 cards with the same performance benefits of SM3.0, one of the highly touted features of the 6800 cards.

The 6800 Ultra and 6800 Extreme don't look so good. The X800 XT is cooler, requires less to run, and is just as fast and if not, faster. Even though they are neck and neck, at high resolutions and IQ settings the X800 shines which goes for both the XT and PRO. For this generation is hard to tell from unbiased and biased. Nvidia really has all its dogs on the prowl saying anything it can and not concerned about saving face. Word on the net is the 6800 Extreme is not worth the extra $50 in retail price with the X800 XT in the picture. It’s not even worth the extra $50 with 6800 Ultra in the picture even.

Word to the wise on the drivers; the 6800 series is supposedly having lots of troubles with older games the 5XXX and the 4XXX ran like butter.


The 6800 Ultra supposedly has been tested on a 300 watt PSU. However, you won't be overclocking the Ultra since it requires two connectors, not just any cheap generic PSU will work, the power draw will eat your PSU alive. Some thing about the using two connectors and the output current of the PSU comes into play. Keep in mind that with the Ultra you may have to shell out for a new PSU while the x800 XT PE will work just fine in what you have.

This goes without saying, ANYTHING under 3 GHZ will bottle neck the cards. Don’t even think of running Far Cry at MAX Settings and MAX IQ settings. You will not get playable frame rates unless you got something fast enough to feed these.

Try to keep in mind that you will have to pay WAY OVER retail to get your hands on a 6800 Ultra/Extreme or X800 XT PE right now. 6800 yields are supposedly really, really bad and ATI underestimated demand for the X800 XT PE and is just getting destroyed by the demand. The memory manufacture can't even shell out enough GDDR3 modules which supposed is hampering production. But that’s all speculation.

Best Buy, CompUSA, Gateway, CDW etc. All have preorders from May (me hee hee) that won't be fulfilled until AUGUST if they are lucky. CDW has 600 backordered with Gateway rumored to have 400 backordered. BestBuy and CompUSA have shipped some, they have a backlog of back orders just as bad and they get priority. Unless you pay WAY more you, won't be getting one.

Here is a taste of the demand.
Link 1

I lost the link to the other, which was at $700 last time I checked before it ended.

Right now its best to go to CompUSA and BestBuy. They are now selling all next gen cards (6800/X800) for $50 less then retail. (Means 349 for GT/Pro and 449 for Ultra/XT ). They are the ATI Launch partners and they get first dips on 6800 stock.

Happy Hunting.

By the way, here is a sexy beast you might want to check out. Word on the next, it’s the fastest card. Sure is sexy..
sexy..
Click to expand...

Great info, thank you!
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Biff, if with the system your building you don't get fluid frames at 1024x768, it's the software's fault, not yours.

Some games just have terrible graphics engines. For example, Morrowind and Knights of the old Republic struggle to get above 30 fps no matter how much hardware you throw at it.
 
B

Biff Hardbody

Member
Thanks for the info, man. Yeah, I just thought I might have to shell out 400 more for Doom III. I could probably swing it, but if I can play it great with my 9800 pro, I don't need to.
 
M

marsomega

Member
teh_pwn said:
I don't think a 2.8 C would be a bottleneck. 2.8 B might, but c?

Even so, overclocking would fix that.

2.8s can get up to 3.6-3.8 GHz and way surpass the 3.4 Extreme Edition and AMD FX53 in performance.
Click to expand...

Try playing far cry at MAX settings with any next gen card and that processor, and I assure you that your FPS will stay mid 30's....

Thats over optimistic. The P4 EE's and AMD FX53 are more then just a clock increase.

I'll bump the thread later as I don't have the link right now to a very good article that shows some benchies with mid range CPU's...
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
"Thats over optimistic. The P4 EE's and AMD FX53 are more then just a clock increase. "

Yes, I realize this, but I've seen synthetic benchmarks and game benchmarks of overclocked P4s and they own everything at stock, except in memory bandwidth against the socket 939 64s.

I myself have a 3.0 C at 3.5 GHz. I'm able to run at 3.75, but I already beat the FX53 (except for memory band) and completely beat the 3.4 EE. The L3 cache doesn't do that much.

When you overclock you don't just get an increased cpu speed but also more memory bandwidth.

The difference between a 2.8 C at stock and the best processors is like 20%.

I played Far Cry with a 9800 Pro and a P4 2.0 A at 20 fps with max settings and 1600x1200. 2.0A is ancient.
 
M

marsomega

Member
teh_pwn said:
"

I played Far Cry with a 9800 Pro and a P4 2.0 A at 20 fps with max settings and 1600x1200. 2.0A is ancient.
Click to expand...

You'll only see a 15 fps improvement if your on anything lower then 3 GHz. From what I remember, they had to turn down effects because the CPU would choke the cards badly.

Oh, here the Doom 3 recommendations from PC Gamer...



PC Gamer recommends:
2Ghz CPU
512 MB ram
Radeon 9800
5-channel audio

Lowest supported GPU is a Geforce 4 MX (worse than Geforce 3)
Supported cards:
GF 4 MX
GF 3
GF 4
GF FX (and higher)
ATI 8500s, 9000s and higher
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
You keep saying 3 GHz, but that's ambiguous.

There's the:

P4 3.0 GHz Northwood 533 FSB without HT "B"
P4 3.0 GHz Northwood 800 FSB with HT "C"
P4 3.0 GHz Prescott 800 FSB with HT "E"
P4 3.0 GHz 530 Prescott 800 FSB with HT

There's a HUGE difference between the first one and the rest. A 2.4 800 FSB beats a 3.0 533 FSB.

A P4 2.8 C has the same architecture as the 3.4 C. At 3.4 GHz, the 2.8 beats the 3.4 stock because it matches frequency, architecture, but has superor memory bandwidth.

The 3.4EE is hardly different from the normal Cs. It still has the Northwood 800 FSB core, but with some really expensive L3 cache.

The processors are so similar that when Intel f*cks up manufacturing the P4 EE with the L3 cache, it disables the L3 cache and sets the processor to whatever frequency needed. These are known as 30 cap processors because they have 30 capcitors inbetween the pins, while originals have 12.

All you have to do to get Extreme Edition speeds is get a 2.8 C or 3.0 C and OC to about 3.4-3.5 GHz. 12 caps work, but 30 caps are preferred.

My system already beats it in Sisoft Sandra and PCmark04. Haven't tried others yet.
 
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