XFX GeForce 6800 GT 256 MB

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
XFX
Sep. 14, 2004

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Introduction

The NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and ATI Radeon X800 XT show off some very sweet specs and performance, but due to their extremely high price-point, the percentage of consumers that will actually purchase these cards is quite small. NVIDIA, ATI and their respective add-in board partners all know that there isn't much money to be made from a $500 graphics card. This is where the lower high-end and mainstream cards come in, which are usually scaled down versions of the latest technologies. NVIDIA's lowest high-end card is the "vanilla' 6800, available for around $300. NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 GT can be had for $400, $100 less than the Ultra while still managing to pack a powerful punch. While still not considered mainstream, the 6800 GT is a cheaper alternative for those who can't afford a $500 card but still want a great performer.

The GeForce 6800 GT wasn't originally in NVIDIA's plans. Initially, only two 6800 cards were announced. The GeForce 6800 ("vanilla' or "non-ultra') has slower core and memory speeds, 12 pixel pipelines and a $300 price tag, whereas the GeForce 6800 Ultra has much faster clock speeds, 16 pipelines and a $500 price tag. However, ATI's announcement of the X800 Pro, which would cost $400, fell directly between the two 6800 cards. NVIDIA saw this and had to quickly fill in the gap. And so the 6800 GT was born.

Today we will be taking a look at the GeForce 6800 GT from XFX Technologies. The 6800 GT has all the same features and technologies as the 6800 Ultra, unlike the vanilla 6800 which has reduced pixel and vertex shaders, older DDR instead of G-DDR3 memory, and lower clock speeds. To bridge the gap between the 6800 and 6800 Ultra, the 6800 GT has the same features as the 6800 Ultra, the same number of shaders and the same G-DDR3 memory chips. The only change to reduce performance seems to be the lowered core and memory speeds. With all of these features, the 6800 GT comes in at around $400, making it direct competition to the Radeon X800 Pro. How will the 6800 GT stack up against the X800 Pro in the latest games and is NVIDIA's answer to the X800 Pro worth the relatively high cost? Let's find out.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Card
Page 3: The Bundle
Page 4: Test Setup
Page 5: Benchmarks: Doom 3
Page 6: Benchmarks: Half-Life 2
Page 7: Benchmarks: Far Cry
Page 8: Benchmarks: Need for Speed Underground
Page 9: Benchmarks: Splinter Cell
Page 10: Benchmarks: Call of Duty
Page 11: Image Quality
Page 12: Overclocking
Page 13: Conclusion

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8 User Comments

1 - Posted by Guest on September 15, 2004 - 1:48 pm

It'd be nice if you could include the temperature readings after the overclocking.

2 - Posted by Guest on September 16, 2004 - 4:00 pm

how about Con: poor AA & AF performance?
Or takes up 2 slots, suckin up the nearest PCI slot cuz of the mondo huge fan. Gee, the reason why the Ultra is getting creamed is the need for 2 distinct molex power connectors. Can't wait for PCIexpress.

3 - Posted by Guest on October 25, 2004 - 5:17 pm

Just bought this card, it is awesome. Runs doom 3 on ultra-high res and had 113.00 fps on the half life 2 stress test. This isn't even overclocked yet!! I highly recommend this card

4 - Posted by Guest on December 7, 2004 - 9:38 pm

hi, just thought i wud leave a comment saying how wicked this card is, i got it on Nov. 25th and i havent had one day of bad gaming.... realistic, quality gfx and you cant go wrong if you have 300 pounds... multi-display too?! mmmm

5 - Posted by Guest on December 25, 2004 - 9:24 am

I'm gonna buy him directly (I need a new PC)

6 - Posted by Guest on August 31, 2005 - 5:44 pm

I find this card in the Dual DVI version (still AGP) in one of my favorite online stores, thinking of buying it.
A tad dissapointed that it didn't overclock stable to full 6800 Ultra specs. So I'm thinking of Gainward GeForce 6800Ultra or XFX GeForce 6800Ultra instead. They cost more but not much more then more expensive 6800GT by other brands.
On the other hand, watercooling might get better OC and I want to get watercooling to keep noise levels down anyways.
Also, is it really worth 100-150$ extra to buy a Ultra instead of a GT to get full Ultra specs (or beyond) when a GT, especially clocked near Ultra speeds, performs almoust as good.
A decent graphics card and soundcard, and ofcourse the low noise watercooling, is all I miss in my comp. Currently using integrated sound and GeForce 4 MX440. Thats on a P4 Northwood "C" 3.2GHz with 2048MB primary memory.
/GW

7 - Posted by Guest on September 18, 2005 - 5:12 pm

This review was helpful. I am buying one now off of newegg.com for $290. I like that you can put it in SLI and its PCI-E. I do have a question if the DVI hookups would support 1920x1200 for my Dell 24" widescreen. My analog VGA hookup on my GeForce Fx5600 supports it, but not the DVI on it, so i was wondering if the DVI on this supports it. I dont know if 2048x1536@85Hz pertains to the DVI hookups.

8 - Posted by Guest on September 19, 2005 - 6:20 pm

lol nice try, i think ill be keeping this monitor:)But thanks i just didnt know if it was a DVI thing or just my current graphics card.

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