NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 Go vs. ATI's M28: The Mobile GPU Wars Begin
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 8, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
For this comparison we were provided with two notebooks - in the NVIDIA corner we have the Sager NP9860, using a 3.2GHz Prescott (P4-E), 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800 Go clocked at 300/300 with a 256-bit memory bus.
Our GeForce 6800 Go testbed
In ATI's corner we have an unnamed M28 launch partner (we can't mention who until M28 is launched in about 2 weeks) using a 3.4GHz Prescott (P4-E), 1GB of RAM and a M28 clocked at 400/400 with a 256-bit memory bus.
The systems are configured as closely as possible, with the CPU clock speed being a slight advantage in ATI's favor. But given the fact that most of our benchmarks will be GPU limited and the CPU clock speed advantage is around 6%, don't expect it to tilt things too far in ATI's favor.
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bollwerk - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
bah, #13 beat me to it. I was also going to point out that the mobility 9800 was based on the X800, not the 9800. I think it was confusing of ATI to do this, but what can ya do... *shrug*MAValpha - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
For accuracy's sake, the Mobility 9800 was based on the R420 core- not the desktop R350/R360 (cite: http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=611... Granted, it was an AGP chip, but it bore more technological resemblance to an X800 than to a 9800. Even so, I think that the name "Mobility X800" does make sense, in keeping with ATI's naming convention; then again, remember the Mobility 9700.DeathByDuke - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
not a good comparision really. 8 pipeline chip vs 12 pipeline chip. ATi no doubt plan a Mobility X800. Which is no doubt the '9800' with 12-16 pipes. It'd be fun.ActuaryTm - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Anand:Thank you for the review, and for the clarification regarding the available testing time for each machine. Especially enjoyed the clear, concise portion regarding clock gating.
It should be noted to those with negative comments that this was not a review of either machine, but rather a simple comparison of the two GPUs.
Look forward to the coming reviews, Anand. Well done.
Regards,
Michael
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
We wanted to run more tests but we only had the M28 laptop for a matter of a few hours and the Geforce 6800 Go laptop for less than a day before we had to send it back. Given more time with the solutions we would have gladly performed more tests. I'm hoping to have a shipping version of M28 by the end of this month for more thorough tests.As far as a comparison to other notebooks, the best comparison point is the Dell XPS equipped with the Mobility Radeon 9800, however Dell isn't very eager to send out review samples unless the review will benefit Dell - in this case, it definitely wouldn't, thus we could not secure a review sample in time.
The request for desktop reference scores is a good one, while we didn't have time to include them in this review I'll make sure they get in the review of the shipping M28.
Take care,
Anand
skunkbuster - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
anyone know why ati can't make better OpenGL drivers? they really need to work on those more.thats the only thing i see lacking with their offerings.
also #7 and #8? i think a person who buys this sort of laptop isnt really concerned about battery life. its more of a 'desktop replacement' than a 'portable'.
i agree on the point of reference thing though. it would have been nice to have something to compare them to other than each other.
LoneWolf15 - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
I am greatly disappointed by the lack of battery life tests. Unlike desktops, where fastest with good image quality is important, if the numbers are relatively close (say, within 5-10%) performance-wise, a laptop-buyer will almost always go for the setup with battery life. I understand like others that the notebooks aren't identical, but there has got to be a way to test this. Also, there were no tests regarding CPU usage during DVD playback, something I consider a big deal. Numbers are nice, but this review is like a cake without the icing --it's kind of bland.Guspaz - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
I'm very disapointed with this article for a few reasons:1) There is no point of reference. Where are the benchmarks for a radeon 9700 Mobility or Radeon 9800 Mobility? We have no idea how much faster these things are than existing mobility parts
2) There are no dekstop points of reference either. Users want to know how these compare to desktop processors.
3) The configs were not identical. These are desktop CPUs in the laptops, why didn't you take out the 3.4 and put in a 3.2?
4) Why was the lower clocked 6800 Go used to test? Was the 450/600 not available?
5) Why are there no battery runtime comparisons? I understand they are different notebooks that can't be directly compared, but if they have similar hardware with similar rated batteries, the results would be ballpark at least. Even so, there could have been runtime benchmarks comparing having the power saving features on and off.
I'm sure there's some other missing things I just haven't noticed. Because Anandtech has grown into such a well respected site, there is an expectation of quality and quantity that we readers have come to expect. I feel this article just isn't up to the Anandtech snuff.
gordon151 - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Damn, now my 9800xt is getting whooped by laptop graphics cards *sigh*. Wonder if there is gonna be an M28 XT or 6800 Go Ultra?dextrous - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Where's the battery life numbers Anand?