The Cards
We've talked about the 6800 GS before, but just to review, the 6800 GS is very similar in design to the 6800 GT, except that it has four fewer pipelines, and a higher core clock (425MHz as opposed to 350MHz). Basically, the 6800 GS offers nearly identical performance to the 6800 GT at a lower cost. With the 6800 GS, NVIDIA plans to phase out the 6800 GT and let the GS take its place as the next NVIDIA card below the 7800 GT.
Leadtek WinFast PX6800 GS Extreme
The first card that we'll be looking at is by Leadtek, and it's called the Leadtek WinFast PX6800 GS Extreme. The "Extreme" in the title refers to the fact that this card comes out of the box with a factory overclock. While the reference 6800 GS comes with a core clock of 425MHz and memory clock of 1.0GHz, Leadtek's Extreme 6800 GS's core and memory clocks are set at 485MHz and 1.1GHz, giving it a small boost in performance over the standard GS.
The Leadtek 6800 GS has a sleek look, with a glossy black cover on the heat sink and the WinFast logo centered in italics. Other than the sticker, the card looks the same as NVIDIA's reference 6800 GS. Also, an important thing to note is that the PX6800 GS Extreme comes bundled with games: Prince of Persia, Warrior Within, and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. These games, as well as the factory overclock, make this card one of the nicer 6800 GSs for sale right now at about $213.
PNY GeForce 6800 GS Overclocked
Our next card is the GeForce 6800 GS Overclocked by PNY Technologies. PNY is a respected graphics card manufacturer and their 6800 GS looks to be of good quality. This GS also features a factory overclock, but it's slightly different with a core clock of 470MHz, and a memory clock of 1.1GHz.
The design of the card itself looks basically the same as the Leadtek and reference 6800 GS, with the exception of the cool blue and black design on the sticker with the cyborg head sticking out just underneath the Verto logo. The box has a similar design, with the increasingly disturbing cyborg head with its insides exposed poking out of a black lake, just underneath the PNY and Verto logos. Note that there are no games included with this card's software bundle.
EverTop GeForce 6800 GS
The next 6800 GS that we have is somewhat unique by a company called EverTop. EverTop is a Korean company and currently these 6800 GSs are only available for sale in Korea and Hong Kong. We've included the card in this review regardless of the fact that it's not available in the US at this time, in part because of the fact that it may become available here in the US sometime in the future (especially if there is interest), and also because AnandTech is a global site, and we're interested in testing parts from any country.
As you can see, the card looks a bit different from the other 6800 GSs that we have for this review. The card looks somewhat stripped down, with a very unique looking fan/heat sink combo. The HSF design is by Zalman who are well known for their quality cooling solutions. If anything else, this card looks like it could be the most easily damaged of the three, as the HSF seems particularly delicate. EverTop seems proud of it though, as the box allows a clear view of the front of the card (weird HSF and all) through a see-through plastic oval on the face of the box. The EverTop 6800 GS is the only one of these four cards that does not come with a factory overclock.
EVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS
The last card that we'll be looking at in this review is by EVGA, a company that we've had lots of good experience with here at AnandTech. They have consistently provided users with quality parts, impressive factory-overclocks, and an excellent warranty policy. Their card is the EVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS.
The EVGA 6800 GS sports the more conventional design of the PNY and Leadtek GSs, again with the exception of the sticker on the HSF. It has a glossy black cover, with some dark and bright green highlights and the NVIDIA GeForce logo on the front, as well as the EVGA logo printed twice around the center of the fan. The EVGA 6800 GS does come factory overclocked (450MHz/1.05GHz), but it doesn't come with any games bundled. Now, let's look at how these four cards overclocked.
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DerekWilson - Sunday, January 29, 2006 - link
Sometimes people are shocked by this, but there are people out there who are buying new computers these days. Not everyone is in the market for an upgrade. Of course, we care about the upgraders as well, but everything needs to be in its place.I have a feeling there's something on the horizon that will make all the agp lovers happy. But that's all I'm gonna say about that.
Omega215D - Saturday, January 28, 2006 - link
The 6800 GS for AGP isn't much more than the PCIe versions and I'm curious to see if performance was similar just like the 6600GT. And to all those that just throw AGP to the curb: I still run an A64 3200+ on an MSI nForce 3 platform. Why am I going to replace it with a nForce 4 mobo when socket M2 is basically around the corner? Remember, I would have to pay $100 more to get a PCIe mobo with the GS which would cost more than just getting the AGP version.mino - Saturday, January 28, 2006 - link
when something generates a lot of heat it does NOT mean it is hot. An vice versa.Actually the amount of heat is clearly visible on power consumption graphs.
The "heat" graph actually measures the efficiency of cooling solution, not the heat produced.
Otherwise APG version seriously lacking as many have allready pointed out.
Larso - Sunday, January 29, 2006 - link
Yeah. I particularly stumbled over this sentence on page 9:"We also wanted to see how much heat these cards generated"
- right after the nice power consumption graph that showed exactly the same power usage, and thus they must produce exactly the same amount of heat. No way around thermodynamics.
The sentence should have read something like: We also wanted to see how hot these cards ran. (which is how well the cooling solution is able to remove the heat)
Tarx - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
I have the eVGA 6800GS. What I didn't expect was just how LOUD it was.In 2D, originally used RivaTuner to turn down the fan to a minimum (was barely tolerable), but had to keep the loud mode for 3D. In the end bought the ArticCooler NV 5 Rev 3 without even knowing if it fits (it was either that or return the card). The AC isn't silent by any means, but much quieter and as a bonus a cooler solution. It however takes up a second slot (exhausts hot air behind the case - another nice bonus)
Even with the card being cooler by the AC, the OC seems to be limited to the low 500s for the GPU.
The mem on my card seems to be an exception, with no artifacts even at 1300 (650 DDR).
Zak - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
I would like to see how this card does DVD amd HD acceleration, for HTPC use, non gaming. I want to replace the noisy 6600GT and this could be the right card.Zak
bldckstark - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Great article AT thanks for doing the job I want to, but can't, do. You guys are a great part of the tech business and are doing the public a service, free of charge to your users. I can't ever complain about that and thank you. BUT,Early in the article you mention that the X1300 or the 6200 card would be plenty of power to run grannie's computer for $50 - $75. Why does the recommendation for this type of computer keep increasing? Not that long ago everyone was saying an MX200 was plenty for Mom, now we have to the latest GPU family to run Outlook? Most Intel MB reviews state that the IGP is fine for Aunt Virginia and it is free (basically). I just wonder where the cutoff is on 5th generation spreadsheet graphics rendering. Until there is some increase in graphics complexity in MS Office I can't see the need to buy anything other than an IGP board for the purposes mentioned.
Yes, I have heard that Vista is gonna smoke the cheap cards, so maybe now is the time to increase the minimum power standard, but will it keep increasing from there? If a card can run Aero at release does the GPU recommendation ever need to be changed until Aero does?
If I am wrong please let me know so I can track the necessary changes in the future. Uncle Delbert needs a new box so he can find out what all this Pr0n stuff is, he's been hearing about at the Sunday meetin'.
Just trying to embarrass myself on a highly public forum, you may officially start laughing at my views now.
BLuDeCKSTARK
Josh Venning - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
This is a good point, actually. The kind of card that would be "good enough" for granny is a very subjective thing, and depends greatly on the person's needs. People who just used the computer to write in offive or use spreadsheets probably don't need a graphics card at all. That said, as software advances, better hardware acceleration will probably be required, but it need not be confined to the $50 to $75 price range.DerekWilson - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
I basically feel the same way Josh does ... In fact, I was going to write a nice quick blurb like that, but it turned into a crazy rant that I posted in the forums.http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">Rant here ... check it out
I can get a bit long winded sometimes. Mostly I'll just delete the intended comment and walk away, but I think I'll start making forum posts in the future.
Thanks,
Derek Wilson
unclebud - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
"AGP is dead which is why it wasn't tested."then why aren't they giving them away free then? fraud fraud fraud on nvidia i tell everybody
the title didn't say only "The NVIDIA 6800 GS [PCI-Express] Closer Look: EVGA, Leadtek, PNY, and Evertop"
thanks to the authors of the article though