The NVIDIA 6800 GS Closer Look: EVGA, Leadtek, PNY, and Evertop
by Josh Venning on January 27, 2006 8:53 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
General Overview
There's no denying that there are a lot of different graphics cards out there from which to choose. We know how confusing it can be when trying to figure out how a particular card compares to another or what card would be best suited for a particular gaming setup. There are cards by both ATI and NVIDIA - two companies that often take different approaches to graphics hardware design, and each company offering a wide range of performance in their cards. What's more, many cards are made to compete with each other, and perform so closely to one another as to be nearly indistinguishable performance-wise. This fact, as well as the fact that prices for all of these parts are subject to a fluctuating market and can change significantly from day to day, can indeed make things confusing.
It is because of this that we've decided to give a brief overview of some cards available by both NVIDIA and ATI, as well as a rundown of how each family of cards (and many of their variants) fit into a kind of performance-spectrum of cards, ranking from lowest to highest performance. This is by no means an extensive list of cards and their place on an exact performance scale, but more of a guideline to help visualize the kinds of graphics solutions available and their performance right now. Many will already be very familiar with these parts and where they stand, but hopefully, this will give other people a better understanding. *Note: on ATI's side, we are focusing on the X1000 series, as they represent the newer generation for ATI and take advantage of newer technology (i.e. Shader model 3, etc.).
On the extreme low end of things, you have cards like NVIDIA's 6200 and some of ATI's older cards like the X300. These cards run in the $50 to $75 price range, and are generally suitable for your grandparents or businesses where some basic hardware acceleration is needed. The opposite end of the spectrum is the ultra-high end cards like ATI's X1800 XT and NVIDIA's 7800 GTX 512. These cards are mostly only affordable to a small percentage of people, and offer more gaming power than what any application would actually require (without the special monitors required to display very high resolutions). Everything available in-between shows a little more flexibility. For instance, you can pay anywhere between $100 and $200 for an X1300 card depending on the clock speeds and memory layout. X1600 parts can go for between $130 and $300 depending on which of the four configurations you are looking at (there is a low and high speed grade, each available with either 256MB or 512MB).
With prices and products overlapping as we show here, it's tough to always know what cards are really worth their price and which aren't. The problem is a little bit more pronounced with ATI cards, as older generation chips like the R480 packaged into a neat little X800 GTO is still an excellent deal. We also have more naming variety on the NVIDIA side and there is less of a chance of buying two vastly different performing parts with the same name.
Of course, different types of gamers will require parts with different levels of performance. For instance, someone who plays strategy games like Civ 4 or Warcraft 3 won't need as powerful a graphics card as someone who likes to play pretty twitch shooters like F.E.A.R. or Battlefield 2. Likewise, a gamer's budget will greatly affect the best choice of card for that person, so the goal is to find a good compromise between good performance and a decent price. The 6800 GS just happens to fit very well into this "sweet spot" of graphics cards, which will be a good choice for the average gamer. At around $200, the price for this card is very reasonable given the performance that it provides. For this article, we will also be looking at the X800 GTO as it is still the best competitive value offered by ATI at the price point for which we are aiming. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at the different 6800 GSs that we have.
There's no denying that there are a lot of different graphics cards out there from which to choose. We know how confusing it can be when trying to figure out how a particular card compares to another or what card would be best suited for a particular gaming setup. There are cards by both ATI and NVIDIA - two companies that often take different approaches to graphics hardware design, and each company offering a wide range of performance in their cards. What's more, many cards are made to compete with each other, and perform so closely to one another as to be nearly indistinguishable performance-wise. This fact, as well as the fact that prices for all of these parts are subject to a fluctuating market and can change significantly from day to day, can indeed make things confusing.
It is because of this that we've decided to give a brief overview of some cards available by both NVIDIA and ATI, as well as a rundown of how each family of cards (and many of their variants) fit into a kind of performance-spectrum of cards, ranking from lowest to highest performance. This is by no means an extensive list of cards and their place on an exact performance scale, but more of a guideline to help visualize the kinds of graphics solutions available and their performance right now. Many will already be very familiar with these parts and where they stand, but hopefully, this will give other people a better understanding. *Note: on ATI's side, we are focusing on the X1000 series, as they represent the newer generation for ATI and take advantage of newer technology (i.e. Shader model 3, etc.).
On the extreme low end of things, you have cards like NVIDIA's 6200 and some of ATI's older cards like the X300. These cards run in the $50 to $75 price range, and are generally suitable for your grandparents or businesses where some basic hardware acceleration is needed. The opposite end of the spectrum is the ultra-high end cards like ATI's X1800 XT and NVIDIA's 7800 GTX 512. These cards are mostly only affordable to a small percentage of people, and offer more gaming power than what any application would actually require (without the special monitors required to display very high resolutions). Everything available in-between shows a little more flexibility. For instance, you can pay anywhere between $100 and $200 for an X1300 card depending on the clock speeds and memory layout. X1600 parts can go for between $130 and $300 depending on which of the four configurations you are looking at (there is a low and high speed grade, each available with either 256MB or 512MB).
With prices and products overlapping as we show here, it's tough to always know what cards are really worth their price and which aren't. The problem is a little bit more pronounced with ATI cards, as older generation chips like the R480 packaged into a neat little X800 GTO is still an excellent deal. We also have more naming variety on the NVIDIA side and there is less of a chance of buying two vastly different performing parts with the same name.
Of course, different types of gamers will require parts with different levels of performance. For instance, someone who plays strategy games like Civ 4 or Warcraft 3 won't need as powerful a graphics card as someone who likes to play pretty twitch shooters like F.E.A.R. or Battlefield 2. Likewise, a gamer's budget will greatly affect the best choice of card for that person, so the goal is to find a good compromise between good performance and a decent price. The 6800 GS just happens to fit very well into this "sweet spot" of graphics cards, which will be a good choice for the average gamer. At around $200, the price for this card is very reasonable given the performance that it provides. For this article, we will also be looking at the X800 GTO as it is still the best competitive value offered by ATI at the price point for which we are aiming. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at the different 6800 GSs that we have.
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Wellsoul2 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Ditto..it would be more of a comparison to includethe 800XL, 800GTO2 , even the 850XT which is selling
for $215 some places.
No need to do the article over, maybe just include
the old graphs for comparison.
I'm kind of unhappy that you pay over $200 for a new
video board and can't even run it with AA/AF/HDR
at a decent framerate in new games.
bob661 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Some of you guys are just rocks. The article was a 6800GS comparison NOT a comparison of video cards in the $200 price range. As a matter of fact, the title of the article says ... The NVIDIA 6800 GS Closer Look: EVGA, Leadtek, PNY, and Evertop!!! Go figure!!!BenJeremy - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
The latest RivaTuner allows you to unlock pipelines (I think it's 3 more, one vertex and 2 pixel) on the GS. I would love to see the benchmarks on that, particularly combined with the overclocking.I did have a small problem with thew GPU overclock in Half Life 2, with "flashing" textures. Not sure what was going on, but defaulting the GPU cleared it up, and I haven't messed around with it to see what sort of overclocking I can get without seeing the problem. Otherwise, I'm happy with the GS, particularly with the ability to unlock pipelines.
LoneWolf15 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
that no website seems to ever put the Radeon X800XL up against the 6800GS as a baseline competitor. I just checked Pricewatch, and Radeon X800XL cards can currently be had for $199-250, the exact same price point as the 6800GS (at least according to your price-links for the PNY model on the page I was looking at). If I was looking to purchase the 6800GS or an equivalent, why would I look at a Radeon X800GTO when the X800XL with four more pipelines is available at a similar price to the 6800GS? Makes no sense to me.WooDaddy - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Ok...Reading the article was fine until I started to see the trend of Evertop. The second I saw the picture of the HSF, I knew something was up. Who in their right mind would deviate from the reference design that Nvidia hast dictated!?! Evertop, that's who.
It was like a nightmare reading this article. Evertop at stock clock at the bottom. Evertop at overclock at the top. Same on BF2. Same on Farcry. Splinter Cell... Lowest power draw at load. Lowest temp at load (UNDER 60 C). WHY WON'T IT JUST STOP!!?!! Who do they think they are?! What's up with this punk Korean company?!? And to make matters worse, I bet that they sell for less than $190!
Well, that's all fine and dandy. At least they're not in the US. If we can do anything about it, they won't be.
Signed,
eVGA - First to release the 6800GS.
Seriously though. Thanks a lot Josh... You just made us Americans pissed off that we can't get the Evertop card. I just picked up a 6600 GT Leadtek (based on the AT review) and now I find out there's a card that's probably 50% better and only $50 more (possibly)... Geez. Let us know when a retailer starts selling that here. Or... I can take that card off your hands. Meet me in the FS forums ;)
Good job on the article :)
WooDaddy - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
(eVGA speaking)Oh damn.. 5dB lower on the noise too...
That's it. Time to either sabotage Evertop or raid the AT labs. There's gotta be an NDA they're breaking somewhere.
Maybe? No? Doggonit...
Evertop is the winnar, I guess...
Josh Venning - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Yes we were very impressed with EverTop, especially since the HSF on their card threw us off a bit at first. (we thought it looked a bit silly) It's a great 6800 GS and hopefully if there is enough demand here in the states we might be seeing some for sale here eventually. We'll just have to wait and see.Zoomer - Friday, February 3, 2006 - link
Why are you so surprised? One look and I can tell hat's the zalman VF700Cu. It's a aftermarket cooler selling for $30. Of course its good.The evertop card is a bargain, considering that you'll need at least the VF700AlCu or similar to keep your sanity. Throwing away a perfectly good (but noisy and underperforming) nvidia stock heatsink that you paid for isn't efficient.
nullpointerus - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
I don't think it's that the Zalman HSF is so good but rather that the stock HSFs are so incredibly bad. I put in my eVGA 6800 GS with the stock cooler for a few days - HUGE problem. The noise was absolutely terrible! It was simply too much to take, so I installed an Artic Cooling HSF and was immediately impressed by the quietness.Anyway, kudos to EverTop for choosing a Zalman HSF! I hope more companies follow suit.
gman003 - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link
Alright now is it me or are all of the AnandTech posters here 12 years old and crying about what is specifically meant to be a 6800GS roundup?First of all, if you guys want a varied video card comparison, go look at one. This isn't one of them. It's a "6800GS CLOSER LOOK"!
Secondly, the ATI card was merely used as a reference so you could see the differences in games with Anti-Aliasing turned on and off between the two companies. It isn't necessarily meant to be compared to the "Red Team", just merely used as a reference point.
The point of the article is to show you bo-zos out there that the 6800GS is a great price/performance card and which card will perform the best when overclocked. Everyone that buys one of these cards buys it because of the price/performance ratio, not how it compares to a 7800GT(which is getting closer to a good price/performace ratio but that is besides the point) or a X800 GTO.
The writer picked out great cards and gives a great overview of how these cards will overclock and what you will expect of them.
So please, no more cry-baby posts on here. If you keep posting, I will have to come OWN you on Quake 4 on my eVGA 6800GS card. Thanks.