The Holiday Stop Gap: GeForce 6800 GS
by Derek Wilson on November 7, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Card, The Test and Power
The 6800 GS cards will all sport NVIDIA's NV42 core. Previously, NV41 and NV42 cores were used on vanilla 6800 boards. The main difference between the two parts is that the NV41 is run on IBM's 130nm process (and was NVIDIA's first native PCIe part), while NV42 uses TSMC's 110nm process. And where there is a process shrink with no other major changes, higher clock speeds are more accessible.
Thus, the 6800 GS is physically the same as a vanilla 6800 with a higher core clock speed (425) and paired with GDDR3 at a 1000MHz data rate. From the 6800 GT, we see a decrease of 25% in pixel pipeline, but a ~21.4% increase in core clock speed. The net result is a theoretical core performance decrease of only 9%, but since NV42 doesn't require a bridge chip the results may be even closer than that. This puts the 6800 GS in the same class as the 6800 GT (but at a much lower cost).
The main reason this card will cost less than the 6800 GT is die size. Being manufactured as a 12 pipe / 110nm chip, NV42 will definitely be smaller and more cost efficient than the chip powering the 6800 GT. As far as we know, 6800 GT still uses the NV45 which features 16 pipes and is manufactured on a 130nm process. Combine this with the fact that NV45 is bridged from AGP to PCIe on package, and there is no question about the cost difference between silicon solutions.
What remains to be seen is how the current market will react. Our initial probes indicate that the 6800 GS will be a very limited offering with its cycle ending in Q1 06. With the potential to perform as well as a 6800 GT for the price of a vanilla 6800, the 6800 GS seems to warrant a longer shelf life than our sources indicate. Either way, the 6800 GS and ATI's X800 GTO parts point to limited run cards with excellent value growing in popularity. As with any good part, we would like to see the products linger a little longer, but the introduction of these late blooming parts is good for consumers in the market for a midrange card no matter why NVIDIA and ATI created them.
For our performance tests, we used this system:
Test Hardware
We measured power draw at the wall for each card as well. Load was generated by running our Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory benchmark and observing the maximum power draw. The 6800 GS falls somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of power draw.
The 6800 GS cards will all sport NVIDIA's NV42 core. Previously, NV41 and NV42 cores were used on vanilla 6800 boards. The main difference between the two parts is that the NV41 is run on IBM's 130nm process (and was NVIDIA's first native PCIe part), while NV42 uses TSMC's 110nm process. And where there is a process shrink with no other major changes, higher clock speeds are more accessible.
Thus, the 6800 GS is physically the same as a vanilla 6800 with a higher core clock speed (425) and paired with GDDR3 at a 1000MHz data rate. From the 6800 GT, we see a decrease of 25% in pixel pipeline, but a ~21.4% increase in core clock speed. The net result is a theoretical core performance decrease of only 9%, but since NV42 doesn't require a bridge chip the results may be even closer than that. This puts the 6800 GS in the same class as the 6800 GT (but at a much lower cost).
The main reason this card will cost less than the 6800 GT is die size. Being manufactured as a 12 pipe / 110nm chip, NV42 will definitely be smaller and more cost efficient than the chip powering the 6800 GT. As far as we know, 6800 GT still uses the NV45 which features 16 pipes and is manufactured on a 130nm process. Combine this with the fact that NV45 is bridged from AGP to PCIe on package, and there is no question about the cost difference between silicon solutions.
What remains to be seen is how the current market will react. Our initial probes indicate that the 6800 GS will be a very limited offering with its cycle ending in Q1 06. With the potential to perform as well as a 6800 GT for the price of a vanilla 6800, the 6800 GS seems to warrant a longer shelf life than our sources indicate. Either way, the 6800 GS and ATI's X800 GTO parts point to limited run cards with excellent value growing in popularity. As with any good part, we would like to see the products linger a little longer, but the introduction of these late blooming parts is good for consumers in the market for a midrange card no matter why NVIDIA and ATI created them.
For our performance tests, we used this system:
Test Hardware
| CPU: | AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 (2.6GHz) |
| Motherboard: | EPOX NF4 SLI |
| Chipset: | NVIDIA nForce4 SLI |
| Chipset Drivers: | nForce4 6.70 |
| Memory: | OCZ PC3500 DDR 2-2-2-7 |
| Video Card: | ATI Radeon X800 XL ATI Radeon X800 GTO NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 5.10a NVIDIA ForceWare 81.87 |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1280x960 - 32-bit @ 60Hz |
| OS: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
We measured power draw at the wall for each card as well. Load was generated by running our Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory benchmark and observing the maximum power draw. The 6800 GS falls somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of power draw.
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DerekWilson - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
i meant 6800 GSChadder007 - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
And what, ....they forget the majority of motherboard owners still use AGP once again??Assimilator1 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
I agree ,its bloody ridiculous :/>>>>>The X800 GTO also has no hope of competing in terms performance or bang for the buck with the 6800 GS<<<<<
I don't know about the USA ,but in the UK that is rubbish ,6800GS is £160 & the X800 GTOs is £115 ,way cheaper!!
Is the price differential so different in the USA?
JarredWalton - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
AGP is going away sooner rather than later. I wouldn't suggest that anyone go out and purchase an AGP card these days unless they have a card that died. In that case, I'd recommend doing a careful analysis of price/performance before buying a new AGP card.http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=6800gt%20ag...">6800 GT AGP = $259-$455
http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=6800gt%20pc...">6800 GT PCIe = $269-$379
http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=6800gs&...">6800 GS PCIe = $214-$237
6800GT AGP cards are drying up quickly. Actually, most AGP cards are drying up. I'd say the best bet right now for AGP is from this list:
http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=x800%20256m...">X800 256MB AGP
You'd want the GTO ($200) or Pro ($203) if at all possible (or the XL/XT if they drop in price).
DerekWilson - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
As facts about the card continued to unfold today, we have updated our conclusion to reflect the current state of afairs WRT the 6800 GS.Quickly: more manufacturers than EVGA will build one, the cost difference between the 6800 GS and GT is ~$75, The rest of the 6800 line is going away with the exception of the GS, and we added a bit about unlocking X800 GTOs.
We stand behind our decision to leave out the X1600 lineup, and I hope you guys will give us the leeway to do things like this in the future. It is always our first priority to bring the community information about present and future hardware. We have already shown the performance characteristics of the supposed X1600, but there is still no retail part so it has no place in the rest of our reviews. In our opinion anyway.
Thanks for the comments, input, and patience.
ashegam - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
Hopefuly someone will soon come up with a way to unlock these cards and turn them into GT's, that would be sweet.DerekWilson - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
can't :-(rqle - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
Sorry for the dual post BUT GET COD2 with purchase, button press twicehttp://www.evga.com/community/promos/cod2/6800gs.a...">http://www.evga.com/community/promos/cod2/6800gs.a...
For $209 and a $45-50 game when release is not bad at all. Limited.
ViRGE - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
Offer is limited to the first 200 who qualify and sign up.Not very cool.
hoppa - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
Haven't even read past the first page yet, but I have to say that it's not too good to your readers to let your bias about the lack of X1600 parts affect the integrity and relevance of the review. If you don't like what ATi is doing, then say so, give them bad ratings, whatever, but don't just leave out information. You risk losings readers *very* fast if you continue doing that.