The Holiday Stop Gap: GeForce 6800 GS
by Derek Wilson on November 7, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
SLI and Antialiasing
SLI can end up nearly doubling performance in some cases. In those cases we will see two 6800 GS cards deliver performance on par with a single 7800 GTX. But much more of the time we will see only a modest performance gain from SLI. Since one 7800 GTX costs about the same as two 6800 GS cards, we have to strongly recommend against going with 6800 GS SLI. If performance is desired and the money is there, the 7800 GTX is the better buy by a long shot.
The memory bandwidth of the 6800 GS makes antialiasing possible on most games at 1280x1024 and below. At higher resolutions, AA performance might not be where we would like. Games like Half-Life 2 will certainly run fine on a 6800 GS with AA enabled at 1600x1200. But the SC:CT and BF2 tests we ran show that the 6800 GS just doesn't have what it takes to make 1600x1200 with 4xAA a reality.
SLI can end up nearly doubling performance in some cases. In those cases we will see two 6800 GS cards deliver performance on par with a single 7800 GTX. But much more of the time we will see only a modest performance gain from SLI. Since one 7800 GTX costs about the same as two 6800 GS cards, we have to strongly recommend against going with 6800 GS SLI. If performance is desired and the money is there, the 7800 GTX is the better buy by a long shot.
The memory bandwidth of the 6800 GS makes antialiasing possible on most games at 1280x1024 and below. At higher resolutions, AA performance might not be where we would like. Games like Half-Life 2 will certainly run fine on a 6800 GS with AA enabled at 1600x1200. But the SC:CT and BF2 tests we ran show that the 6800 GS just doesn't have what it takes to make 1600x1200 with 4xAA a reality.
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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.