The Holiday Stop Gap: GeForce 6800 GS
by Derek Wilson on November 7, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
The King is Dead! Long Live the King!
For most of its life the 6800 GT was NVIDIA's best high end value. The 6800 Ultra was both too hard to find and too expensive to be worth the investment, while the 6800 GT performed very well and wasn't a bad overclocker either. But ever since the 7800 series came along, the 6800 GT just hasn't been as viable an option. Today we can find cheap 7800 GT parts for about as much as an average 6800 GT (~$320).
Today sees the introduction of a part that performs just as well as the 6800 GT but costs about $70 to $80 less. The 6800 GS looks like it hits the sweet spot between price and performance this holiday season. Aside from cutting the cost of the 6800 GT, the 6800 GS doesn't cost that much more than a vanilla 6800 with 256MB of RAM. As the vanilla 6800 performs just slightly better than the 6600 GT, we can say with confidence that the 6800 GS has taken over the 6800 line and is the only real option left of the bunch.
We had heard that only EVGA would be building the new king of value, and then only until the first quarter of next year. It has come to our attention that most of the usual suspects will eventually come out with 6800 GS parts. With all the advantages the 6800 GS holds over its 6800 series brethren, we are glad to see that it will stick around.
Putting 6800 GS cards together in SLI is not worth it when you can get a 7800 GTX for less than 2x the price. Since the 6800 GS will be a short lived product (from what we understand) SLI as a future upgrade is not a viable option - stick with the single card here or go with something faster if you need to spend more money. We don't like SLI upgrades anyway, but it's even less smart an idea if you can't be sure the card will be around much longer.
This card does for NVIDIA what the X800 GTO did for ATI a short time ago. The X800 GTO falls short in terms of value compared to the 6800 GS, which is both impressive and exactly why NVIDIA wanted to bring it out now. With initial prices on upcoming ATI parts looking to be a little high for their performance, this seals a recommendation for NVIDIA for the holiday season: if you've got about $220 to spend on a graphics card, the 6800 GS is the part to have.
Of course, if you are the adventurous kind and enjoy modding your hardware, the X800 GTO does have something to offer. Most of these cards are easily overclockable and/or flashable to 16 pixel pipelines. The 6800 GS won't allow anyone to unlock extra pipelines as the silicon is built around 12 pixel pipes to save die area. Getting good results with the X800 GTO is not guaranteed, but for those willing to take the risk, the option is there.
All the new parts add a lot of confusion to the mix. With both ATI and NVIDIA bringing out essentially redundant parts, it's hard to know what to recommend or buy. Luckily, NVIDIA has cleared that up for us - the entire rest of the 6800 line is going away and only the 6800 GS will remain. As for ATI, it is very hard to address the amount of spring cleaning their line up needs (especially with the X1000 series parts coming out soon).
You can buy the 6800GS today in its eVGA forum at several vendors.
The King is Dead! Long Live the King!
For most of its life the 6800 GT was NVIDIA's best high end value. The 6800 Ultra was both too hard to find and too expensive to be worth the investment, while the 6800 GT performed very well and wasn't a bad overclocker either. But ever since the 7800 series came along, the 6800 GT just hasn't been as viable an option. Today we can find cheap 7800 GT parts for about as much as an average 6800 GT (~$320).
Today sees the introduction of a part that performs just as well as the 6800 GT but costs about $70 to $80 less. The 6800 GS looks like it hits the sweet spot between price and performance this holiday season. Aside from cutting the cost of the 6800 GT, the 6800 GS doesn't cost that much more than a vanilla 6800 with 256MB of RAM. As the vanilla 6800 performs just slightly better than the 6600 GT, we can say with confidence that the 6800 GS has taken over the 6800 line and is the only real option left of the bunch.
We had heard that only EVGA would be building the new king of value, and then only until the first quarter of next year. It has come to our attention that most of the usual suspects will eventually come out with 6800 GS parts. With all the advantages the 6800 GS holds over its 6800 series brethren, we are glad to see that it will stick around.
Putting 6800 GS cards together in SLI is not worth it when you can get a 7800 GTX for less than 2x the price. Since the 6800 GS will be a short lived product (from what we understand) SLI as a future upgrade is not a viable option - stick with the single card here or go with something faster if you need to spend more money. We don't like SLI upgrades anyway, but it's even less smart an idea if you can't be sure the card will be around much longer.
This card does for NVIDIA what the X800 GTO did for ATI a short time ago. The X800 GTO falls short in terms of value compared to the 6800 GS, which is both impressive and exactly why NVIDIA wanted to bring it out now. With initial prices on upcoming ATI parts looking to be a little high for their performance, this seals a recommendation for NVIDIA for the holiday season: if you've got about $220 to spend on a graphics card, the 6800 GS is the part to have.
Of course, if you are the adventurous kind and enjoy modding your hardware, the X800 GTO does have something to offer. Most of these cards are easily overclockable and/or flashable to 16 pixel pipelines. The 6800 GS won't allow anyone to unlock extra pipelines as the silicon is built around 12 pixel pipes to save die area. Getting good results with the X800 GTO is not guaranteed, but for those willing to take the risk, the option is there.
All the new parts add a lot of confusion to the mix. With both ATI and NVIDIA bringing out essentially redundant parts, it's hard to know what to recommend or buy. Luckily, NVIDIA has cleared that up for us - the entire rest of the 6800 line is going away and only the 6800 GS will remain. As for ATI, it is very hard to address the amount of spring cleaning their line up needs (especially with the X1000 series parts coming out soon).
You can buy the 6800GS today in its eVGA forum at several vendors.
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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.