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 card itself is not remarkable looking compared to any of the previous generation 6800 cards out there. We see the familiar SLI connector on top of the card, stock HSF, and combination of one analog and one DVI port. The 6800 GS really does seem to be the result of someone realizing that the vanilla 6800 with an NV42 under the hood and some GDDR3 could revamp NVIDIA's midrange with little added 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.





Index Battlefield 2 Performance
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  • Slaimus - Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - link

    I have had mine for a year. It is called 6800 AGP + softmod
  • Donegrim - Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - link

    Without the GDDR3 memory though. You can't unlock upgraded memory.
  • Missing Ghost - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    Can I get this in AGP?
  • bob661 - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    The one on Monarch is PCIe.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    NV42 = PCIe only, unless they bridge back to AGP. I seriously doubt that will happen, but 6800GT AGP cards are slightly cheaper than PCIe versions already.
  • yacoub - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    "today sees the introduction of a part that performs just as well as the 6800 GT but costs about $100 less."

    Uhm, 6800GTs cost around $280, maybe less as I haven't checked in a few days, so you must be implying that I can get a 6800GS for $180. If that's true, then that's more reasonable.
  • LoneWolf15 - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    And in the same vein:

    quote:

    The X800 XL makes a good showing in this benchmark as it performs just ahead of the 6800 GS and GT. While this would be fine if only competing against the 6800 GT, the X800 XL suffers a disadvantage when competing against the much cheaper 6800 GS.


    To go back to the beginning of the article:

    quote:

    This upper midrange, sub $250 part is NVIDIA's answer to the X800 GTO and the as of yet unavailable X1600 line up.


    The X800XL's lowest retail price on pricewatch is $245. Where would one be saving money at this point buying a 6800GS, assuming you could actually purchase one today?

    P.S. I find it likely that the price of the X800XL will be lowered even further to compete.
  • yacoub - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    Still waiting to see a reply to this or a correction in the article's conclusion regarding the X800XL and supposed $100 price gap b/w GS and GT. =P
  • DrZoidberg - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    I think when u say $280 for 6800GT this is not the recommended price set by nvidia (MSRP) but the cheapest online price, im sure the MSRP for 6800GT is around $320, just like u can get 6800GS for less than the MSRP price of $250, $209 at newegg.
  • bob661 - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link

    Some of you guys are some non-reading bitches. Scroll up and you'll see Derek's link to where you can buy this card TODAY for $229.

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