Is the 6800 gt/ultra worth the price

[creative destructions]

wait for the 6600 gt ~$199 usd

[THX]

No i want to buy 6800 gt or ultra not 6600 or watever. ANyway isnt that a inferior version of th 6800 like with less pipes or sumthin like that. Anyone that has a 6800 and paid the price plz reply.Because i been lookin for this card for a long time and finally local store has like 2 in stock and i was gonna buy it but i have doubts. I dont know if i should fork over that much money for a videocard. So anyone that has one...

[creative destructions]

Well, to answer the question you asked. Wait for the 6600 gt.

[JPPLAY]

Tell him why he should pick a 6600 over a 6800. I have the same problem people tell me get this video card. I have no idea why though.

[Signal2Noise]

Get: a Voodoo5.

Why?: Purely for nostalgia reasons.


Seriously, in this day and age of video cards it's almost never a good idea to pay full price for a card when it first comes out. There will always be a better one just around the corner and a just-as-fast "lower" card for almost half the price of the uber one.

Unless you're a money-making-one-person-studio or ILM or something that can justify the expense. To play games and do hobby CG then...nah!

[lots]

Here is some info on the 6600, whats cool is the support for SLI on the GT version :) .. so in case the 200 dollar card wasnt enough for you, you could just spend 200 more on another and operate in SLI.. sure you spend 400 dollars in the end, but maybe you wont need to ;) granted this requires TWO PCI Express 16x slots (most likely one operating at 16x and the other 8x or some sort of switching technique that divides 24 lanes evenly) For the price i'd say this is a very impressive card.. it out performs the radeon 9800XT and geforce fx 5950 (in some places), while not requiring an additional power connector, nor taking up two slots, and is 200 dollars (idealy).. thats nearly 100 dollars lower than either the radeon or FX sell at right now.. to me that sounds like a good thing

anyway here are the links
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040907/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2196

Keep in mind since you most likely are using some sort of 3D app, you will want a card strong on the OpenGL side of things.. and video games based in OpenGL may help give you hints as to the performance of the card in other applications.. (IE Maya, lightwave, etc)

Tho, if you dont have PCI Express on your machine, you'll be out of luck until nvidia releases the AGP versions of this card. Which, only Nvidia knows when that'll happen .. at which point that 6800GT is a pretty tempting offer, cuz thats one nice card :) .. tho personally im going to upgrade when that is available on pci express and i have the option to go SLI :P

[max_5]

It all depends on what you are using it for. I have a 6800 gt that I overcocked to Ultra speeds, it is an amazing card and I coulnt be happier. However it is made for games. Gaming cards are not made to push pollygons like a professional card. Just from personal experience in 3D Studio Max I did not notice a huge change from a geforce3 to a 5900 Ultra. And I can't say that I could tell much from the 5900 Ultra to the 6800 GT. I am sure that they are decently faster, however the main improvements are in games obviously.

[Hugh-Jass]

you know..that 6800 card is expensive...

I'm doing professional game development on a 5200..why cause it does the job I need it to do and it was FIFTY BUCKS. Even though it's all a potential write -off for me...i'd rather save my cash... and before these were even out I was editing super high res buildings on a geforce4quadro... so I'm sure a 6600 can do at least what that card did.

So you seem to really really want one ...I say that's what you're paying for to satisfy that urge to have it now instead of waiting til the tech "breaks in" and is less "hot" bleeding edge..and less$$$$$..

any cash you drop yuo should say good bye to cause all these cards are kind of worthless in such a short time...

Personally I'll probably pick up a 6600 when halflife 2 ships if I can get it for 150 or so...

[Gehof]

After months of browsing, my first post on CGTalk :)
I'd just like to start out by saying I'm a part time student going half self-taught and taking basic classes in Max/Photoshop at the same time, and I'm absolutely blown away by the work I see on this site!

I have been somewhat lucky in my history with high-end video cards. Two years ago my friend won a shopping spree and was nice enough to grab me a Radeon 9700 Pro (back when it was a $400 card - now worth only $175 ($150 refurbished)). Since then I've been using that card and it STILL runs games on high settings (including Doom III) at resolutions up to 10x7 (which is all my 17" CRT is really good for, anyway). I'm currently working at Best Buy, where we recently received a shipment of GeForce 6800 GTs (256MB), and after price-checking one on employee discount, I decided it was too good a deal to pass up. Since then I've been able to run any game I could on my 9700 Pro at resolutions twice as high with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering levels cranked (6-8x, 16x respectively) without even the slightest hiccup in any game ranging from CounterStrike: Source to Doom III set all the way to Ultra. The version I purchased (BFG Technologies) comes overclocked out of the box (390MHz core clock instead of 370). I haven't pushed or experimented with it at all yet, but it has a 1/2" copper heatsink and two fans (as well as a nifty little blue LED), so I'm not too worried about my future endeavors in the land of overclocking. Simply put, the card is great, and when you pay that much money for something (as I experienced with the Radeon), it will definitely last you a very long time (I replaced the card simply because I was looking to upgrade to a 256MB card that would run Half-Life 2 without a stitch in large multiplayer games - I produce machinima - and it was a killer price on Employee Discount). If you're on the fence, I say go for it if you've got something more than two generations old (Radeon 8x00/GeForce 3 Ti) or a weaker card such as a 9200/5200. The card is great, but truth be told I probably didn't have to upgrade quite yet (a sort of testament to how long these higher-end, more expensive cards last).

Bottom Line: If you're big into gaming and an absolute graphics nut like I am, then you'll be happy with it. If you've already got something like a GeForce 4 Ti or Radeon 9500 Pro or better, then you may want to skip another generation of cards before upgrading. That said it's a fantastic card, but get ready to sacrifice a molex connector and move a hard drive out of the way (it's HUGE).

[Novakog]

I'm one of these crazy people who actually shelled out the cash for a 6800 Ultra. In terms of gaming, I love it, and considering there's nothing else I need the money I used for it, I'm very happy about it because it runs awesome in games (though it could be because I'm coming from a 9700 Pro). However, if you're not gonna game, and/or you want to use some of the money that would go towards it on something else, then don't go with it. A 6800 GT is better, but a really really good in between would be the 6600 GT, as they have said, when it comes out.

Unfortunately, unless you already have a PCI-E rig or a 939 pin Athlon 64 FX processor, you're gonna need both a new motherboard and a new processor (for the 939 pin processor, you'd just need a new motherboard). So factor that in as well.

[Knotter8]

I see alotta ppl hinting towards the 6600GT..... Of course that'll be a good budget card, but don't forget it'll be held back by it's 128bits memory interface and only 8 pixelpipelines. The high core clockspeed is it's saving grace. Better get a 6800non-ultra if you can find one for about 200.

Of course, above stated is all budget stuff. Hardcore/full pro 3D ppl will get, at least, a mid range Quadro like the QFX1100 or QFX700.

I myself have found the transition from QFX1000 to Gainward golden sample 6800GT very fine @ 400/1100. Works great for what I do in Cinema4D, Maya and it'll kick a$$ in games (I don't play many, but when I play I want a VERY good gaming expierence).

Also ;
don't forget alot of GT's have DUAL DVI. I haven't seen any 6600GT preview yet which features dual DVI.....

For more on my 6800GT, check some of my recent posts

[GregHess]

One of the most important questions when deciding to purchase a new video (in regards to its performance "increase") is "What video card to you currently have?".

If your just barely holding on with a Geforce 2 ti, trying to ignore the fact your card is now almost an antique (in computer terms), then something like a 6800 ultra would provide a pretty major increase vs your current situation...although if you probably have a Geforce 2 ti, your system is probably pretty wussy in terms of today's technology.

Here's some questions to ask yourself.

1) Am I more concerned about gaming performance, or application performance?

a) If gaming, have you looked into http://www.gamefly.com ? The cost of a totally new gaming system + a year of gamefly costs less then a 6800 ultra :).
b) If application performance is a concern, why are you looking at gaming cards? Are you caught in some sort of budget situation? If so, why are you looking at a top tier gaming card?

2) Is my computer system sufficent enough to fully utilize the video cards I'm looking at?

Many times, individuals purchase very expensive, powerful video cards for their computer...without upgrading the rest of the system. So your left standing there, with an athlon 1.33 Tbird, and a 600 USD video card...and wondering why your performance sucks. Its pretty much akin to buying a firehose, and then running it off your garden hose line.

Make sure to match up the video card to the rest of your system. Sometimes the better upgrade is going with the "slower" video card, but spending additional money on cpu, memory, and hd upgrades. Why spend 600 USD on a video card when your processor's only worth 50 bucks?

3) Do I need this performance? Or do I "want" this performance.

Another common mistake is solving viewport and rendering issues with faster hardware. Generally its not 100% the computers fault that everything slow. Sometimes its the user (yes I know we never want to admit it). The problem with today's fast computers, is everyone starts becoming sloppier. Why optimize your scene's polygons when you dont' have to? The octal super triple-core hyperballz 7.6 ghz will render it just fine!

Using the rare tools of "Freeze, Hide, Optimize, and even...yes dummies (standins)" can do more for performance in your app then any # of hardware upgrades...and not only that, learning to use them makes you a better artist, and their free!

Sure that 1.7 billion polygon model looks awesome, but could you make the same exact thing in 47,000 polygons? And remember... you don't have to GI render EVERYTHING.

4) So then what should I do?

Here's some general thoughts/ideas.

a) Wait until want turns into need.
This maximizes the cost/performance ratio. Computers are horrible investments. The second you buy any new component, you accepted that your going to lose a whole crapload of money in a month or two, when the price get slashed. You think car's depreciate fast? Try buying cpu's in orders of 10,000 and see how much money you lose in a few days.

b) Pinpoint your performance issue.
Are you rendering slow? Is your viewport performance lacking? Does doom3 with all the settings on at maximum res give you hernias?

b) Consider skipping a video card generation. Generally between generations, there isn't "that" big of a difference. Sometimes there is, but generally the differences aren't very big. One of my good friend's systems is to skip video card generations, but then purchase the top tier card...generally equalling the cost of purchasing two subsequent generation cards in a row.

c) Avoid buying Top Tier at all costs.
All the major hardware manufacturers create a rather "large" gap in pricing between their topmost tier, and possibly the 2nd or third tier down the line. This is done on purpose, cause they know the crazy people who want/need the most power, will pay almost anything for the price. Do yourself a favor. Don't buy the fastest..buy the 2nd or 3rd fastest. Generally you won't even notice the difference, but your beer money sure will.

[stephen2002]

^ I think that post should be added to one of the stickys!
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Oh, and just a comment about gamefly (consol games). There is a difference between liking games in general and liking "pretty" games. For me about 30% of the game is gameplay and 70% is graphics. I really like exploring the environments and one that is rich and full of detail (good graphics) will be more interesting for me than one that is dull (bad graphics). So a game like Doom3 was ok for me because the graphics compensated for the sad gameplay. I personally don't much care for console games because the graphics, while they have improved siginificantly over the years, are no match for PC graphics in clarity and detail. Even a poorly done consol -> PC port tends to look better on the PC thanks to higher rendering resolutions; you can just seem more. The "oohhhh, look at that" is a pretty big part of the game experience for me.

[kex]

thats a great post/ mini article greg cheers

im in the looking for a new vid card the 6600 sounds good

[spideynick]

As mentioned by greg. A GeForce2 Ti ! haha, I'm using one of those. My Geforce2 Ti runs on a 1.8GHz Athlon XP with 512 PC3200 Dual DDR.

I'm looking forward to get a new card. Partly because i lose out in terms of real time rendering features (heck my card can't even support pixel shading) I am a 3dsmax user and I also have maya on my system. I'm also a student pursuing in software and animation. I seriously need to boost up my system. Any suggestions for a card that can improve my application performance.

Does a graphic card boost on screen display applications such as trasparency, image quality, etc? Because my system can still survive but it's just a little sloppy on the gaming side as well as for high polygonal scenes on max. I also lose much detail in real time rendering as well. Besides that my card can't do DX9 :sad:. Any good suggestions on upgrading? Should i change my whole system or juz get a new card, or maybe just get extra RAM.

What should i do? :shrug:

[THX]

great post greg . Thanks for typing all that out :thumbsup: And yes i did read every last bit of it

[stephen2002]

As mentioned by greg. A GeForce2 Ti ! haha, I'm using one of those. My Geforce2 Ti runs on a 1.8GHz Athlon XP with 512 PC3200 Dual DDR. I seriously need to boost up my system. Any suggestions for a card that can improve my application performance.Upgrading your graphics card would help get the latest support for graphics however you'll quickly get held back by your CPU. I think you'll notice more overall improvements by upgrading your CPU and RAM first.

Does a graphic card boost on screen display applications such as trasparency, image quality, etc? Yes, but most things in most 3D programs are supported by your GeForce2 TI. Our school has a bunch of computers with Quadro2 cards in them for running Maya, and they have basically the same level of support as your GeForce2TI. They can't push super-crazy amounts of polys but they do the job.

[GregHess]

Is that a 1.8 ghz Athlon...or a 1800+ Athlon? (Two totally different speeds). A geforce 2 ti isn't THAT bad of a card for 3D work. The geforce 2 line was actually much better at triangles/sec then the geforce 3 lines...though the 3's could handle textures MUCH better. I'd definitely say a geforce2 ti is probably better then a gf4mx, as far as raw horsepower.

I think if you've got a 1800+ Athlon, or even a 2200+, you should probably hold out on getting a 6800 until you've got the CPU backing (3.0 ghz+ Intel, or Athlon64/Opteron) to utilize such a powerful card. A better buy would be the 6600 for that system (at about 400 USD less pricing as well).

Putting a 6800 Ultra on a Athlon 1800+ is roughly equivilant to turbocharging your lawnmower. Sure it'll make cool noises, be faster, and all your neighbors will envy you...but its definitely not the most optimal solution.

[kex]

greg you goddley techie could you make a sticky about this please?

[spideynick]

thanks greg for the great information and help :bounce:


Btw, I checked my processor, it's a AMD Athlon XP 2500+ and it's running at 1.83 GHz. I don't think i can afford 6800 Ultra yet, how about a GeForce FX5900 Ultra? What's the great deal between a 6600 and a 5900? pipelines? or core speed?

Does any of these cards makes a great deal in performance improvement compared to my rusty old Geforce 2 Ti? Comparatively, what do u think is the best way to make things speedier on my PC.

More RAM or a Graphics card? Because i deal a lot with graphics including running tons of programs at the same time. Thanks in advance for your reply :thumbsup:

[motoxpress]

Spyder,

Actually, a 2500+ is not too bad as far as processing power goes. You may also consider looking for a 6800nu. It won't have the 128 bit imitations and has 12 pipelines available. Overall, I am not sure you will see much difference between a 6800GT and a 6800nu in a 3D app. In games yes you would but, these cards are not optimized for 3D animation tools anyway so they will be about the same. Make sue you turn off AA when in the app as that will really cause problems.

If you keep your eye out, you can find the 6800nu for $250.

gl

[Pent]

I own a Geforce 2 pro, it's served its purpose and its safe to say its over, but, it ran every game pretty well before doom 3(I mostly play ut2k4 alot) :) I am currently looking at upgrading to a 6800gt + new pc, and waiting until december to pick all my parts up, I figure it will go down in price or we will see at least a few deals for it by then.

Either way-- I'm buying it :)

And I figure that all the money I saved from not upgrading my card right away can justify the price, I've had my card for going on 3 years now.

Greg Hess has alot of good points and I'm willing to bet when I switch from using my 1.33 ghz tbird with geforce 2 pro and 512 ram, to using a 3.6ghz cpu (or equiv) 2 gb ram and a geforce 6800gt I'll see a major major performance increase :D

Also he must be psychic to know my entire system :scream:

[L.Rawlins]

In my experience it is usually worth holding back on a generation.

Instead of skipping generations, merely hold off on purchases until you are two series of the desired card behind. This way, you can still buy the amazing 'top-tier' card you really wanted to dry hump.... and it'll cost you about the same amount as what the 'mid-range' card used to.

As already stated, graphical improvements are slight and often, and the consumer is fleeced during the process.

By all means get your 6800 with bells and whistles, but hang around until the '7 Series' makes its appearance.

I'm sure it won't take long.

At the moment I'm quite happy with my 5600 Ultra. And when you take into account the fact that the other components of a PC play a major factor on that g-cards performance, I think if I ever had the urge to go 6600..... I might aswell wait....

And get a whole new system first.

[FlyByNight]

hey. ive boought the GeForce 6800. i gotit for £250. its not the ultra. I am very happy with my purchase. It is important to have a completely compatible dx9 card.

Its got a lot of features that other cards dont have. Cant remba em but i think its pixel shaders and this that and the other. I personally noticed a big difference with max. My onscreen poly count goes into millions, while stil being able to use the viwport at realtime pace. Im not sure if iv got diference with rendering though. Maybe slight. cant tell. dont do much advanced lighting rendering.

i think u should get the card iv got. Iv got a p4 1.5, 512sdram and doom 3 runs like friggin crazy. No joke. much better then all my friends who have bought all new computers with 1 gig ddr ram, amd xp 3000, radeon 9800pro or wateva. NOWHERE near as fast crisp and deatiled as mine. i was even shocked. KICK ASS card

kick ass. I woudnt buy the ultra though. Just dont think its necessary. If half life 2 dusnt work (which would be really unlikely) as good as i want it to, im sure i just need a processor upgrade and a lil bit more ram. The card is kick ass. dont listen to these people.

If ur like me, and this is ur hobby, 250 is decent price. iv even seen it for 240 at places. On the net it must be even cheaper. im talking UK pounds btw. people are sayin wait, u will have to wait a long time, and ull miss out on doom 3, hl2, farcry etc.. if that dusnt bother u then fine, wait. but i am a serious gamer. i cant wait. otherwise, im just reading about these games in forums, and how lame is that. Almost makes me cry.

hope iv offered some sort of help. :)

[Knotter8]

:) Well, I think we all kind of agree on the consensus that a 6800 or 6800GT does about equally good at Cinema4D, Max and Maya as cards like the QuadroFX1000/1100/2000 (3000 ?).

If your skill level fits those Quadro cards then imo the price of the GT is more justified than
the (European price in Euro's) price of, say a QFX3000 at € 1459,-. I'm not playing alotta games recently, but my GT serves me really well in Cinema4D lately. No problems whatsoever.

What I wonder about though : any ppl out there doing 3D modeling/animation on an Ati X800 ?
I'm quite curious about how they do in progams like C4D and Maya.

[lordmachuca]

this interesting shit. I'm in the market for a video card too, right now I own a geforce 3ti on
an athlon, 1.5 with 1 gig ram.
I'm doing research as to what to get.
I heard some talk here about game video cards and production video cards
are the geforce and quadro series game cards? I'm confused, damit,....
which cards would you guys recommend for production, specifically sub d modeling and rendering

[elvis]

I'd definitely say a geforce2 ti is probably better then a gf4mx, as far as raw horsepower.
Not quite. The GeForce2ti and GeForce4mx cores are almost identical in design. The gf4mx has a few added hardware mpeg/mpeg2 decoding bits, and is almost double the clockspeed. They are about the only differences. It also has a niftier memory addressing system to increase bandwidth slightly clock-for-clock with a gf2.

The GeForce4mx was basically a "GeForce2 Ultra Ultra" of sorts.

Speaking in "raw horsepower", a GF4MX side by side with a GF2Ti will spit out roughly 1.5 - 2 times the amount of anything you'd care to measure (assuming no other bandwidth restrictions of course).

But anyways... I'm just being a picky bitch. :)

I'll agree that I'm gobsmacked to see a forum full of people running old sub-2GHz hardware! As Greg said, for the US$500 odd bucks it costs to get a new video card, all of you should be investigating a decent motherboard and CPU first! :eek:

[elvis]

this interesting shit. I'm in the market for a video card too, right now I own a geforce 3ti on
an athlon, 1.5 with 1 gig ram.
I'm doing research as to what to get.
I heard some talk here about game video cards and production video cards
are the geforce and quadro series game cards? I'm confused, damit,....
which cards would you guys recommend for production, specifically sub d modeling and rendering
A perfect example of what we are talking about above. A "Athlon 1.5" (do you mean 1.5GHz, or 1500+?) really is a waste of space in a modelling/rendering setup. If I had the same hardware, I'd consider doubling my CPU speed first (and finding a motherboard to match) before going anywhere near a new video card.

For instance, I'm currently running an AthlonXP 3200+ with a GeForce4 ti4200 video card. This will outperform any "Athlon 1.5" with the biggest, beefiest and craziest video card you could cram in it.

As for gaming cards vs production cards: The Quadro family of cards are great cards. I really dig them. However, price-wise I can't bring myself to justify getting one outside of the workplace. Even for contractors or freelancers, the cost of one of these (US$1000 or more, depending on the model) is just a little crazy when a US$150 GeForceFX 5900XT will perform to within 80% in most applications.

Even having said that, performance from application to application with Quadro cards varies greatly. 3DSMax is known for favouring Quadro cards teamed with Nvidia's "Maxtreme" drivers. However Maya on the other hand only needs a good stable OpenGL-capable card. Most consumer GeForce cards are perfectly fine for that.

3 years ago the GeForce4 ti4200 was pretty much the ultimate "bang for your buck" card. It didn't blow a hole in your wallet, and happily pushed enough polys around the screen to be useful. I would say today that the same title probably lands in the GeForceFX5700 or 5900XT camp.

Another interesting option is sourcing second-hand Quadro4 cards from eBay. I've seen a number of Quadro4 750 (gf4ti4200 core), 900 (4600) and 980 (4600 with AGP8X) cards all walk out the door at very reasonable prices. If you can find one of these at around the US$100-200 mark, you're laughing (assuming you don't need DX9/PS2.0).

And finally: a new video card WILL NOT improve your rendering speeds. Maya's hardware assisted renderer may take some advantage in it, but you're not using this for production renders anyway. And I would assume that no-one on this forum is using Gelato at this stage. If you want faster renders, follow Greg's advice from page 1!

[ambient-whisper]

for modelling, the gf4 ti4200 is still enough today :). most models dont get too far out of the 100k poly mark. ( most characters are still below 20k, unsubdivided ). and if you plan to take that into zbrush for really high polygon modelling, its not accelerated by open gl so its mostly your refresh rate and cpu doing the work.hell. even a geforce 2 is good today. i was using one till beginning of this year, and was still ok :)

[lordmachuca]

elvis thanks for the advice.
I've been doing research on this shit this whole weekend. tigerdirect has a good descriptions and reviews, thats one of the sites I've been looking at. I think I'm coming to a conclusion as to what to buy. I think the quadro4 is the best for what I need, which is working at a higher poly than I am right now, now I just have to decide which model and manufacturer. which brings me to the next question, what is the differance between pny, hp, compact, and nvidia manufacturers. Pny is the most expensive, what is the main reasoning for that.
this thead is great by the way, thanks everyone for their contribution, very informitive.

[Stillwell]

Well guys, I need your final input on this. I decided I'd go with the 6800 GT 256mb. I figured I would be able to clock it to a Ultra later, maybe.

But as Greg said, am I plugging a firehose on my garden hose line?

Here's my specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Motherboard [url=http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7VAXP.htm] GA-7VAXP
1 gig of RAM DIMM 333 DDR Non-ECC

Thanks a lot :D I'd need some input fast as I'm pretty sure I'll be buying the card in the next few days.

[Knotter8]

^ Good choice imo.

Which brand are you planning to get ? It costs a little more, but I suggest Gainward's golden sample GT ; sure shot quality and 400/1100 OC guaranteed. It's a dual slot card though becuz of the dual fan copper cooling.

Of course, bare bones & quality is PNY's Verto GT. Alotta ppl get BGF's oc GT, but their new revision has this very small single slot cooling which imo doesn't do a very good job.

[motoxpress]

Well guys, I need your final input on this. I decided I'd go with the 6800 GT 256mb. I figured I would be able to clock it to a Ultra later, maybe.

But as Greg said, am I plugging a firehose on my garden hose line?

Here's my specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Motherboard [url=http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7VAXP.htm] GA-7VAXP
1 gig of RAM DIMM 333 DDR Non-ECC

Thanks a lot :D I'd need some input fast as I'm pretty sure I'll be buying the card in the next few days.
You will hit the rendering wall pretty hard with that setup. As long as you are a patient person you will be fine. :)

gl

[Fahad]

so, what's the verdict guys and gals? a quadro fx, or a 6800? and why?

would really appreciate the help, thanks.

[DanSilverman]

Which card you get depends on your needs, I would think. I have an Asus 6800 Ultra and I love it. I chose this card because I need the well-rounded ability to run all kinds of apps from 2D, 3D and real-time 3D (i.e. games). I create real-time 3D content for a living so being able to run "game-like" environments in either OpenGL or DirectX as well as run 3D Studio MAX and Photoshop, etc is a priority for me. The 6800 Ultra card certainly delivers in this catagory.

[Speaker]

I purchased the 6800GT a few weeks back. Compared to what I was using before (GeForce Ti-200), it is immensely superior. I have noticed a few quirks though. Most notably, since the card has been installed I have to quit Max (actually anything graphically intensive, like video games) from the windows taskbar, otherwise the programs just sit and eat up cpu cycles and are listed as "not responding". Hopefully a new driver will solve this, if it is indeed a driver related problem. Other than that, the card works like a champ in all aspects. I am very pleased with it.

[Stillwell]

You will hit the rendering wall pretty hard with that setup. As long as you are a patient person you will be fine. :)

gl
What do you mean...? The card is slow when it comes to rendering?

[PaulNBurns]

Not that I have the money but the 2 cards I have my eye on at newegg are the eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800/325MHz 128MB DDR/700MHz for $285 USD or the High Tech ATI RADEON 9800PRO/380MHz 128MB DDR/680MHz for $230 USD. There is no way in hell I'm paying more than $300 USD for a video card. In fact I paid 105$ for my nivdia gf4 ti4200 2 years ago so even spending more than $150 makes me cringe.

[Knotter8]

^ Just wait a little for the AGP version of the GeForce 6600GT. It should retail for about 199

[motoxpress]

What do you mean...? The card is slow when it comes to rendering?

No, the video card is fine. I am referring mainly to the CPU as it is a little long in the tooth these days.

It will still work just fine however.

gl

[Goon]

Well, I've just completed making my new maching w/pci-express and a Chaintech 6600gt, and it is NICE. My previous system was a laptop with a gf fx 5200 so obviously this is a rather big jump.

Though strangely enough when playing farcry, I am encountering black terrain polygons. This typically occurs near a vehicle or corpse. Maybe a driver upgrade or game patch will fix that. Otherwise the game looks so incredible, I just love walking through the grass.

I haven't tested the comp out on zbrush yet, but with silo I can hit 500,000 polygons with little significant slowdown. After that Silo crashes.

[elvis]

elvis thanks for the advice.

I just have to decide which model and manufacturer. which brings me to the next question, what is the differance between pny, hp, compact, and nvidia manufacturers. Pny is the most expensive, what is the main reasoning for that. There is no difference in Quadro manufacturers. Nvidia make Quadro chips AND cards, unlike the resellers of gaming GeForce cards who make the cards themselves based on GeForce chips.

The reason for this is strict quality control over Quadro products, and to stop 3rd party groups building inferior (or superior) versions of the same unit. Other companies then simply rebadge and resell.

Nvidia obviously are aiming at a completely different market with Quadro cards where performance, reliability and consistency are more important than a few extra frames per second in the latest shooter.

PNY are the distributors for boxed quadros in the United States and Europe. Leadtek are the distributors for Asia and Oceana (including Australia and New Zealand). Nvidia also allow OEMs like Dell, Compaq/HP and such to bundle cards with their systems. As a non-business consumer I don't know if you can buy a Quadro card direct from Dell/HP/Compaq without buying a complete system from them, however there are plenty of them floating about on eBay.

Quadro cards are all the same speed and spec by model number. If you find a card cheaper somewhere, then rest assured you're not getting some specced down version like you might with geforce cards.

[Novakog]

Not that I have the money but the 2 cards I have my eye on at newegg are the eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800/325MHz 128MB DDR/700MHz for $285 USD or the High Tech ATI RADEON 9800PRO/380MHz 128MB DDR/680MHz for $230 USD. There is no way in hell I'm paying more than $300 USD for a video card. In fact I paid 105$ for my nivdia gf4 ti4200 2 years ago so even spending more than $150 makes me cringe.

I think it seems somewhat odd to be looking at those two. The 9800 Pro is one generation behind the 6800, and around half as fast (the 9800 XT is half as fast as the 6800 Ultra, so the 6800 regular is a little less than double the speed of the 9800 Pro. The comparable one to the 6800 would be the X800 (regular).

[gigantor]

Maya 6 loves my 6800 Ultra. Its like a match made in heaven,heh.

[Novakog]

Maya 6 loves my 6800 Ultra. Its like a match made in heaven,heh.

Yeah it's true, I have a machine with a 9700 Pro and it was simply awful with Maya, so glitchy - but my new 6800 Ultra machine deals with it awesomely!

[elvis]

Yeah it's true, I have a machine with a 9700 Pro and it was simply awful with Maya, so glitchy - but my new 6800 Ultra machine deals with it awesomely!
I am really fed up with the piss-poor quality of ATi's opengl drivers. Seriously, I think I deal with a client a day at the moment who has some sort of drama relating directly to ATi hardware not performing as advertised.

C'mon ATi... pull your socks up!

[L.Rawlins]

I bought a 9700Pro and it wouldn't accept its own drivers!... that came supplied.

I say Nvidia all the way. My '5600 Ultra GS' was growling straight from the box.

[csven]

i'm playing follower in the PC upgrade game and looking for something that will run Maya 5 (for modeling, not rendering animations), Pro/E CAD, ZBrush 2 and the newer games (D3, HL2, etc) at excellent resolutions. these are some - the primary - components i'm looking at.

AOpen AX4SPE Max II
P4 3.2GHz Northwood
DDR400 PC3200 RAM 2 x 512MB
Seagate 120 SATA HD
GeForce ???

my only doubts are on the vid card. i know the GeForce 6800 is getting alot of talk. and sounds great in reviews. but it IS an AGP card (at least for now). so it's likely not migrating up with my next machine (likely, not impossible) which will almost certainly be PCI-Express.

so given these components, and assuming i'll be running the above apps under either Win2K or XP, is the 6800 (whichever) worthwhile? if not, why not, and what might be a better option.

another quick semi-OT question: are there any issues with moving the NIC/Maya license over to a board with networking built in? i'm figuring there isn't; maybe have to shut down the service. but i'd rather ask now than find out there are issues later. thanks.

[lots]

The Geforce 6800GT and Ultra (i dont know about the vanilla one) will come in PCIe soon i'd bet :)

[gigantor]

EVGA sells the Ultras PCI-e right now,but there hard as hell to get because they sell out so fast.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38783

Heres a link to a guy who has not 1 but 2 of them for SLI.

The Nvidia mobos aren't out yet tho for the SLI cards.

[csven]

did some more reading. no way around it. 6800 is a nice card. was originally wondering about 59xx or an older Quadro w 128mb to go with the Northwood setup. but i'm convinced. so this is what i'm considering.

AOpen AX4SPE Max II
P4 3.2GHz Northwood
DDR400 PC3200 RAM (1 or 2GB)
GeForce 6800GT

opting out of PCI Express. Prescott's and new socket boards seem to run hot. add in the 6800 and i'd be worried i couldn't hear myself think. and for me AGP has back-up (2 actually).

thoughts? and any take on which 6800 is the quietest? all i really know is some are really loud according to buyer reviews and at least one (Leadtek) has a massive custom heatsink.

also, any answer on the NIC question? thanks.

[lots]

If you think about it, i guess, when PCIe is finally more mainstream, you'll be in the market for a new setup anyway.. right :)

[csven]

"opting out of PCI Express."


i can wait two years.

[L.Rawlins]

...Likewise....

[Knotter8]

thoughts? and any take on which 6800 is the quietest? all i really know is some are really loud according to buyer reviews .
Out of all GT's my Gainward GT with dual fan cooling is the 'loudest'. The reviewers are nitpicking imo. No way near the soundlevel of the GeforceFX5800 'Dustbuster' Ultra.
Fanspeeds are dynamically and manually adjustable with Gainward's Expertool software.

Otherwise ;
- get yourself Gainward CoolFX card ; watercooled card.
- get the NV5 Silencer http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40
- get some nice headphones
- get no Geforce 6800 at all

Goodluck

[sketchbook]

for what's it's worth, i have a 6800 ultra in my new g5. it's faster than my old 9800 pro, but not really that much faster. i blame this on apple, not on the card however. i am using cinema 4d.

if i were to buy this mac again, i would get it with a card a level down and save the $150

[tibes]

any take on which 6800 is the quietest? all i really know is some are really loud according to buyer reviews and at least one (Leadtek) has a massive custom heatsink.
I have the leadtek 6800 with the huge copper heatsink/fan combo, and it is pretty quiet. I run with the case off and it's still not loud enough to be a problem. leadtek's is one of the cheapest around too.

[csven]

thanx, tibes.

[Kion]

I dont think the price for getting pcx is worh it now. The performance isn't there. Pcx vs AGp reviews show the same numbers. Game developers are barely using up the the agp bandwidth. My opinion would be to be to save a few bucks get a agp board and upgrade in 2 years when pcx is the standard. Becuase of the huge change to ddr2 and pcx, ddr and agp motherboard prices are falling. Save some and get a LCD monitor.

my current setup

p4 3.2
p4c800e-deluxe motherboard
1 gig twinx 3200 ddr corsair ram
western digital raptor 74g
pny verto 6800 gt

[Synthesizer]

Hi,

I have been doing this formula for the past while and its served me good, both for gaming and 3D work. I wait for 2 years, then buy the card that is one notch down from the best. It's not the greatest for gaming, but I have found I can run most games with all the settings at just about high with a decent resolution and a medium framerate. It seems that everyone wants to get 200+FPS in a game when you cant really tell much of a difference above about 50FPS, which is around what I get. You can save money and get decent results, unless all you buy a computer for is to try and get the best benchmark.:rolleyes:

My current setup is a 9600XT which I got in the spring. I'm going to wait until maybe next fall before I even start thinking about a new card. BTW I just got a AMD 3200+ with 768 RAM and a 80GB SATA hard drive and that has helped bump up my performance, so maybe upgrade CPU/RAM one year, and your video card the next. Thats what I think, anyway:)

[Orange Ray]

Here are the steps in getting a GT to act like an ultra and save some of dat cash.

Step
-------
1. Get the BFG 6800 GT OC (http://www.bfgtech.com/6800GTOC.html)
Why because its already overclocked and it has a life time warranty.
If you buy it from http://www.chumbo.com/info.asp?s=855650000500# it comes with a 2-day FedEx free shipping)

2. After getting the Vid Card Get Coolbits2 (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29541) and over clock it
to 400Mhz (since the clock speed of the GT OC is already at 375Mhz) If if blows up dont worry IT HAS A LIFE TIME WARRANTY!

3. pat youself on the back billy you just saved youself $120 on the card that is 99.9% just like the 6800 Ultra

[Dinodiegus]

Yes i also have tested some video cards and been trough the ATI nightmare, i was having bugs with the 9800 pro in maya, paintbrush problems in paint fx and slow zoom in and zoom out in viewport.

I flashed the bios and made it a FIREGL , all it did was increase fps in counterstrike 2 and fix a few bugs in maya, but then a new bug appeared, my image planes in maya became black... what the hell? you pay 300 to 700$ for a quality card and it can't even perform like one... I had some bugs with the first Radeons that came out like 4 years ago, i had some bugs with bezier handle tools not apearing when using macromedia flash, now 4 years later this... its over for me and ati, never again i will buy one, even if they say its the fastest card on the market, it's like buying a Ferrari with a Ford engine or something...

i returned the ATI 9800 pro and getting myself a 6800GT, so if anyone knows if i can softmod the nvidia 6800GT and how to do it, let me know or post a link, i cant wait to get my new Nvidia.

My advice to you is to stay away from ATI if you do 3d animation, modeling etc and play games.

i think ATI is more a gamers video card.

[Menace]

I just got the typical e-mail with cgtalk.com that comes every week or so and was just surfin the forum where i found this thread. I hope u guys know that u can turn a Gforce 6800LE in an ULTRA ONE by opening the disabled vertex and pixel pipelines. that some sort of saving 200-300€ here in germany. dont know ur prices. so keep thinkin.. and dont buy stuff when its out for such short time. just wait and u´ll save some cash.
You can see yourself bein lucky, because i still remebered my username, otherwise.....
ok cya guys happy opening the pixelpipelines. works on 80% of the cards. cya

BTW : AOPEN is named to be the best for it.

[krazeyhorse]

I'll b going for the 6600, now that's what I call value for money.

[Dinodiegus]

I hope u guys know that u can turn a Gforce 6800LE in an ULTRA ONE by opening the disabled vertex and pixel pipelines. that some sort of saving 200-300€ here in germany.
Can you do this with the 6800 standard agp card or it has to be a 6800LE ?

I bought a 6800 GT and its in between a 6800 and an Ultra.

basicly i had the choice between a standard 6800 and a 6800GT for the same price, so i took the 6800GT, here are the links.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&dept=18&WLBS=FSWEB31&sku_id=0665000FS10048614&catid=10524&newdeptid=18

http://www.microbytes.com/showproduct.php?stk=17824

the bundle in the first package was interesting but, i buy a card for the card not the bundle.

tell me what you think Menace.
thanks.

[Knotter8]

You made the right choice to get the GT. However, imho you chose the 'wrong' brand.

Asus makes NV40 based cards which differ from reference specs, so you just got yourself a GT which is not really a GT.

Sure it has the GT core, but the official GT has 256mb of DDR3 vram. Your Asus GT has 128mb of DDR1 vram. Of course, that's what enables Asus to sell their cards a bit cheaper under the 'same' name.

Sneaky marketing ploys, if you ask me....

[Dinodiegus]

yes you are right, i checked and teh real GT is about 600$ and i didnt have that budget, all i wanted was a card similar to the ATI 9800 pro, in Nvidia, so the best card i found for the price is the asus geforce 6800GT v9999.

I dont think the geforce 6800 TDH from Leadtek is better than my ASUS, what do you think?

[Flinch]

i guess this link may be of interest to most people here since it's mainly about modding nvidia-gaming-cards to their quadro-counterpart.

http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=18

[Karlfucious]

If you have a pci express board go with the 6600. You wont be able to even tell the diffrence between the cards. The bad thing about the 6600 though is that if you need an agp version you are going to have to spend atleast $100 more for it. Dont ask me why. It has all the same features as the 6800 including Shader model 3 which is probably the most important feature in my opinion. Plus its atleast $200-$300 cheaper you can go on http://www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) and you should be able to pick up a 6800 for about $350 and up but you can get the 6600 for about $140. To answer your question is it worth it, No since they make the 6600 for so much less, and Yes since it performs pretty close to their $1000 quadro cards.

[Goon]

anybody have any idea what a 6600gt would softmod to?

[skosamer]

I bought a plain 6800, and it is working perfectly with maya, but to my surprise it works great with alias studio tools too, so if you have the money - spend it! ............ A reminder my cardhas 12 pipelines enabled th gt/ultra has 16 so it's pretty clear that in a market of gamer cards this is one of the best solutions for pro usage.

p.s. BUY PNY!

[lots]

the Geforce 6600GT is cheaper than its AGP verions because the AGP version needs a bridge chip to convert the PCIe native 6600GT into an AGP part. Thus due to the extra logic involved with the bridge chip and cooling, the price ramps up.

[ChaliceOfWeeWee]

anybody have any idea what a 6600gt would softmod to?
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=116669

nope, i dont think so..

[Yaroslav99]

I have a GeForce2 mx200 with 32 megs of ram! I am planing of upgrading to a
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-202&depa=1
Do you think it will make a big difference?

[motoxpress]

I have a GeForce2 mx200 with 32 megs of ram! I am planing of upgrading to a
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-202&depa=1
Do you think it will make a big difference?

Your kidding right? There are many universes in between these two cards. It's VERY safe to say that you will get greater performance out of the 6800.

gl

[Yaroslav99]

http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/scream.gifI was kidding about the last line. It was meant as a rhetorical question. Like when someone does something stupid like jump over a building and the dad goes "Oh, you think tha it is safer to jump to another building then by simply walking to it?:

I just wish it lasts me 1-3 years.

[DevilHacker]

Here is some info on the 6600, whats cool is the support for SLI on the GT version :) .. so in case the 200 dollar card wasnt enough for you, you could just spend 200 more on another and operate in SLI.. sure you spend 400 dollars in the end, but maybe you wont need to ;) granted this requires TWO PCI Express 16x slots (most likely one operating at 16x and the other 8x or some sort of switching technique that divides 24 lanes evenly) For the price i'd say this is a very impressive card.. it out performs the radeon 9800XT and geforce fx 5950 (in some places), while not requiring an additional power connector, nor taking up two slots, and is 200 dollars (idealy).. thats nearly 100 dollars lower than either the radeon or FX sell at right now.. to me that sounds like a good thing

anyway here are the links
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040907/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2196

Keep in mind since you most likely are using some sort of 3D app, you will want a card strong on the OpenGL side of things.. and video games based in OpenGL may help give you hints as to the performance of the card in other applications.. (IE Maya, lightwave, etc)

Tho, if you dont have PCI Express on your machine, you'll be out of luck until nvidia releases the AGP versions of this card. Which, only Nvidia knows when that'll happen .. at which point that 6800GT is a pretty tempting offer, cuz thats one nice card :) .. tho personally im going to upgrade when that is available on pci express and i have the option to go SLI :P
Hey! Someone who knows about SLI! Does anyone know of any Motherboards that support both SLI and Dual Processors? Or am I just kidding myself?

[sketchguy]

Is it possible to use an 8X AGP card in a 4X AGP slot? Will it then run at 4X?

I have a two-year old TIGER MPX dual AMD motherboard running 1800+ CPUs. I'm not ready to upgrade the entire system, but would like to upgrade from a 4X AGP GeForce 3 Ti200 to something more substantial. I was able to get through Half-Life 2 with all graphics settings set to the lowest possible combination. I wanna go back and play with better graphics. ;) (and then tackle Doom3 next)

The 6600 GT AGP sounds like a good, economical compromise for now. If it can run on my 4X AGP motherboard I'd like to go that route.

Any opinions about the GeForce FX 5500? I see them available locally for $100 now. Would this be a waste, or would I notice a bump from what I've been using?

[Novakog]

Is it possible to use an 8X AGP card in a 4X AGP slot? Will it then run at 4X?

I have a two-year old TIGER MPX dual AMD motherboard running 1800+ CPUs. I'm not ready to upgrade the entire system, but would like to upgrade from a 4X AGP GeForce 3 Ti200 to something more substantial. I was able to get through Half-Life 2 with all graphics settings set to the lowest possible combination. I wanna go back and play with better graphics. ;) (and then tackle Doom3 next)

The 6600 GT AGP sounds like a good, economical compromise for now. If it can run on my 4X AGP motherboard I'd like to go that route.

Any opinions about the GeForce FX 5500? I see them available locally for $100 now. Would this be a waste, or would I notice a bump from what I've been using?

Yeah, an 8x AGP card runs as 4x in a 4x motherboard. I know because I ran my 6800 in a 4 year old Dell until I had the rest of my computer built. And also because I used a 9500 Pro in that machine for a while. I don't know about the GeForce FX 5500 - but the 6600 GT is an excellent choice (though there may be better for the money, I don't know).

[Novakog]

Hey! Someone who knows about SLI! Does anyone know of any Motherboards that support both SLI and Dual Processors? Or am I just kidding myself?

Actually, I think the only motherboards out yet that support SLI (though nForce4 and 5 are coming soon) ARE dual processor motherboards (extremely expensive I would bet).

Hey, post 600! :p

[Pooyag]

ok ppl,i don't know what the conversation is going to. i just want to know if i buy a Workstation Graphic card,can i play games too?? and another question is about the ATI RADEON™ X800 XT Platinum Edition .....is it trustfull for maya ?
thanks alot in advanced

[lots]

The Nforce 4 based boards have SLI functionality. Both Gigabyte and Asus have boards that should be available now-ish. Check Newegg, and you'll see the Asus is available.

As for Dual CPU boards. Your choices are somewhat limited at the moment. The only physically available board is for the Xeon. However, there are offerings from both IWill and Tyan coming, featuring the Nforce4, SLI, and Dual Opterons. Tyan's offering being a little more intersting (features 40 PCIe lanes as opposed to the 20 that Nforce4 has in normal configurations). Neither of the boards are out, but "should" be "soon"

[jmBoekestein]

If you want my advice,

go for the biggest memory bandwidth you can afford, and also biggest memory. These are the real bottlenecks in 3d. If you wanna play games? I'd ask you if the improvement is big enough using 8x FSAA and 16xAF, I dare say it isn't and you won't notice it that much. The only thing you'll be able to with that you won't be able to do with others is watching the very latest in benchmarking software. Would you wake up your mate in the middle of the night for that?

But I shouldn't be talking, I bought a Wildcat VP870, I've been using 256 bit memory for quite a while now, heh heh.

Just go for it, seize the day.

[Gamedev]

I got a BFG 6800GT OC 256 and couldnt be more pleased. As always, awesome driver support and about the performance that I expected. A great card all around. Make sure you get a nice PSU though, DO NOT skimp there.

-Tyler

[Lordiego01]

I have a PNY (try to avoid this brand, their customer support is simply HORRID) GeForce 6800 GT AGP 8x with 256MB DDR3 1GHz.

This is simply the most amazing card I've ever seen.

However, I would not recomend buying one just yet (I have this one at work). New video cards come out every 6 months, so wait a little bit and save a couple hundered bucks.

And once again, avoid PNY.

[LinuxGuy]

The 6800gt is definitely worth the price, since it has come down at least about $200 from its first introduction. Of course you should shop around, since the difference between the highest and lowest price could be upto $200 also!

I usualy check out www.ebay.com (http://www.ebay.com), www.PriceComparison.com (http://www.PriceComparison.com) and www.PriceWatch.com (http://www.PriceWatch.com) to make sure what the market price is.

I just checked around I found a 256MB is $349 with DVI and PNY brand.

LinuxGuy

[abie1]

[QUOTE Would this be a waste, or would I notice a bump from what I've been using?[/QUOTE]

it's a waste.

[abie1]

Is it possible to use an 8X AGP card in a 4X AGP slot? Will it then run at 4X?

I have a two-year old TIGER MPX dual AMD motherboard running 1800+ CPUs. I'm not ready to upgrade the entire system, but would like to upgrade from a 4X AGP GeForce 3 Ti200 to something more substantial. I was able to get through Half-Life 2 with all graphics settings set to the lowest possible combination. I wanna go back and play with better graphics. ;) (and then tackle Doom3 next)

The 6600 GT AGP sounds like a good, economical compromise for now. If it can run on my 4X AGP motherboard I'd like to go that route.

Any opinions about the GeForce FX 5500? I see them available locally for $100 now. Would this be a waste, or would I notice a bump from what I've been using?

It's a waste. Sorry for the double post.

[sketchguy]

Just so ya'll know, I ended up getting a (relatively) cheap ATI Radeon 9600 XT right before Xmas. It does the job, though I'm not a fan of the Catalyst Control Center. I just upgraded to the v5.2 drivers yesterday and the control center totally hangs.

Next time I put together a new system is when I'll pop for something more robust.

[fr3drik]

Great thread! :thumbsup: I'm not a gamer at all and I spend most of my time in Maya. I was unsure wether to get a 6800GT or a Quadro FX 700 but after reading through this thread it seems I'd benefit more from the 6800GT.

Would anyone like to recommend a single slot 6800GT that would work well inside a Shuttle Barebone? Preferably a card with good cooling and low fan noise.

[WAcky]

i dont know if this has been asked/answered yet but here goes:

what will perform better?
6800GT PCI-e
or two 6600gt's PCI-e

where i am it ends up costing pretty much exactly the same and im getting my new pc this weekend and i just thought of this....

any thoughts or links would be much appreciated

[insania]

@ Wacky

I'd had only a german link, sorry.
Anywhere, here is it: http://www.planet3dnow.de/artikel/hardware/sli/
If you scroll down, there are arrows to continue the article. Later, you will find
some benchmark diagrams, that will tell you the following:

In synthetic benchmarks, the two 6600GT's perform a little better than the single 6800Ultra.
But as soon as the article covers game performance, the situation changes.
Now the 6600GT's are behind the single 6800Ultra and are only able to win a few competitions.

Climax:
Buy yourself a single 6800GT (if you have the money, a Ultra's also great) and the DFI SLI Mainboard
(many people use the Asus one, but more and more enthusiasts do switch to the DFI one, as soon as it is available in stores)
and be very glad.
With this graphics card, you will be able to be state-of-the-art when it comes to graphics performance for quite some time.
If you ever feel you need a real boost (at the moment, SLI support is not implemented in all games, but in some months, it will be),
get another 6800GT/Ultra, and be even glader. But be aware - you chave to choose exactly the same card again.

greetings,
insania

[WAcky]

@ Wacky

I'd had only a german link, sorry.
Anywhere, here is it: http://www.planet3dnow.de/artikel/hardware/sli/
If you scroll down, there are arrows to continue the article. Later, you will find
some benchmark diagrams, that will tell you the following:

In synthetic benchmarks, the two 6600GT's perform a little better than the single 6800Ultra.
But as soon as the article covers game performance, the situation changes.
Now the 6600GT's are behind the single 6800Ultra and are only able to win a few competitions.

Climax:
Buy yourself a single 6800GT (if you have the money, a Ultra's also great) and the DFI SLI Mainboard
(many people use the Asus one, but more and more enthusiasts do switch to the DFI one, as soon as it is available in stores)
and be very glad.
With this graphics card, you will be able to be state-of-the-art when it comes to graphics performance for quite some time.
If you ever feel you need a real boost (at the moment, SLI support is not implemented in all games, but in some months, it will be),
get another 6800GT/Ultra, and be even glader. But be aware - you chave to choose exactly the same card again.

greetings,
insania

cool thanks alot

But be aware - you chave to choose exactly the same card again.

i know how much does that suck

[C4blessed]

Depending on what you using a graphics card for would be reasons too get it… The geforce’s are really just made for gaming although you can use them for other things as of right now the 6800 GT is the leading graphics card. Ati card is good too but its cost more… for the same or less performance… so if you want to maximize your gaming experience … go for the 6800 GT.. it is worth every dime , just make sure you find the right deal on it.



But if you really want to make use of the 3d/max and Maya and stuff invest in a work station get a nvidia Quadro it will put a whole in the pocket. But if you want performance for 3d/ apps that would be the best way too go.

[Turbonium]

I have a GeForce2 mx200 with 32 megs of ram! I am planing of upgrading to a
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-202&depa=1
Do you think it will make a big difference?
Assuming your setup has enough bandwidth and CPU power to take full advantage of the new card, you're looking at a 1000%+ difference in many situations, and in others 2000% or more. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Imagine you can currently run a game at 1024x768 at maxed details at about 6fps average with the GeForce2 MX. The 6800/GT/Ultra card could run it at 1600x1200 at maxed details at about 40fps average or more (this is with some AA and AF enabled). This is an arbitrary example, but you get the idea...

[_Luka_]

i've heard a lot of ppl complaining about the 6800gt video cards...most of them regarding price. but, if you're a serious 3d modeler/animator...whatever...i'd say that 6800gt IS a good choice. cuz if u look at the nvidia quadro cards...they cost 6800gt x 3 in my country! and the thing is that...if u softmod the 6800gt..u'll get even better results when modeling. cuz...quadro AINT that better for modeling trust me. i'd say that more than 80% of ppl work with polygons, so u dont need a quadro for that..6800gt does all the work...as for the nurbs well...i dont think that even quadro could put up with lots and lots of nurbs object in a single scene...definately NOT. these quadro and the rest of the pro cards arent that better than the 6800gt for modeling. its a powerfull chipset IMHO

[Dirtystimpy]

great post guys, and thanks for the info, and wish I would have read this before buying my new pc!!!

my problem...my old cpu was dying, and I have a quadro 750gl card....

Since I was working away from home for a few months, I ordered a new dell 8400, along w/ that new 24inch monitor!!!

so since I'm not too bright, I never even checked to see if my quadro would fit, since my new dell is a pci express!!! and when I ordered it, I just got the standard card w/ it! so imagine my suprise when I try to swap the 2 cards!


So..... I'll be posting that quadro on ebay, and look into this 6800. (hard to talk your wife into a new quadro when she's expecting!)


thanks for the info

[mashakos]

I own a 6800gt and I tried bios modding it to a QUADRO FX4000 to see how well it does in max. I tested by adding ten torus knots with insane polygon counts (I set the no. of sides above 200). There was no lag in the framerate even in wireframe mode, which usually slows down a 6800gt. I didn't find any compatibility problems with max 6.

As for games, they became unplayable. The mod turns on certain hardware features that screw up real-time game graphics causing huge artifacts on screen when 2d post process effects or fog is on-screen. If I wanted to both play games and practice/work on 3d apps, I could have tried the softmod instead and made 2 win 2K installs; one with regular 6800GT drivers and the other with softmodded Quadro FX4000. In the end I just reverted back to regular 6800gt as I'm still a hobbyist.

So I think considering my used 6800GT cost just $350 while a Quadro FX4000 would cost almost twice as much as my whole system, it's a good deal for both gamers and 3d artists with the help of the quadro bios mod.

[mashakos]

i dont know if this has been asked/answered yet but here goes:

what will perform better?
6800GT PCI-e
or two 6600gt's PCI-e

where i am it ends up costing pretty much exactly the same and im getting my new pc this weekend and i just thought of this....

any thoughts or links would be much appreciated

2 SLI'd 6600GT's will only give you double the performance of a 6600GT on apps/games that are optimized for SLI. Otherwise only one 6600GT will be processing. I don't know of any 3d apps that utilize SLI. For me it's just a marketing gimmick

[mashakos]

Great thread! :thumbsup: I'm not a gamer at all and I spend most of my time in Maya. I was unsure wether to get a 6800GT or a Quadro FX 700 but after reading through this thread it seems I'd benefit more from the 6800GT.

Would anyone like to recommend a single slot 6800GT that would work well inside a Shuttle Barebone? Preferably a card with good cooling and low fan noise.

None of the geforce 6 cards out there have good low noise cooling, that's the sad truth :shrug:

You'll need to get either an NV Silencer 5 (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=40) or a Zalman VF-700 (http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=149&code=013). The NV Silencer 5 might not fit in a cube case. I got the zalman vf700 because it doesn't generate noise and doesn't take up much space. Cost $40 where I live.

[mashakos]

But I shouldn't be talking, I bought a Wildcat VP870, I've been using 256 bit memory for quite a while now, heh heh.

wow, you got THAT card?!! how is it ? does it help with rendering ? did it make life easier for you when working on complex scenes in the viewport??

[James1]

Which is the best brand 6800GT 256MB PCI-E to buy?

The choice seems to be:
XFX
Gigabyte
MSI
Leadtek
Asus

XFX is the most pricey - is it worth the extra cash?

BFG - can you get this in the UK? I don't really want to buy it from PCworld, if possible, which seems to be their reseller in Europe. Though I like Orange Ray's idea above for turning the GT into an Ultra, good one :)

Noise and cooling: zalman vf-700 doesn't list the PCI-E version in it's gfx card list, so I guess the only option is the NV Silencer 5?

[DorisDay]

I am planning to buy the 6800 gt/ultra cards but i have my doubts. Is it really worth paying that much for a card . I never paid that much for a video card in my life( 500- 800 ca dollars).Any one own one. How does it fair with maya. My main use for it is for pushing lots of polys in maya and games. I want to buy one but i feel bad about payin that much for a videocard. So basically i want to know who has one and was it worth watever u paid for it?

Yup I have one 6800 ULTRA (AGP), I've had no problems with it at all, it works really well, the most suprising thing when I got it was it needs 2 molex connectors to it, from seperate loops on the power supply, (the minimum power supply rating is 350W BTW)

I use ZBrush/Silo/Vue 5 Infinite/Photoshop CS.

You ask if its worth it though, that depends a lot on what you already have, personally I don't regret it at all because it does its job with no problems, plus it has a 3 year warranty which can't be bad, I paid £350.

[sketchbook]

so has anyone looked into the WIldcat cards? some of them are under a grand for 500 meg cards. they are AGP, but will they work well in maya and c4d?

i don't game.

[Hartner]

i have to admid, i did not read the whole post about this topic but many hehe

I my self got a GAINWARD 6800 GT!
Just wanted to adress one other thing, maybe someone already metioned it ..
The Noise (Loudness) is AMYZING!!!
I can only use the Card with Gaming!
Working 3D with that Card drives me Nuts!

Maybe i'm the only one but i would say great Card..
But you need some special Cooling about this Problem!
But watch it, as far i now right now, this card get realy HOT.
I'm mean specialy HOT, therfore is the Crad hard to Cool properly, so thing about
Wattercooling, not realy sure or Passiv Cooling does the Trick.
I wish it would.
Anyway.. i wanted to drop this in.

About anything else, This card is realy Good, it does it for me ;)
Hartner

[beecg]

Hey Hartner,

Just curious, which 3d app(s) are you running, and what types of problems are you having?

[Novakog]

It could be just gainward, because I have a PNY 6800 Ultra which is not loud at all (not silent, but as much as the CPU fan).

i have to admid, i did not read the whole post about this topic but many hehe

I my self got a GAINWARD 6800 GT!
Just wanted to adress one other thing, maybe someone already metioned it ..
The Noise (Loudness) is AMYZING!!!
I can only use the Card with Gaming!

Working 3D with that Card drives me Nuts!

[hyper1020]

i need a new video card to render and i found an asus ati x800pro 256mb at edigibyte.com. is this a good card to get? thanks for your help. =)

[Megadwerg]

i have to admid, i did not read the whole post about this topic but many hehe

I my self got a GAINWARD 6800 GT!
Just wanted to adress one other thing, maybe someone already metioned it ..
The Noise (Loudness) is AMYZING!!!
I can only use the Card with Gaming!
Working 3D with that Card drives me Nuts!

Maybe i'm the only one but i would say great Card..
But you need some special Cooling about this Problem!
But watch it, as far i now right now, this card get realy HOT.
I'm mean specialy HOT, therfore is the Crad hard to Cool properly, so thing about
Wattercooling, not realy sure or Passiv Cooling does the Trick.
I wish it would.
Anyway.. i wanted to drop this in.

About anything else, This card is realy Good, it does it for me ;)
Hartner

You could try and put an zalman vf700-cu vga cooler on youre card. It's really silent. And cools really good. And it only sets you back 30 dollars or so.

[motoxpress]

i need a new video card to render and i found an asus ati x800pro 256mb at edigibyte.com. is this a good card to get? thanks for your help. =)

For games? It would be awesome. For modeling? It would work fine with C4D or even Lightwave but, the others prefer Nvidia OpenGL drivers. THe 6800GT seems to be a good compromise in terms of price/performance.

gl

[hyper1020]

Thanks for the useful info. ill check edigibyte to see if they have it.

For games? It would be awesome. For modeling? It would work fine with C4D or even Lightwave but, the others prefer Nvidia OpenGL drivers. THe 6800GT seems to be a good compromise in terms of price/performance.

gl

[csmnt]

Hi, i tried to open a new thread but it somehow didn't work....
this my first post here, although i am reading this forum quite regularly, so: hello!

but now to my problem:

I got a new pc yesterday. i got it primaly for working with maya 6.0. before i bought it i did a lot of research and this is what i got:

AMD 64 3800+
2 1GB DDR 400 Kingston KVR400X64C3A/1G
2 200 GB SATA7200 Western Digital Caviar
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
Leadtek PX 6800GT PCIe
Windows XP ServicePack 2
Direct X 9.0c

Looks nice and is amazingly fast in games like halflife2, but in maya it doesn't display the hud and is much slower than my old system (athlon xp 2100, geforce 4200ti, 512 mb ram). i have no idea what's wrong, because i always read that the 6800gts work fine with maya.
I have allready installed the latest drivers and everything else works fine. so this really bugs me, because i need to start animating my school project (its my first year at animation class) but with this speed i would need to do it on my old computer. so, well, i reallyi hope anyone can help me.

thanks,
simon

[csmnt]

Hi,
lots of positive comments on the gt cards. well, i experienced something different:
I got a new pc yesterday. i got it primaly for working with maya 6.0. before i bought it i did a lot of research about what to get. so this is what i finally got:

AMD 64 3800+
2 1GB DDR 400 Kingston KVR400X64C3A/1G
2 200 GB SATA7200 Western Digital Caviar
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
Leadtek PX 6800GT PCIe
Windows XP ServicePack 2
Direct X 9.0c

Looks nice and is amazingly fast in games like halflife2, but in maya it doesn't display the hud and is much slower than my old system (athlon xp 2100, geforce 4200ti, 512 mb ram). i have no idea what's wrong, because i always read that the 6800gts work fine with maya.
I have allready installed the latest drivers and everything else works fine. so this really bugs me, because i need to start animating my school project (its my first year at animation class) but with this speed i would need to do it on my old computer.

greets,
simon

[graphikal]

Here's my dilemma. I've got around 570 euro's to spend on a new graphics card.
But I like both gaming and modeling. Now did I have two cards on my wishlist:

First card is:
ASUS V9999ULTRA Deluxe - NVIDIA - GeForce 6800-Ultra 256 MB - AGP 8X
Which has good gaming performances I saw in benchmarks.

Second card is:
PNY Quadro4 980 XGL 128MB - AGP 8X
Which should do good for modeling.

The dillema I've got is I don't really know which one to choose, on which grounds.
For instance, does the memory difference make an important difference between these cards?
And how does for instance HL2 run on the Quadro4 980 XGL? Does anyone have this card?
On the other hand, does the 6800 Ultra Dlx perform good with max?

My desktop specs are:
p4 2.26Ghz
1024 mb RAM
2x WD800JB RAID0
Windows XP Pro SP2

Regards,

Roy

[IanE]

It is for gaming, and it works very well for 3D Animation in my experience. I have a BFG GeForce 6800GT, but for workstation only that's not my field of knowledge.

I'm extremely happy with my 6800GT. You can get one for around $370 US now, and I got mine for $430 when they first came out... not displeased at all and I feel that it was worth every penny.

Ian

[ambient-whisper]

Here's my dilemma. I've got around 570 euro's to spend on a new graphics card.
But I like both gaming and modeling. Now did I have two cards on my wishlist:

First card is:
ASUS V9999ULTRA Deluxe - NVIDIA - GeForce 6800-Ultra 256 MB - AGP 8X
Which has good gaming performances I saw in benchmarks.

Second card is:
PNY Quadro4 980 XGL 128MB - AGP 8X
Which should do good for modeling.

The dillema I've got is I don't really know which one to choose, on which grounds.
For instance, does the memory difference make an important difference between these cards?
And how does for instance HL2 run on the Quadro4 980 XGL? Does anyone have this card?
On the other hand, does the 6800 Ultra Dlx perform good with max?

My desktop specs are:
p4 2.26Ghz
1024 mb RAM
2x WD800JB RAID0
Windows XP Pro SP2

Regards,

Roy

if your asking if you need a quadro, then you dont need it.
stick to the newer cards.

[bovehein]

Looks nice and is amazingly fast in games like halflife2, but in maya it doesn't display the hud and is much slower than my old system (athlon xp 2100, geforce 4200ti, 512 mb ram). i have no idea what's wrong, because i always read that the 6800gts work fine with maya.
I have allready installed the latest drivers and everything else works fine. so this really bugs me, because i need to start animating my school project (its my first year at animation class) but with this speed i would need to do it on my old computer.

Have you tried modding it to quadro FX4000? Go to www.guru3d.com (http://www.guru3d.com) and download Riva Tuner 15.5, the diference is noticeable, mostly in pro applications.

[zmwsoft]

I'm intend to buy a pc for playing games and learning some basic skills about 3dsmax or Maya,who can tell me which type videocard to choose,Geforce6200 or Raedon 9700 pro?

[Simos]

Hi! Just want to tell you my experience with ASUS 6800GT. I think it's a cheap ultra if you are willing to overclock the card. I have done it to meet ultras specs and everything works fine! Don't fool yourself that is going to run Maya fastly though...

[mirkoj]

Hi,
I've just today got my new ASUS9999 6800Ultra, 256RAM and it's damn fast :)
In games I don't need to thing about settings, just put everything on high, at least untill now.
And the best thing is that Maya (6.5) works fantastic. Also hardware rendering is working so I'm really really happy with it.
I was thinking about softquadro and rivatuner but it is great right now so...
System is dual opteron 250, on tyan 2885 motherboard, only 512mb ram for now but will go up soon. Anyway, great card for gaming and 3d.
Now just to test it on win 64bit xp pro and with 64bit drivers... anybody done that yet?

[Sunil90]

Hi i would like to ask for some advice on whether it is worth an addtional £100 to upgrade from a Geforce 6600GT Pci-e to a 6800GT Pci-e? The rest of the spec is as follows:

AMD Athlon X2 4200
1GB RAM
300GB HHD

I'am a newbie to 3d and would be looking to use this new system as a platform to learn some of the 3D apps like Maya and 3d Studio max.

In addition i'm keen that the system can fullfill all that i require as i get more advanced.

p.s i would also like to be able to play the odd game, although i realise that either gfx card should be capable of that.

Thanks,

Sunil.

[motoxpress]

Hi i would like to ask for some advice on whether it is worth an addtional £100 to upgrade from a Geforce 6600GT Pci-e to a 6800GT Pci-e? The rest of the spec is as follows:.

It's worth the difference. The 6600gt does not play as well with the 3D apps although it's a great budget game card. The 6800gt is a lot more solid and will perform a lot more fluidly, though not as fluid as a Quadro it's pretty close.

gl

[Sunil90]

Thanks.

So i guess the 6800GT is far superior than the 6600GT at 3D and games.

Whats the opinion on the 6800LE?

Sunil.

[motoxpress]

Thanks.

So i guess the 6800GT is far superior than the 6600GT at 3D and games.

Whats the opinion on the 6800LE?

Sunil.

I would avoid the LE. At a minimum get the 6800nu but I would stretch to get the 6800gt if at all possible. It really does make a world of difference.

gl

[lots]

A pretty good comparison would be: 2 6600GTs in SLI will perform about on par with a single 6800GT. And with the 6800GT you dont have to worry about SLI compatability ;)

Owning a 6800GT, I must say that it is a very solid performer.

[Sunil90]

Thanks guys.

Any thoughts on the Atlon X2 4200 in terms of both 3D and games performance?

[Theta-Dot]

HOLY CRAP

check this out:

6800 Ultra >> Quadro FX4000

SPECViewPerf results before Rivatuner:


---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 15.18

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.82

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 11.39

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 8.715

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.93

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 14.59

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 13.53

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 4.990


SPECViewPerf AFTER RIVATUNER!!

---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 30.54

---------- SUM_RESULTS\CATIA\SUMMARY.TXT
catia-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 22.42

---------- SUM_RESULTS\ENSIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
ensight-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.96

---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
light-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.81

---------- SUM_RESULTS\MAYA\SUMMARY.TXT
maya-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 44.07

---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
proe-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 36.04

---------- SUM_RESULTS\SW\SUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 22.09

---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
ugs-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 30.03

I don't believe my eyes.

Also, after using RivaTuner, the 3dMark05 score only went down by 50 points or so.
Doom3 looks beautiful still.

I'm literally jumping up and down like a little girl

[Ranc0r]

Does your graphics card effect how your work looks visually?
Like say ive got an old card.
Ive got a scene fully lit textured modelled.
I render it with the old card.

Now If i took that same work and rendered that same scene with the newest top of the line card,would it look any better?


I notice the newest cards (like the geforce 7600 gt are supporting SSS and Hdr (yaaa HL will be supporting HDR "bloom effects" soon :) ) will having a card that supports this make my work look any better?

[Theta-Dot]

well it can have an impact on how things look in the viewports
antialiasing makes wires smoother
you can work in large complex scenes and rotate whithout much slowdown
you can turn on bump mapping within the viewports (pretty neat)
higher res textures can be viewed within viewports
things of that nature

when you say "rendered" though.. if you actually mean rendering the scene it makes no difference at all
the actual image which is output from a render should look the same on any machine no matter what the hardware... the only thing that would change would be the rendering time based on processing power

since i've upgraded to the 6800 ultra (now a quadro FX 4000 thanks to rivatuner), from an old geforce 4 64mb card, personally my workflow / efficiency has gone way up. I can work in much more complex scenes with many more polys without slowdown

so to restate:
the video card won't have any impact on the image your computer produces in the final render
it just impacts viewport quality

[ramz]

I'm running on an ATI X800 XL. I must say that in my opinion it is a very very priceworthy GFX-card considering both gaming performance and in other applications. It's got 256Mb GDDR3 RAM and 16 Pixelpipelines and comes at ca: 2,900 SEK (£296, $352)

...just my two cents

[MrDev]

for those of you still keeping up on this... and haven't purchased yet

the 6800 Ultra runs for about 500 us depending on where you find it the new but GF 7800GTX works with the efficiency of 2 6800 Ultras as far as benchmarks from a technicl standpoint it is worth the extra 100 for it

main focus is depending on your rendering setup im not sure how SLI is working for every one who has tried to used it in rendering.. my knowlage is that it's not as efficient as it sounds or if the programs can even use both cards to render.

expect the prices on the geforce 6 series aswell as the ati X series to drop once the full line of Geforce 7 is released (which depending on how things go could be only a month or two be a month) so hopefully befor your classes this fall you will have something nice (get a summer job :D)

but yes for the power of 2 ultra's in one package i belive its worth it and

if you want to build a new machine with this 2 gigs of ram AMD Athlon 64 bit 7800 gtx decent cooling and a single 160 gig hd (of cource you need more but my figures are based...) you are looking at $1,500... which really isnt that bad in my opinion. (note due to the vast price range of monitors, the cost of a monitor was not included in these figures)

[JellyFire]

I got the Mac version of the Nvidia 6800 Ultra for the same price as a GT of ebay :P
I love it mainly cos I can now run my 2xCinema Displays off them perfectly.
But as far as maya goes, I have had only one problem known as the white box syndrome, where a white box covers the screen when you hit the hotbox key, then it dissapears when you let go. It's only happened a handful of times, but it's still annoying.

Apart from that I couldn't be happier with my 6800UT, but there again, I only have two good cards to choose from, being a mac user, never mind, that might change with the new intel machines.

Later
Niietzshe

[Limiter]

I recently bought BFG 6800GT OC PCI-E, the card works superbly on 3d applications....except..

when Im playing some games, it has some tendency of shutter effects/choppy/skipping during cinematics and gameplay (esp. battlefield 2). I even get this problems on some of my 2d fighting games. dropping from 60fps to 30fps every 10 sec. not sure if the power, I surely connected it properly. both drivers and windows xp is updated.

Comp spec: 2gig ram, Amd 64 +3500, antec 480W case, 200g hdd.

Anyone getting the same situation?

[TraceR]

Hey all,

I have been wanting to upgrade from my GeForce 5500 because it really doesn't offer me enough power for games and rendering. I have been thinking about buying the GeForce 6800 GT since it has been out for a while now and the prices have dropped. Still trying to find the best deal possible.

Anyone have any reccomendations?


TraceR

[motoxpress]

Hey all,

I have been wanting to upgrade from my GeForce 5500 because it really doesn't offer me enough power for games and rendering. I have been thinking about buying the GeForce 6800 GT since it has been out for a while now and the prices have dropped. Still trying to find the best deal possible.

Anyone have any reccomendations?


TraceR

I recommend the BFG 6800GT. It will come witha lifetime warranty and comes factory overclocked out of the box. My 6800GT works very well in Maya 6.5

-gl

[Ruairi]

It all depends on what you are using it for. I have a 6800 gt that I overcocked to Ultra speeds, it is an amazing card and I coulnt be happier. However it is made for games. Gaming cards are not made to push pollygons like a professional card. Just from personal experience in 3D Studio Max I did not notice a huge change from a geforce3 to a 5900 Ultra. And I can't say that I could tell much from the 5900 Ultra to the 6800 GT. I am sure that they are decently faster, however the main improvements are in games obviously.

you didn't notice a big difference?

I havent used the 5900 - but man I'm amazed at how many polys the 6800GT can push through - I've built a CITY scene and can fly around 7 million polys at about 30fps.... this isnt even the ultra version and I havent done any overclocking...

basically it's all down to geometry caching in directX - I wouldn't go back to openGL if you paid me, and I don't know why anyone else uses it any more...

max_5 - are you using directX or OpenGL?

[TraceR]

I recommend the BFG 6800GT. It will come witha lifetime warranty and comes factory overclocked out of the box. My 6800GT works very well in Maya 6.5

-gl

I was looking at the $295 eVGA model on Newegg. I will try to find the BFG and compare.

[bonestructure]

I have a 5500 and I couldn't be happier. Nothin fancy about it, it just WORKS.

[TraceR]

I get lag on games. I like high graphics settings.

[shreedharcva]

Hi Team,

Pls reduce or limit the length of a thread.Since most of the ppl look into main threads some imp info they may missout.
Try to post a new thread if u have Good Info.
regards
Shreedhara

[FX Kaito]

Hi Folks,

great that this thread already exists cause i have the same Problem.

Ok long Story short Question...

Should i buy a

Leadtek WinFast A400 TDH 6800 with 128 MB Ram for 159,-
or a
GigaByte GV-N68128DH Silentpipe 6800 with 128 MB Ram for 159,-

or a
Sparke SP-AG43GDH 6600 GT with 128 MB Ram for 159,-
or a
GigaByte GV-N66T128D 6600 GT with 128 MB Ram for 159,-

I´m aware of the possible unlockable Pipelines and therefore i tend to buy one of the 6800.
Can someone please help me with these cards? >_<
[/url][url="http://www.alternate.de/html/shop/productDetails.html?artno=J9GYZ9&"] (http://www.alternate.de/html/shop/productDetails.html?artno=J9GY86&)

[TraceR]

Just ordered it! Waiting for it to be shipped. Can't wait. I went with the PNY technologies edition.

Thanks for the help guys,


TraceR

[TraceR]

Just arrived today. Very impressive. Much faster than my old card.

[ambient-whisper]

you didn't notice a big difference?

I havent used the 5900 - but man I'm amazed at how many polys the 6800GT can push through - I've built a CITY scene and can fly around 7 million polys at about 30fps.... this isnt even the ultra version and I havent done any overclocking...

basically it's all down to geometry caching in directX - I wouldn't go back to openGL if you paid me, and I don't know why anyone else uses it any more...

max_5 - are you using directX or OpenGL?

i really dont think you were pushing 7 million at 30fps. no application is optimized THAT well to push that many polygons. unless you rendered a 7 million poly scene and played it back in media player ;).

zbrush is optimized a lot more at pushing polys than max ever was, and it cant tumble around anywhere near 7 million at 30fps.

[Donovan Kretsman]

I have the Gainward 6800 GT Golden Sample, which is faster than MOST Stock Ultra's at a slightly cheaper price.

It Runs 400/1100 Out of the box and i have been doing scenes with 2,5 million poly's in blender and i get good frames, even though blender isn't optimized to use this card fully.

I wonder what the 7800 Can do, guess i'll hafta wait till christmas to get my hands on one.

[foeprkl]

Also thinking about getting a new graphics card, but cant decide should i get a gf6800gt or a radeon x800xl. Which performes better in maya? I´ve allways prefered ati cards but is it a time to change for a nvidia card?

[andronikos916]

I know that this thread is about 6800GT/ultras but what about the 6600Gt... I think it is better price and the difference is not huge in 3d modelling... or I am wrong?

Also a simple question about max7? Should someone use OpenGL or Direct 3D?

I have a Radeon 9700pro at the moment and thinking it is time to buy a new card too...

sorry if I push backwards the thread just not possible to read all 10+ pages...

thanx in advance,
Andronikos

[opus13]

actually, having owned both and used them for both 3d and gaming, the 6800gt is worth it, but i dont think the ultra is. its a touch faster, but nothing tangible. there is a real differentce between teh 6600gt and 6800gt. its worth the extra $120.00

[dactilardesign]

I bought some moths ago a -cheap- PNY Verto 6800GT (agp version, made in france, dunno if they sell out of europe) for 250€ in Spain. I'm happy with my bought, I overclocked it to 420/1200 (higher than ultra) with watercooling and in games or DCC its faster than my old 9800Pro@FireGL x2. I recomend the card because of the performance at low price, I supouse that with the new 7800 from Nvidia the card can go even cheaper.

[TraceR]

yea, don't get the 6800 Ultra. I got the GT and just overclocked the core to match the Ultra anyway. Much cheaper and doesn't overheat.

[dax3d]

I have the Gainward 6800 GT Golden Sample, which is faster than MOST Stock Ultra's at a slightly cheaper price.

I didn't even know Gainward still sold their video cards. I had 3 Golden Samples in a row that were amazing, but when I went to buy again on newegg and pricewatch nothing or very old cards came up. I need a new card, and would love a 6800 or above Golden Sample card.

They always ran great for games and 3D.

[twizhimself]

yea, don't get the 6800 Ultra. I got the GT and just overclocked the core to match the Ultra anyway. Much cheaper and doesn't overheat.

ok dumb newb question...what did you do to overclock it..cuz thats what i want to do to mine..

[TraceR]

I overclocked the clock core from 350 MHz to 400 MHz and increased the memory speed a little. To do this, do the following:


"Your graphics speed boost comes from within, without your having to pop the case. NVidia has even built overclocking settings into its latest drivers. To enable them, open the Windows Registry editor by going to Start, Run, typing regedit, and pressing Enter. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/NVIDIA Corporation/Global/NVTweak/," right-click the right pane of the editor and choose to add a new DWord called coolbits. Edit that entry and give it a hex value of 3, then close your Registry editor. The NVidia tab under your PC's advanced display properties settings will now feature a "Clock Frequency Settings" page that allows you to adjust memory and graphics chip clock speeds for your board. Click the "Detect Optimal Frequencies" button if you want the utility to try to find safe overclocked settings for your graphics board."


PCWorld Mag

[lordmachuca]

I overclocked the clock core from 350 MHz to 400 MHz and increased the memory speed a little. To do this, do the following:


"Your graphics speed boost comes from within, without your having to pop the case. NVidia has even built overclocking settings into its latest drivers. To enable them, open the Windows Registry editor by going to Start, Run, typing regedit, and pressing Enter. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/NVIDIA Corporation/Global/NVTweak/," right-click the right pane of the editor and choose to add a new DWord called coolbits. Edit that entry and give it a hex value of 3, then close your Registry editor. The NVidia tab under your PC's advanced display properties settings will now feature a "Clock Frequency Settings" page that allows you to adjust memory and graphics chip clock speeds for your board. Click the "Detect Optimal Frequencies" button if you want the utility to try to find safe overclocked settings for your graphics board."


PCWorld Mag

What 3D apps are you running, hows the performance? I think its time for me to get rid of my ol' quadro. The 6800gt sounds intersting and in my price range.

[TraceR]

Everything runs fine. I run both 3d apps and games with great performance. I use Blender 3d and Lightwave.

[fr3drik]

It's finally time to upgrade; I'm getting a 6800 GT or a 6800 GS (PCI-E).
Which one should I get, and what brand? I'm primarily going to work in Maya on Windows.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can get a card from BFG Tech since I'm in Sweden and those aren't sold here :(

[BKSAP]

Hi, I am no good at computers but I did buy a new PC with 2.9GHZ Dual Processer
1GB RAM and 128MB PCI ExpressTM x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI RadeonTM HypermemoryTM 2X300 SE.
I espically bought it for gaming but now I am considering into doing some Digital art but dont know if there is any difference if I bought a new Nvidia Graphic card. Does it change the way stuff looks? Also If anyone knows where can I buy Good softwares like Maya and 3d studio Max and other softwares for reasonable prices Please let me know.

[denil]

i'm plannin on buyin a new graphics card. i can't decide what to buy. is 6800GT sli better than 7800? or if i get a 7800 now, n then later get another 7800 makin it into sli, will that be a better choice. is there much diff b/w 6800GT and 7800??

[lots]

A 6800GT in SLI is going to be more or less the same as a 7800GTX. If you get a 7900GT, this is probably going to be the best option. It is around $300. It is faster in most cases than a 7800GTX, and that means its faster than two 6800GTs in SLI. And more affordable.

[hburton]

A 6800GT in SLI is going to be more or less the same as a 7800GTX. If you get a 7900GT, this is probably going to be the best option. It is around $300. It is faster in most cases than a 7800GTX, and that means its faster than two 6800GTs in SLI. And more affordable.

A 6800GT in SLI is NOT more or less the same as a 7800GTX!!
Here is a rough list of fastest to slower:
001. Radeon 1900XTX CrossFire
002. Geforce 7900GTX SLI
003. Geforce 7800GTX 512MB SLI
004. Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB
005. Geforce 7900GT SLI
006. Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB SLI
007. Radeon X1800 XT CrossFire
008. Geforce 7800 GT SLI
009. Geforce 7900GTX
010. Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
011. Geforce 7600 GT SLI
012. Geforce 7800 GTX 512MB
013. Geforce 7900GT
014. Radeon X1900gt
015. Radeon X1800 XT 512MB
016. Radeon X1800 XT 256MB
017. Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB
018. Geforce 7800 GT
019. Radeon X1800 XL
020. Radeon X1800 GTO
021. Geforce 7600 GT
022. Geforce 6800 Ultra SLI
023. Geforce 6800 GT SLI
024. Radeon X850 XT PE
025. Radeon X800 XT PE
026. Geforce 6800 Ultra
027. Radeon X850 XT
028. Geforce 6600 GT SLI
029. Radeon X800 XT
030. Geforce 6800 GT

[joerka]

You can overclock an 6800 GT to a Quadro FX 4000!
If you can read german, look here:
http://www.pcwelt.de/forum/showthread.php?t=154988&page=3
If not, hm... perhabs someone is going to translate it ... if many members want to know, perhabs I...

[mirkoj]

Ok, now againg about that softmoding of 6800..
I did that on my 6800 Ultra few times now.. just to be sure and made some testings for maya...
Only thing I've got werer the same or even worse results in viewport that with nonmoded card.
So can anyone please tell me what is going on? :)
I finish moding.. and instal drivers for quadro but results are awfull...
Anyone have advice what could be wrong here.. if anything so I could try again maybe?

And also.. we are going to get 2 new workstations soon if this project that we are working on goes well... and now reading all these articles, one day we decide to stay on first plan ond go for Quadro 4500, project is seriuos and I really don't need any problems and hookups with card in the middle of work... and then another thay cam acros forume where 7900 is same or even better and much much much cheaper.. We don't need another flame around Quadro and non Quadro but any help would be appreciated.
Thank you! :)

[mayakindaguy]

It's about time for me to upgrade, and I was thinking of going budget with a 7600GT. I remember hearing about there being issues with the 7900 line of cards and maya, and I wasn't sure if this affects the 7600 as well or whether the issues have been fixed completely.

I'm also curious as to why people are buying 6800GTs instead of the 7600GT. Isn't a 7600GT newer tech, less power, and comparable to the 6800Ultra? <-Just saw hburton's post afterwards, but the question still stands.

[Atheist]

Why this topic is still on sticky ? Nvidia aren't at their 7th version of the g-force ?

[GregHess]

I was wondering the same thing...this thread is pretty useless. :)

[Halvis]

Heck, Since it was "stickied", I was assuming they were regarded as "budget" close as one can get to QUADRO FX's or something?

[CHRiTTeR]

Lets talk about the 8800's!! :D

That seems a little more up to date

[joerka]

Hm, but i think, there should be another Thread for the new 8th Generation, not in this one!

[TumikSmacker]

I've been using the 6800 GT for 2 years now and I've had no problems game or 3d programs wise. Its kind of outdated now like everyone else has said, why is this a sticky? lol

[cooperunionstud]

take this thread off plz!

[oll]

the 6800 soft moded to quadro is an incredible solution,
It works for me with no problems.

[VanDerGoes]

It seems that this is no longer sticky...

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