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Technographer
04-05-2005, 11:10 PM
I'm looking for an nVidia card to replace my 128Mb PCI Radeon 9200, as my new system will be able to handle much more; the two cards that catch my eye the most are the 6800 GT and 6800 Ultra - But I'm really wondering if the 50Mhz difference in core speed is worth around $100 more, unless there is more to the Ultra than I'm seeing.

What really matters in a videocard, and how come some cards that are nearly the same (if not, aparently identical) have such a huge price difference? I can handle all the tech talk you can dish out, but would also highly appreciate an English conclusion. =)

Requirements:
- Must have PCIe interface
- Must kick ass
- 256Mb nVidia is a plus
- $560 budget

Thanks for your time.
mashakos
04-05-2005, 11:32 PM
No tech talk just my opinion:
The 6800 Ultra does outperform the 6800 GT, but quality wise they are at the same generation. Both cards use the same Shader Model 3.0 technology and have DDR3 memory. The distinguishing feature between the 2 cards is the extra pipelines and higher clock speeds on the 6800 ultra. The ultra is overpriced for non-gamers, it's geared more towards the benchmarking enthusiastes and gamers who prefer to play games at very high resolutions with 16x anisotropic filtering and 8x fullscreen anti aliasing.

On the other hand, the ultra is still more powerful than a 6800gt so it will give better performance in 3d apps when modded to a Quadro FX4000.

If the price is not an issue go for the ultra but I'd rather wait a few months as there are rumours of yet another generation of geforce cards with either 512mb ram or some new shader technology I'm not sure.
brudney
04-06-2005, 12:08 AM
No tech talk just my opinion:
The 6800 Ultra does outperform the 6800 GT, but quality wise they are at the same generation. Both cards use the same Shader Model 3.0 technology and have DDR3 memory. The distinguishing feature between the 2 cards is the extra pipelines and higher clock speeds on the 6800 ultra. The ultra is overpriced for non-gamers, it's geared more towards the benchmarking enthusiastes and gamers who prefer to play games at very high resolutions with 16x anisotropic filtering and 8x fullscreen anti aliasing.

On the other hand, the ultra is still more powerful than a 6800gt so it will give better performance in 3d apps when modded to a Quadro FX4000.

If the price is not an issue go for the ultra but I'd rather wait a few months as there are rumours of yet another generation of geforce cards with either 512mb ram or some new shader technology I'm not sure.

no, there are actually no additional pipelines on 6800 ultra. the only difference between gt and ultra are higher clock frequencies; +50 and +100mhz for gpu and ram respectively. obviously ultra is a bit faster than gt but imho paying additional 100$ just to have few extra points in 3dmark does not pay off at all. in fact, you won't see much of a difference in OpenGl performance between the two cards, if any... so if i were you i'd buy a good gt and leave ultra for all the benchmark freaks out there.
Technographer
04-06-2005, 12:46 AM
Thank you for your time. =)

I was also wondering, what is PCIe (not PCIe x16)? Is it like an upgrade to the PCI port (as USB2.0 was to USB)? I see videocards that say "PCI-Express x16", but then there are some that just say "PCI-Express".
Mathew Everett
04-06-2005, 06:00 PM
Oh man, If i were you I would Buy the new 6800 512MB Ultra it is only $680.00 just save up alittle more money..... It should be relesed any day now. Some places are selling them pre-order already.....& you can get them in the SLI setup....
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