Ragejg's Gainward 6800 Review

[Clay]

John "Ragejg" Grabski has finished his review of the Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/2100 Geforce 6800 Golden Sample 128MB (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/gainward_geforce_6800_golden_sample/index.shtml). He benchmarks it against a number of OpenGL and DirectX games and even throws in a 5800 Ultra (yep an original NV30) for comparison. Nice work John! :)

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/gainward_geforce_6800_golden_sample/index.shtml

[SH64]

I'm lazy .. wheres the link ? :p

[Clay]

sorry, just updated ;)

[Rytr]

Nice review John!

[SH64]

Good work John ! :) .. now to my comments *ahm* :

1) How come 1600x1200 (2xAA,4xAA) results are better than 1280x960's in BF:V ??
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/gainward_geforce_6800_golden_sample/page5.shtml

2) Correct me if i'm mistaken but isnt UT2004 consiered as a DX8.1 game , becuase it only uses PS/VS1.1 & 1.4 (yes you can add PS2.0 effects to it like in Tribes Vengence) .. but UT2004 dosent have any SM2.0 usage AFAIK & as i had read in other websites !

3) Nice "world" you have :D
& thats other version looks exaclty like Asus 6800U's !

[jAkUp]

Nice :) Thats the same card my buddy has... one beauty of a card indeed :D

And yes, I do not believe UT2004 has any DX9 Shaders. You can enable DX9 mode through the .ini file. But the shaders are nonexistent. In other words, the engine has the ability if the DX9 shaders are present/

[MUYA]

Good stuff John :D

[ricercar]

So it looks like all the Gainward 6800 cards with dual-DVI are GT or Ultra, and have that double-wide design. I was hoping to get a Gainward dual-DVI single-slot NV40 for my SFF. But with the 6800-non-ultra being VGA+DVI, this looks like I may have to go XFX or ASUS for dual-DVI single-slot NV40.

[zakelwe]

Nice review John, good to see the FX 5800 values in comparison.

Regards

Andy

[ragejg]

Thanks, guys, it was fun reviewing these cards...

SH64: I did not believe the BF:V 12x9 vs. 16x12 performance anomaly either, but I re-ran it several times and got the same results.

Yeah, the 5800U really did get embarassed... I didn't think it'd be such an arse-whuppin, but the Gainward 6800's really do pack a punch not present with the previous generation of high end cards.

:)

[Clay]

SH64: I did not believe the BF:V 12x9 vs. 16x12 performance anomaly either, but I re-ran it several times and got the same results.I can vouch for this 12x9 vs. 16x12 oddity as well. I'd have to dig up exactly what review I noticed it in, but I did. IIRC it was with Battlefield 1942 but it might have been with NWN. In any case, the discrepancy you show isn't dramatic and really just shows the signs of the CPU bottleneck at play.

[ragejg]

So it looks like all the Gainward 6800 cards with dual-DVI are GT or Ultra, and have that double-wide design. I was hoping to get a Gainward dual-DVI single-slot NV40 for my SFF. But with the 6800-non-ultra being VGA+DVI, this looks like I may have to go XFX or ASUS for dual-DVI single-slot NV40.


Ricercar, read page 7 of the review... there are single slot cards, which will be sold to the american market... which I find sad, because IMO the 2 slot card roxx0rz. :p

[remymarten]

Anyone know the price of the Single Slot US version? One would hope it should cost less than the Two Slot version.

[Dillusion]

i had this video card last week when i sold my old A64 system, it was the same 2-Slot model but it had 2.2NS memory.

check out my thread on [h] dissasembled:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=805994&highlight=AS5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/dillsmod/gain.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/dillsmod/gain6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/dillsmod/gain5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/dillsmod/gain4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/dillsmod/gain2.jpg

[Sazar]

nice review... most of what I woulda said has been said so I'll stick to the plaudits :cool:

[MikeC]

Excellent review John!

You certainly have a nack for pointing out the minor details that I often overloook in my reviews.

The gameplay analysis was also well documented.

[-=Gib-McFragger=-]

Excellent review man, and great pics. Sorry, I should have piped in earlier. :D

[Ragetius]

Hey how about soft-modding to unlock those last 4 pipes? can be done with rivatuner.. i think the overclocking site needs a update :) i think that can be atleast tryed with Rivatuner RC2 15.1

[ragejg]

Actually the Rivatuner thing was tried to no avail. :(

[goofjb]

Great work my friend. Sorry to you and everyone else for not be on here at all lately. I feel kind of the way you do about BIG cards, I like them and I think they look better. Also they do seem to run cooler. Thanks for proving that point. :) Did anyone notice the format used for the setup pf each game test? I think that is something we should see more of.

[Clay]

Did anyone notice the format used for the setup pf each game test? I think that is something we should see more of.
Thanks for that feedback. I also liked how John did that. I tried something similar in a past review (http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/bfg_geforce_fx_5900_ultra/page_6.shtml). It received some good feedback at that time too. I think we can work towards a good balance between what our personal experience/impressions are and the heavier handed approach of making those impressions appear to be fact which can confuse and irritate some people. I think John has a good style going. :)

[ragejg]

Thanks Clay :) ... and goofjb, maybe you can help me on my next review? I miss our collaboration... :(

[ChrisRay]

Thanks Clay :) ... and goofjb, maybe you can help me on my next review? I miss our collaboration... :(



You dont collaborate/talk to me anymore :(