The NVIDIA 6800 GS Closer Look: EVGA, Leadtek, PNY, and Evertop
by Josh Venning on January 27, 2006 8:53 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Test Setup/Overclocking
The test setup that we used is designed to focus the stress of the game tests on the GPU. We therefore use very high end components in our test system in order to determine the maximum impact that a graphics card could have on a game. We also disable sound for testing and disable as many background tasks as possible. Since the 6800 GS is a mid-range part, we would expect people who purchase the card to be running a more mid-range system altogether. Performance may end up actually being a little lower in the real world, but for analysis purposes, it's easier to pinpoint the advantages of a specific part (if any) when you eliminate (or at least minimize) other bottlenecks that could be a factor in performance.
NVIDIA nForce 4 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 2.8 GHz Processor
2 GB OCZ 3:3:2:8 DDR400 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB Hard Drive
OCZ 600 W PowerStream Power Supply
User-overclocking is an important part of our testing, and it gives us an idea of how well these cards overclock above their factory settings. It's interesting to see that sometimes a card with a high factory overclock won't necessarily overclock as high as another lower clocked card of the same type. This can be useful information for those who prefer to overclock their own cards. At the same time, factory overclocked parts can be more attractive to users who just want to plug in the part and forget it (or who don't want to worry about voiding any warranties). In any case, here's what we ended up with when we overclocked these 6800 GS offerings.
So, we can see that the slowest card out of the box actually overclocks higher than any other card that we tested here. All of the cards do see a pretty decent speed bump over the stock 6800 GS, though.
The test setup that we used is designed to focus the stress of the game tests on the GPU. We therefore use very high end components in our test system in order to determine the maximum impact that a graphics card could have on a game. We also disable sound for testing and disable as many background tasks as possible. Since the 6800 GS is a mid-range part, we would expect people who purchase the card to be running a more mid-range system altogether. Performance may end up actually being a little lower in the real world, but for analysis purposes, it's easier to pinpoint the advantages of a specific part (if any) when you eliminate (or at least minimize) other bottlenecks that could be a factor in performance.
NVIDIA nForce 4 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 2.8 GHz Processor
2 GB OCZ 3:3:2:8 DDR400 RAM
Seagate 7200.7 120 GB Hard Drive
OCZ 600 W PowerStream Power Supply
User-overclocking is an important part of our testing, and it gives us an idea of how well these cards overclock above their factory settings. It's interesting to see that sometimes a card with a high factory overclock won't necessarily overclock as high as another lower clocked card of the same type. This can be useful information for those who prefer to overclock their own cards. At the same time, factory overclocked parts can be more attractive to users who just want to plug in the part and forget it (or who don't want to worry about voiding any warranties). In any case, here's what we ended up with when we overclocked these 6800 GS offerings.
| Graphics Card | Factory Speed | Overclocked |
| Leadtek WinFast PX6800 GS Extreme | 485/1.1 | 520/1.15 |
| PNY GeForce 6800 GS Overclocked | 470/1.1 | 490/1.15 |
| EverTop GeForce 6800 GS | 425/1.0 | 525/1.2 |
| EVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS | 450/1.05 | 510/1.15 |
So, we can see that the slowest card out of the box actually overclocks higher than any other card that we tested here. All of the cards do see a pretty decent speed bump over the stock 6800 GS, though.
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swamprat - Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - link
Im interested as to the specific version of the EVGA card tested as the EVGA site has the 256-P2-N389-BX and the 256-P2-N389-AX versions with the same specs ie 450MHz/1.05GHzAlaa - Monday, February 6, 2006 - link
who would buy FX57 with such a midrange product? please test the cards as normal usersspec74 - Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - link
Well i'm in Korea right now and found out it's selling for 217,000 won. With the current exchange rate of 1 Dollar = 964 KRN it's close to $200 here alsospec74 - Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - link
As I was checking the pic of the card also. It looks nothing like the one reviewed. I found it strangewell here's the site if you guys want to see it
http://pc.danawa.com/price_right.html?cate1=861&am...">http://pc.danawa.com/price_right.html?cate1=861&am...
tjpark1111 - Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - link
nice really! I'm korean and I've always thought stuff was more expensive there, it always seemed like it when I lived there... I guess not. You should go buy it hehe.wolf68k - Saturday, January 28, 2006 - link
I've got a problem with how they worded this.All they said, or implied, was that they turned on SM3.0 with the nVidia cards. The GTO doesn't support SM3.0. But did they turn on every options under SM3.0 as well or not?
From the results I would have to say so, I just wish they did.
I've got an AMD XP 3200+, 1GB of PC2100/DDR266 RAM and a completely stock eVGA 6800GS AGP.
When I benched SCCT at 1240x1024 with SM3.0 and Hardware Shadow Mapping turned on, as well as everything else but not including everything in SM3.0 and no AA/AF. I get around 45-50FPS.
With everything on, including the options under SM3.0 but still no AA/AF, then I get around 20-25FPS.
DerekWilson - Sunday, January 29, 2006 - link
We enabled all available options for the GTO, but as we pointed out in the article, it doesn't support SM3.0It should be noted that NV doesn't support support some of the higher end features with AA enabled, so the AA numbers are a more apples to apples sort of comparison here.
tjpark1111 - Sunday, January 29, 2006 - link
eh, who cares about SM3(ok, even i might care). Anyways, I would rather get a x800gto2 and make it faster than a x850 xt pe, and get much better performance than a 6800GS, all for $10 less lol.unclebud - Saturday, January 28, 2006 - link
"Remember, I would have to pay $100 more to get a PCIe mobo with the GS which would cost more than just getting the AGP version."also remember that the typical anandtecher does not have a girlfriend nor a spouse and no prospects of getting one, so they can rationalize that paying such copious amounts of money to match a graph of a demo machine is an incredible achievement... like saving the queen of england from bill collectors or something. that is why they cannot sympathize with us who would stick with agp for whatever reason (especially financial reasons).
thanks for posting!
Spoelie - Saturday, January 28, 2006 - link
Looks like someone isn't getting any...Either way, I'm keeping my gf satisfied while having a pci-e config. Gasp, it's unbelievable, I must be some kind of genious. You can read all about in my new book in stores this spring!
BTW, buying a pcie gs will survive the upgrade to a socket M2, while the agp will not. More money thrown away!