Round Up and Comparison of 6800GT graphics cards
PCI Express x16 graphics cardsChipset 6800GT 256 MB, 256 bit
NVIDIA needed the GeForce 6 Series - their experiment that is NV30 was a catastrophe. The NV40 proved to the world once again that NVIDIA is not out of the game. Far from it, they deliver more than a decent card - it had features such as SM 3.0 support, dual DVI, PureVideo and is generally faster in benchmarks than ATI's offering. But the most important factors that made the GeForce 6 series so successful is availability and support from game developers. Of course, from all the graphics card in the GeForce 6 series, the fastest is the 6800s. And just like the GeForce 4 Ti4200 was to the GeForce 4 Ti4600, the GeForce 6800GT was to the GeForce 6800 Ultra - it's pretty much the same card, with lower core / memory clock and voltage. This is the card to buy if you want to hit that maximum fps without burning too big a hole in your pocket..
Even with the arrival of GeForce 7800GTX and 7800GT, the 6800GT is still a viable option for many gamers. These cards are being sold for around US$ 250 - 350, that's US$ 100 to 200 cheaper than a single 7800GT or 7800GTX. If you're fortunate enough to have an NForce 4 SLI motherboard, you can buy another one for that extra 'omph' in graphics processing power. While you can also use the 7800GT and GTX in an SLI setup (for a total cost of about US$ 700 to 900), you'll see that the performance gain is slightly lower - obviously because there's not a processor fast enough that can keep up with the pace. The GeForce 6800GT is simply the best bang for the buck compared to other high end cards from NVIDIA.
Today, we're looking at three graphics cards based on the GeForce 6800GT. They are (alphabetically) the ASUS EN6800GT 2DT256, Galaxy Glacier 6800GT 256 MB and Leadtek PX6800GT TDH.
Overview
ASUS EN6800GT 2DT256
350/500 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT, 256 MB GDDR3Core Clock : 350 MHz
Memory Clock : 501 MHz (1002 MHz GDDR3)
Overall Score: 87.5 points
Unlike the other two cards, the ASUS EN6800GT is in a sense a keep-it-simple-stupid approach. It relies on reference cooling so this card is perfect for those wanting a single slot solution. Meaning, its a more practical card for an SLI setup. Noise levels are pretty low and won't attract your attention. Of course, the downside is that the EN6800GT is relatively hotter than the other two cards in this round up - around 5 º Celsius hotter than the Galaxy Glacier and 10 º Celsius than the Leadtek FX6800GT TDH, but it is still within normal temperatures - NVIDIA's overheat protection won't kick in until the core hits 135º Celsius. Looking more closely, we can see ASUS used thermal paste.to help transfer from the core to the heatsink and (a somewhat messy) thermal padding used for the memory chips.
The ASUS EN6800GT doesn't have extra features, such as hardware monitoring. The ASUS SmartDoctor utility can only be used to change the core and memory clock, either manually or automatically by activating a feature called HyperDrive. It basically overclocks the card to a certain degree when you're using a 3D software or running an application which uses 100 % of your CPU time. In our test, the overclock was around 7 MHz, not much and will most likely will not give you any noticeable performance increases either.
Unfortunately, our sample have been making the rounds quite a bit, so there's a few bundles missing (or probably just misplaced). Inside the big box, you'll find the usual bundle - a DVI to analog bundle so you can use an analog monitor with this card (this card features dual DVI output), a CD case and two CDs with drivers, utilities and manuals inside. You'll find the bundled game (Novalogic's Joint Operations) in the CD case, along with the software DVD Player and Cyberlink's PowerDirector and MediaShow CDs. There's also a webcam you could use for video conferencing, which unfortunately uses the USB port - no video input on the card (TV output only). It's a pretty sparse package, but it may appeal to those only looking for a graphics card (or two).
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