Graphics Is a 6800 Ultra still a viable card?

Yep def agree 7800GT is better, as well as not having the video playback bug (which all the 6800 have as far as im aware).
Not sure its quite as much as 75% though. Think that be more likely between the 6800GT and 7800GT.

 

I was referring to extreme circumstances - fire up HDR in Far Cry on both a 6800 Ultra and a 7800 GT and you'll see some quite dramatic differences.

 

Hmm sounds very intriguing.
I was seriously considering buying a XFX 6800 GS this holiday season as it looks to be a very good bang for the buck in price/performance category at $215.
7800 GTX start off at $450 minimum, so that is out of the question, which leaves 7800 GT as the man-in-the-middle card.
NewEgg lists several ranging from $289 after rebates up to $385. I have always been a fan of XFX products, so XFX 7800 GT looks VERY tempting to me right now at just a $100 more than a XFX 6800 GS. Would the $100 price tag worth it? Would cards of other manufacturers (AOpen, ASUS, GIGABYTE, eVGA, Leadtek) be worth the price over $315?

 

$289-$215=$74, so even less difference (maybe not brand-for-brand, but they're all effectively the same thing). Regardless, it's a superb value. Only difference over the price range is stock clock speeds (took me quite some time to see that) and occasionally the bundle. Chances are they'd all OC to more or less the same point, so really it's down to brand loyalty and bundle.

 

Yep, its still not anywhere near that much difference.
As an example take a look at this comparison. Even comparing a 6800GT and 7800GT the difference is nowhere near what that, let alone an ultra.

review site

 

does that include the BFG 512 meg 6800 ultra oc's when it comes to performance, not to mention a pair of those in an SLI config with a dualcore intel extreme edition 2 gig of corsair xms 6400 dual channel which i'm in the process of assembling all on liquid cooling, Lol

 

For GBP £230, which is lightest charge for a 7800GT, there's still not much performance difference to the 'GTX when you look at the price point. So in that sense, the 7800GT is a considerably "better" buy than the 6800 Ultra, which comes at around a heavy GBP £330-440 price-point. Also: not forgetting that the 6800 Ultra overheats and is very loud.
So I think, for some odd reason, the 7800GT would be a smarter move than buying a "wasteful" if you don't mind, 6800 Ultra.

 

nVidia is planning to very soon drop the prices of the GTX by a fair bit (or so I've read), so we could be seeing drops in the lower cards too.

 

I doubt 6800 Ultra is going to drop in price, though.