NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS

No top-end card will have trouble with HL2 at any setting, even midranges like this can max it out no problem.

I totally am with you bigz - benchmarking isn't as easy as it's cracked up to be. Granted a BPS for several resolutions (start with the highest obviously, if it can play hl2 max at 1600x1200, it can clearly do it below that as well), and a more subjective "here's the best mix of res and quality" is nice to have but a lot less relavent in my eyes, especially with the prominance of TFTs. Of course in theory, bad TFT scaling could almost grant free AA. I'd almost not bother with 1024 anymore, I'd think just 1280 and 1600 will cover most bases. I figure my 1680x1050 is more or less the same as 1600x1200 in the games that support it (a few pixels less, but a wider draw space, in any case it seems to play about the same as that's where I came from).

The "common sense approach" would seem to be the best mix of effeciency and quality results. If it's unplayable at 1280x1024 (I wouldn't bother with the x960 for 4:3 except in FEAR and other games that refuse to do any other aspect), obviously it won't do 1600x1200, and vice-versa. Before I always liked to play at 1600 because I didn't like for my monitor to switch modes and drop to 60hz and need to be readjusted for squareness, now I prefer running native because it's on a flat panel.

Guess I don't stand a whole lot of chance at not losing a fortune on my NIB 6800gt again. Maybe I should just go for SLI again (but gah, I'd need another new waterblock......and I'd rather gain back what I can than shell out another $120 or so), seeing as I'd actually get something out of it with FEAR and Q4 and whatnot. Especially considering driver support has increased tenfold since my RMA (and when I got my LCD after the RMA, I stopped running dual-display, but if I can customize a keyboard shortcut for enable/disable SLI like for my display rotation, that wouldn't matter much)

 

umm...
i play fear on at 1024x768 with the graphics on high.... on a 6600gt overclocked out of the box... with no trouble at all... runs smooth as

 

it depends what you class as 'smooth' - these are 'worst case' scenario settings. I could easily make them much much higher and have the frame rate drop much much lower, but I believe the majority of frames should be rendered above 30 frames per second.

I've also had this arguement elsewhere on these forums.

 

nice review i like that best playable settings and i hope you guys keep that nice work...


the card looks good for 200$ not too long ago that was the price of the 6600gt

 

Bigz good luck with trying to make a 6800GT and a 6800GS run in SLI, I just don't see how that would work out.

 

newegg has two of the 6800gs in stock, an evga and the XXX just wanted to let you guys know, if you didnt already. what would be a better purchase, a 7800gt or two of the 6800gs' in sli?

F.B.

 

I think I'd go with the GT, because there's always the option to upgrade with another GT at a later date.

 

The GT would offer only marginally less performance but with the ability to add in another much more easily. I'd go for that.

 

I haven't had the time yet - if I get the chance this evening, I'll have a go!

 

Rough EBuyer all-in prices.

6800 Std = £120
6800 GT = £210
6800 GS = £185

GS seems to be pretty damn good vfm. I've just recently got myself a 6800 Std because of the drops in prices.

 

The GS on ebuyer is faster than a GT and close to the performance of the 6800 Ultra.

 

Interested in seeing if this works. Running a GT right now, looking at going SLI.

 

Sorry to bug you Bigz, was wondering if you'd had a chance to test this yet?

 

No problem, I forgot to post.

I can't get SLI working at all with the GS and GT installed - I tried several driver revisions with no luck.

 

So can we use any 6800 cooler on these or what?

 

yes, uses the same mounts as the 6800 series from what I can see.

 

Do you intend to review the agp version which seems to be a much lower spec and price? more like the 6600GT price range and a core of 300mhz and memory 700mhz.

 

I've heard nothing official about the AGP version from NVIDIA.

 

I made a mistake it wasn't the gs I was thinking about when posting the spec and price. But there is suppose to be agp version of the gs soon according a search of the web sites. So going by your statement does that mean unoffically your been told something