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EVGA e-GeForce 6800 AGP Review May 06, 2005 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: With street prices falling rapidly, GeForce 6800 cards can be increasingly found for $200. EVGA's e-GeForce 6800 is one such example, with Newegg offering the card for $200 after mail-in rebate. In this review we've paired the EVGA board against older cards, such as the RADEON 9500 PRO and GeForce FX 5900, as well as newer cards. See how it stacks up to the others in today's review!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 12 ) |
In comparison, ATI has only recently been able to deliver top-to-bottom solutions based on their R4xx architecture in significant quantities.
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The GeForce 6600 series is a perfect example of this. Its NV43 graphics core runs at a blazing 500MHz core clock on the 6600 GT model providing it with a 4 Gigatexels/second fill rate, that’s just over 700Mtexels/second greater than RADEON 9800 XT; while the base GeForce 6600 runs at 300MHz, giving it a fill-rate similar to the 9700 PRO. Although neither card features a 256-bit memory interface, each delivers performance that was previously unheard of in the mainstream segment. As a result, the GeForce 6600 line has enjoyed tremendous popularity and is a common upgrade choice for consumers on a budget.
For gamers seeking high resolutions with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering however, the GeForce 6600’s memory subsystem falls short. This is where NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 line comes in.
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All of NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 GPUs feature a wider, 256-bit memory interface, providing the graphics core with twice the memory bandwidth of GeForce 6600 (assuming equal clock speed). With more bandwidth on tap, the GPU is better fed with data, allowing 6800 cards to run at high resolutions and graphics detail settings that would choke up a 6600, resulting in poor performance. The GeForce 6800 Ultra and 6800 GT also boast twice the number of pixel pipelines as the 6600, at 16, while the GeForce 6800 features 12 pixel pipes. The extra pipelines not only provide the 6800 line with high fill-rates, but also greater pixel processing. This is important for the shader-intensive games that are becoming increasingly common.
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The one key drawback of these cards however has always been one thing: price. With an MSRP of $300 and up, the 6800 line isn’t exactly an inexpensive upgrade. Thanks to rapidly falling board prices however, the entire line GeForce 6800 series AGP cards can be found at street prices that were previously unheard of. For instance, the EVGA e-GeForce 6800 card we’re reviewing today can be found for under $250 online quite easily.
| Board analysis | Page:: ( 2 / 12 ) |
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In order to bring their products to market as quickly as possible with competitive pricing, EVGA frequently purchases their cards directly from NVIDIA. While NVIDIA requires this on their high-end GeForce 6800 Ultra cards, at the mainstream level the GeForce 6800 sells for board manufacturers have the option of purchasing the completed cards from NVIDIA, or buying the GeForce 6800 GPUs from NVIDIA, and producing the final 6800 cards on their own. Since EVGA chose the first method, their e-GeForce 6800 card is pretty much as close as you can get to purchasing the card directly from NVIDIA themselves.
Physically, the only modification EVGA makes to their e-GeForce 6800 board is cosmetic – the EVGA sticker located directly above the fan’s motor – other than this small change, the e-GeForce 6800 is identical to NVIDIA’s reference design.
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Our favorite aspect of EVGA’s e-GeForce 6800 is its cooling. As you can see in the pictures, EVGA relies on the same GeForce 6800 GT cooler for their e-GeForce 6800. In order to cut costs, some of NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 board partners have elected to use the GeForce 6600 GT heatsink/fan unit on their GeForce 6800 cards. Since the GeForce 6800 contains fewer pipelines and runs at lower clock speeds than the GeForce 6800 GT and 6800 Ultra GPUs, board partners are free to use the 6600 GT cooler on their GeForce 6800 cards.
The 6600 GT cooler is much smaller than the 6800 GT unit EVGA uses on their e-GeForce 6800. With more surface area, the EVGA cooler is able to more effectively draw heat off the GPU than the cooler used on other competing GeForce 6800 cards. This is an important consideration to keep in mind if you plan on overclocking your graphics card, or you’re concerned about board temperature.
Software and accessories
To keep costs down, EVGA ships their boards without a game bundle. After all, most gamers probably have the games they want to play anyway. Instead EVGA includes a driver CD with trial software on it, DVI and power cables, and an S-Video cable.
| Test Systems | Page:: ( 3 / 12 ) |
System Setup
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz “Prescott”
ABIT IC7-G MAX II Advance
1GB OCZ DDR400 SDRAM
ATI RADEON 9500 PRO
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
ATI RADEON X800 PRO AGP
PowerColor RADEON X800 XL AGP
Driver version CATALYST 5.4
EVGA GeForce 6800 AGP
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT AGP
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 128MB
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
Driver version 71.89
250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache
Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
Pacific Fighters (kamikaze demo)
Far Cry 1.3
DOOM 3 (gameplay custom demo)
Half-Life 2 (turrent demo)
Chronicles of Riddick
| Pacific Fighters | Page:: ( 4 / 12 ) |
Pacific Fighters - OpenGL
| Far Cry Volcano | Page:: ( 5 / 12 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Far Cry Training | Page:: ( 6 / 12 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Chronicles of Riddick | Page:: ( 7 / 12 ) |
Chronicles of Riddick – OpenGL
| DOOM 3 High Quality | Page:: ( 8 / 12 ) |
DOOM 3 – OpenGL
| Half-Life 2 | Page:: ( 9 / 12 ) |
Half-Life 2 – Direct3D
NOTE: The GeForce FX card was running in DX8.1 mode.
| Overclocking | Page:: ( 10 / 12 ) |
Half-Life 2
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 11 / 12 ) |
Pros
GeForce 6800 core: With 12 pipelines and a more robust 256-bit memory interface, the GeForce 6800 packs a little more horsepower than its newer, less expensive sibling, the GeForce 6600 and GeForce 6600 GT. This gives you a little more performance than the 6600 card, especially once you crank up the detail settings.
6800 GT cooling: Unlike some board partners who use the same cooler found on GeForce 6600 GT on their GeForce 6800 cards, EVGA has adopted the same cooling unit used on high-end GeForce 6800 GT cards. This heatsink/fan unit is much larger than the GeForce 6600 GT cooler, providing better cooling.
Customer support: EVGA has a history of delivering some of the best customer support in the business, bar none. The company provides toll-free tech support for immediate assistance, as well as email and community support via their online forums, which are also populated by EVGA employees.
EVGA is headquartered in California. This is important, especially for dealing with support issues as many companies who are based overseas only have small satellite offices in the US who may not be as well staffed, particularly in the tech support department. EVGA also has a history of processing RMAs quickly.
Its because of their excellent customer support that many EVGA owners are repeat customers. EVGA also recently introduced their new 1+1 warranty program.
With 1+1, EVGA doubles their warranty period from the standard one-year warranty to a second year of coverage just by registering your graphics card.
Street Price: EVGA’s e-GeForce 6800 is one of the least expensive GeForce 6800 boards on the market, making it one of the better buys among GeForce 6800s for price-conscious consumers. Board prices tend to hover online just below $250, while Newegg is now selling the EVGA card for just $200, with a $30 mail-in rebate. This is the same price the GeForce 6600 GT officially retails for (although street prices on 6600 GTs hover just under $200).
Cons
Falling 6800 GT prices: Just as prices are rapidly falling on the GeForce 6800, the same also applies to the GeForce 6800 GT. While the board still officially retails for $400, street prices on GeForce 6800 GT cards have recently fallen to the $300 level at some retailers, this is the same price the GeForce 6800 officially lists for.
As you saw in the benchmarks, the GeForce 6800 GT delivers significantly more performance than the GeForce 6800, therefore many enthusiasts will be tempted to just spend the extra money and opt for the GeForce 6800 GT rather than the GeForce 6800.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 12 / 12 ) |