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[tedtropy]

I plopped $200 down the other day for an eVGA GeForce 6800 128MB card which will be arriving today. I've read mostly good things about it, but does anyone know first-hand the kind of increase in speed I'll see versus my previous 9800 Pro? There any particular type of hacked drivers I should use? Is it worth it to attempt overclocking or potentially unlocking the additional pipelines? I'm running a Athlon XP 3200, nForce 2 400 chipset, 1GB ram, Windows XP SP2. Thanks.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

If it's AGP you might be able to unlock masked pipelines using Rivatuner. There's a few guides out there (check google).

 

[wobedraggled]

You will wanted to get a 3rd party vga cooler, the stock cooler sucks balls.

I had an evga 6600gt cook on me without overclocking.

 

[tedtropy]

If it's AGP you might be able to unlock masked pipelines using Rivatuner. There's a few guides out there (check google).

Yeah, it's the AGP flavor.

 

[tedtropy]

You will wanted to get a 3rd party vga cooler, the stock cooler sucks balls.

I had a evga 6600gt cook on me without overclocking.

It's actually using the reference 6600GT cooler. Most non-GT 6600 coolers don't even have heatsinks on the BGA chips, but yeah, I've heard the cards run a little warm. Nothing new there - my 9800 Pro turned my computer into a space heater until I threw a 3rd party cooler on it. I'll likely do a similar upgrade for this one. Thanks.

 

[wobedraggled]

It's actually using the reference 6600GT cooler. Most non-GT 6600 coolers don't even have heatsinks on the BGA chips, but yeah, I've heard the cards run a little warm. Nothing new there - my 9800 Pro turned my computer into a space heater until I threw a 3rd party cooler on it. I'll likely do a similar upgrade for this one. Thanks.

I have a 9800 that was "flashed" to a pro, that I installed a zalman cooler on and now I can lock the heck out of it.

I would take the dive on a 6800 but the extra cash is an issue right now, the 6600gt doesn't take standard coolers so you gotta fiddle with it a bit.

 

[tedtropy]

I have a 9800 that was "flashed" to a pro, that I installed a zalman cooler on and now I can lock the heck out of it.

I would take the dive on a 6800 but the extra cash is an issue right now, the 6600gt doesn't take standard coolers so you gotta fiddle with it a bit.

Whoops, I meant to say 6800 in that last post, not 6660.

 

[trilobyte]

My only issue would be that you're replacing a 128mb card with another 128mb card. You'll see some increase (especially in Doom 3) but not a whole lot since that 128mb really holds the 6800 back.

 

[tedtropy]

My only issue would be that you're replacing a 128mb card with another 128mb card. You'll see some increase (especially in Doom 3) but not a whole lot since that 128mb really holds the 6800 back.

256MB high-end cards are still too pricey for me. The benchmark comparisons I've seen at firingsquad.com still show the card having quite a significant lead (generally near double) on the 9800 Pro, especially in the higher resolutions. It also seems to handle FSAA much better. That's one area the 9800 is pretty lacking in. I'm hoping those benchmarks translate into a similar performance gain for me.

 

[Paladin69]

i've got issues with my 6800 GT...the damn thing stutters every 1-2 seconds.

 

[Hajaz]

stutter is often related to ram. BF2 by any chance?

 

[Paladin69]

mostly guild wars right now...but this happens with any 3d app.

OpenGL works fine, but DirectX is crap.

I have 768MB of ram. Even tho my 5200FX is a slower card, it at least keeps consistent without stuttering unlike the 6800 GT.

 

[DMczaf]

This is the card I want to upgrade to, can you give me your impressions on it after you get it

 

[Blazyr]

I made a pretty similar jump (9700 pro --> 6800 128) and it let me go from running game "X" in 1024 to 1280 with all the eye candy turned on. You're probably bumping up against the limits of your proc. at this point.

One important thing -- if you're not going to reformat then be sure to use driver cleaner (guru3d has it) to get every last bit of ATi code out of your box so it's not conflicting with the nVidia drivers.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

i've got issues with my 6800 GT...the damn thing stutters every 1-2 seconds.

My 6800 GT freezes and unfreezes every few minutes (or seconds with Battlefield 2 making it completely unplayable) if I use any drivers newer than 66.93. Do you have a similar issue? It's really irritating ... I've read it's an issue with nForce3 based motherboards..

 

[tedtropy]

This is the card I want to upgrade to, can you give me your impressions on it after you get it

Well, I went from pushing about 60fps in Doom 3 at 800 X 600 high quality using the game's internal timedemo to 60fps at 1280 X 1024 with the same settings. My 9800 was doing good to churn out a slideshow at that point. I'll try to post some of the other improvements later. So far, I'm liking the upgrade...

 

[The Shadow]

I have the same card although the 256mb version.

I'd recommend a new cooler, particularly the NV silencer. The OEM heatsink and fan isn't too bad at cooling it but the fan is loud as hell. The NV silencer didn't actually cool it much more (same temp actually) but the reduction in sound was definitely worth it.

 

[Paladin69]

My 6800 GT freezes and unfreezes every few minutes (or seconds with Battlefield 2 making it completely unplayable) if I use any drivers newer than 66.93. Do you have a similar issue? It's really irritating ... I've read it's an issue with nForce3 based motherboards..

yep, same exact problem here. :-(

I'm using 67.66...anything newer stutters every other second. I'm not running an nForce3 board though so I don't think that is a problem.

 

[tedtropy]

I have the same card although the 256mb version.

I'd recommend a new cooler, particularly the NV silencer. The OEM heatsink and fan isn't too bad at cooling it but the fan is loud as hell. The NV silencer didn't actually cool it much more (same temp actually) but the reduction in sound was definitely worth it.

Yeah, I definately noticed some additional fan noise after installing the card. I keep my computer under my desk, so noise isn't too much of an issue, but I may look into an alternative cooler. This card has so much more breathing room in the higher resolutions versus my 9800. I couldn't even push 1024 X 768 in Doom 3 before without seeing some noticable lag, but now I'm pushing 1280 X 1024 and it's quite smooth. I think I'll start playing around with FSAA more now, and it'll be nice to bump up some of the quality in Half-Life 2. Anyways, here's some fun facts just from installing the card with no tweaking...

3DMark2003: 5754 -> 8434
3DMark2005: 2414 -> 3386 (Yes, it still kicks my system's ass.)

 

[Dr_Cogent]

If it's AGP you might be able to unlock masked pipelines using Rivatuner. There's a few guides out there (check google).

And you could potentially render the card completely useless doing so.

As far as speed improvements, you will see a decent improvement in performance, but nothing mind blowing. It's a good card overall. I have a 6800 GT and I love it. You have less pipelines, but it should be able to handle all of todays latest games just fine.

My advice, don't overclock. The performance gains don't outweigh the chance that you could fry the card or damage it causing it to behave erratically. If you want faster performance, buy the faster card.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

w00t


just tested my 3dmark03

I think previous was around 4-5k now with my 6800 gt 256 I hit 11017



xp3000
gig of dual channel ram
xp pro sp2

 

[tedtropy]

And you could potentially render the card completely useless doing so.

As far as speed improvements, you will see a decent improvement in performance, but nothing mind blowing. It's a good card overall. I have a 6800 GT and I love it. You have less pipelines, but it should be able to handle all of todays latest games just fine.

My advice, don't overclock. The performance gains don't outweigh the chance that you could fry the card or damage it causing it to behave erratically. If you want faster performance, buy the faster card.

From what I've read on the Anandtech forums, the risk for attempting to unlock the masked pipelines and vertex shader are very slim. The worst most people have experienced was some artifacting, and when that happens you can just revert to default settings. I'll probably give it a quick try just to see. If by some freak chance I manage to fry my card, I'll be sure to let everyone know so they can get a good laugh at my $200 expense. I just can't resist the temptation of free performance.

As you said, the increase from going to a 9800 Pro to a 6800 isn't going to blow your mind, but it is a definite increase in performance, especially at higher resolution and, so far, I'd say it was worth it. Going from a 9800 Pro to a 6800 GT would amplify that statement even more, but unfortunately I don't quite have the funds for that. Now I just need this damn work day to end so I can play with my new toy more.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

From what I've read on the Anandtech forums, the risk for attempting to unlock the masked pipelines and vertex shader are very slim. The worst most people have experienced was some artifacting, and when that happens you can just revert to default settings. I'll probably give it a quick try just to see. If by some freak chance I manage to fry my card, I'll be sure to let everyone know so they can get a good laugh at my $200 expense. I just can't resist the temptation of free performance.

As you said, the increase from going to a 9800 Pro to a 6800 isn't going to blow your mind, but it is a definite increase in performance, especially at higher resolution and, so far, I'd say it was worth it. Going from a 9800 Pro to a 6800 GT would amplify that statement even more, but unfortunately I don't quite have the funds for that. Now I just need this damn work day to end so I can play with my new toy more.

Sweet. Good luck. I would be too afraid of being out 200 bucks so I don't monkey with things like that.

 

[Gattsu25]

updating nVidia drivers > updating ATI drivers

 

[tedtropy]

Sweet. Good luck. I would be too afraid of being out 200 bucks so I don't monkey with things like that.

For me, expensive stuff and doing stupid things tends to go hand in hand. The risk for this seems to be pretty minor though - it either works or it doesn't. Unlocking the pipelines doesn't really impact card temperature the way overclocking it will, plus all the changes are software-based and easily disabled.

 

[DMczaf]

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