BFG 6800 GT vs. PNY 6800 GT - temps and O/Cing results...

O

ozziegn

The man behind the curtain...
Joined
Jan 13, 2001
Messages
17,533
okay, so all this mama-jama and mumbo-jumbo about how the BFG 6800 GT is supposed to be all that and a can of chicken soup made me wanna try one out today. I was lucky enough to find one at my local Best Butt ( :D ) store so I snagged it up and tried it out.

I wanted to compare it to my PNY 6800 GT which quite often is looked down upon in this forum by many people who seem to think its some sort of generic card. especially when its compared to the BFG 6800 GTs.

well, first thing I discovered about the BFG card was that it idled at 62C compared to my PNY which idles at 54C. that right there surprised me considering the BFG card that I got has the newer, all copper heatsink with the dually fans along with the purdy LEDs in them. well, I guess all that purdy and heavy copper stuff doesnt mean jack because the load temp difference between the two cards was even worse. my PNY will not peg over 80C no matter what but the BFG card pegged to 88C! unfreakin' real.......

okay, so I then tried to O/C the BFG card and at best I could get (stability wise) was 410/1100. my PNY card does 420/1100. sure, its only a 10MHz difference but again, I thought these BFG cards were supposed to be all that??? sure, some people will claim that BFG's lifetime warranty is all that but it doesnt mean jack to me. I barely own a video card 1 year much less a "lifetime".

so here I stand with my first impression of the almighty BFG 6800 GT and it isnt too good. I think its a shame that a card like my PNY GT is quite often looked down upon but yet it beats my BFG GT in both temps and in O/Cing ability...

whodathunk it?

*EDIT*

some people have been asking me what the newer cooler looks like on the BFG card so I decided to post a pic:

bfg6800gt.jpg
 
needless to say that I'm not keeping the BFG card so if anyone wants it for what I have in it ($430 - which includes sales tax) then its yours. otherwise she's going back to Best Buy the next time I'm out by that way.

send me an email if you want the card...
 
you have a valid point, but you cant lose either way. i have respect for PNY, the two cards i got from them work above and beyond what similar models do. however BFG's performance and tech support in my exp is so awesome i hold them in high regard. granted both are great companies and you cant lose either way. i just have had personal experience that is better with BFG thats all.
anyway, im waiting for those 512mb big brother cards around the corner. in this case, i do hope patience does pay off.
 
I have the same BFG card and my card idles at 55C with my ambient case temp at 34C. I havn't tried overclocking it yet, but so far I personally have had really good luck with my BFG.
 
I always buy PNY

never had a problem with them and EVERY time I have rma'd something (3 times) they have never gave me a problem

in fact only company I would NOT buy is Asus after some pretty bad rma run around
 
Rizen said:
Not all chips are created equal.
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Well...yes, you're right. But I also have both PNY and BFG card. Like ozziegn I found PNY 6800GT running much cooler, by 10C, than BFG. Also, the optimum frequency detector found PNY@424/1170mhz and BFG 407/1107mhz.

Almost everyone has been saying BFG is the way to go, but now I''m not sure anymore.

True Lifetime Warranty vs. Product Lifetime Warranty+better overclock+cooler running
 
From what I've been hearing, BFG's new heatsink doesn't perform as well as the old, reference one.

As for the many BFG recommendations... it's probably because of the many things going for it: lifetime warranty, guaranteed overclock out of the box, overclocks as well as any other GT to date, great customer service, and a rep present here on the boards. I don't think anyone said it was hands down the best performer, but rather the best buy. It would be quite foolish to say one reference board performs much better than another reference board - AS5 notwithstanding.

Here is a review of some different 6800 flavors. The BFG does quite well here, as well as the PNY.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/geforce6800-comparo/index.x?pg=1
 
I agree, I like my PNY a lot. I oced it the first day I got it and it's running 421/1140 stable.
 
Overclocking is a crapshoot. My BFG does 440 core, and 1.2+ on the mem. Im sure there are some PNY's and eVGA's that will do the same. Most people like BFG for the lifetime warranty, and their RMA service is top notch.
 
Did you clock the BFG card back to it's standard 350/1000 when you compared idle temps? You do realize it's running 20mhz core faster OTB right? could be the reason for the temperature disparity.
 
Hmm, this actually makes me want to get the PNY now, since my local CompUSA has loads of them...ack!

Thanx for the info though, ozzie.
 
just for the record folks, I'm not saying (by any means) that the BFG 6800 GTs suck or are junk cuz I'm sure they are just as good (if not better) than other cards as well.

I probably just got a card that wasnt one of their better performing cards like some have been reporting to have. when I say "better performing", I mean I'm talking about idle/load temps and how high the card is able to O/C and in this case, the BFG card that I got just so happens to be not quite on par as my PNY card.
 
souja9 said:
From what I've been hearing, BFG's new heatsink doesn't perform as well as the old, reference one.
Click to expand...

you know what? I believe that now that I have taken a good look at the BFG's cooler.

one thing I've noticed between the BFG's and the PNY's cooler is that the BFG's cooler is one solid heatsink for both the GPU and the memory while the PNY's cooler is actually seperate; one heatsink for the GPU and the other for the memory.

so I'm actually wondering if the GPU on the BFG card is getting so dang hot that its toasting up the copper cooler so bad that its actually heating up the memory as well. that might be one of reasons why I couldnt even run the HDR demo at 400/1100 speeds when I tried it last night while my PNY card can run the HDR demo at 420/1100 all day long.

oh well, who knows. maybe BFG shouldve stuck with the old design instead.
 
fallguy said:
Overclocking is a crapshoot. My BFG does 440 core, and 1.2+ on the mem.
Click to expand...

thats very impressive for stock cooling....

too bad my BFG card wont even remotely think about doing those speeds.

oh well, like you said, O/Cing is a crapshoot and I guess in my case my PNY wins the shoot. :p
 
ozziegn said:
thats very impressive for stock cooling....

too bad my BFG card wont even remotely think about doing those speeds.

oh well, like you said, O/Cing is a crapshoot and I guess in my case my PNY wins the shoot. :p
Click to expand...

So who wins the crap? :D

Looks liek if I plan on getting a GT in the next month, it will be PNY...
 
Basically what this proves is Nvidia's stock design isn't really as bad as many claim. Why BFG would put a aftermarket cooler on the GT when they know its going to run even hotter is beyond me.
 
scott122 said:
Basically what this proves is Nvidia's stock design isn't really as bad as many claim.
Click to expand...

exactly..

my only beef with the stock nVidia design is how small the actual GPU heatsink is. I mean it is very small. I know this because I took it off when I put AS on it the very first day I bought the card.

heck, now that I think about it, the heatsink on my NB chip on my mobo is bigger than the GPU's heatsink. now that is a damn shame... :p
 
scott122 said:
Basically what this proves is Nvidia's stock design isn't really as bad as many claim. Why BFG would put a aftermarket cooler on the GT when they know its going to run even hotter is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Because the majority of people see the pretty aftermarket cooler, and think "it must be better", even if it is not. For reference, the 9800XT heatsink is apparently better than a VGA Silencer (as reported by MarginJohn on the Rage3D Overclocking/Tuning forum), but you still see many people with XTs looking for a VGA Silencer.

Besides, most people are NOT going to drop down 850 dollars to compare :)
 
I purchased the BFG because it was in stock and cost the same. I got it mainly for the warranty. I didn't expect better overclocks from it than any other reference 6800 GT. The "OC" part is just a BIOS flash to change the default speed anyway. I do plan to replace the cooler with an NV Silencer just because the stock one is pretty loud. From what I've seen, power is the limiter on the GT cards when it comes to overclocks, so a huge cooler is useless. I get artifacts at lower temperatures when the clock is turned up past a certain point where I won't get the same artifacts at a higher temperature with a lower clock. (If that makes sense)
 
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