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Well, I bit the bullet and purchased an Nvidia based gfx card. My recent gaming performance was falling somewhat short of my expectations. My 9800Pro ran games like Far Cry and Doom 3, but it did not run them well enough IMO. However, I decided with this generation that I didn't want to buy myself into a corner, so to speak. My next platform upgrade will be in the spring and I'll be making the leap to PCIe at that time. Thus, I didn't want to invest a large amound of money into more AGP when I'll need to buy a top of the line PCIe card in about 6 months.
The solution? I initially preordered an eVGA 6800 Ultra. The buyers remorse was too much, however, and I cancelled my preorder a few days before it would've shipped. As painful as that was, I couldn't bear to spend $500 on a video card that I won't even be able to use on my system in another year. Based on the results and user opinions as well as my budget constraints, I purchased the MSI NX6800 which is their take on the "vanilla" 6800 card. I purchased the card from NewEgg for $290. Much easier on the wallet. The is the first "bang for the buck" card I've purchased since my original TNT and I've gotta say, it feels good. My upgrade progression looks a little something like this:
TNT--> GeForce DDR --> GeForce 3 --> GeForce Ti4600 --> 9800Pro --> 6800
The MSI card appealed to me because of the bundle, cooling solution, and overall image of the company. The game comes with an insane 17 games and a few applications. Granted, most of the games suck and people don't usually buy a video card just to get the games, but it's still nice to see a manufacturer put some value-added material with the card. At a $290 pricepoint which is still under the MSRP, why not buy a card that has a little extra?
As I mentioned, the cooling was also another selling point. The MSI card comes equipped with a solid copper heatsink with speed-controllable fan that reminds me of the 9800XT cooling. The fan has a speed slider that adjusts from 2800 - 4000 RPMS (30-39dBA respectively). At high speed, the card is audible over the CPU fan, but not so much with the case closed. Based on other posts, I'd say that the MSI 6800 runs slightly cooler than other branded cards using the reference cooling.
At stock speeds, the MSI NX6800 runs at around 51 C idle. This rises to a little of the 60 C mark after about 20 minutes of Doom 3. I have the fan speed set to the max speed.
After installing coolbits2, I detected my optimal frequencies as 381/811 (stock is 325/700). At these speeds, the cards runs at about 55 C idle and doesn't rise above 67 after another 20 minutes of Doom 3 goodness. I'd consider this a fairly nice overclock, especially without having to do anything to the card or modify the cooling in any way.
Real-World Gameplay.....
65.62 Beta ForceWare
High-Quality Image set via ForceWare, no optimizations enabled
Since everyone agrees that the 6800 series was made to play Doom 3, it comes as little surprise that the MSI NX6800 shines in this games. My 9800pro had trouble maintaining 30 fps (1280x1024, medium quality, 2xAA). The 6800 blazes ahead managing 60+ FPS the majority of the time (1280x1024, high quality, 2xAA) dipping into the 50s only on occasion. This is obviously cause for celebration because Doom 3 is all of a sudden a different game, and it's not on account of the visual splendor. The game is no longer as herky-jerky and monster movement is now much more fluid. I felt like the game looked and played like it was suppose to on my 9800 pro, but I was wrong. Moving to the 6800 definately brings things to a new level.
Haven't tried any other games yet, but as I do, I will continue to edit my post with new info.
Canned Benchmarks......
For those who like synthetic benchmarking, this section is for you. While I don't believe that 3DMarks tests represent 'real' gameplay, I believe there is value in using their benchmarks as a diagnostic tool. It's an especially quick and easy way to test for problems in a system. So, on with the numbers:
3DMark 2001 SE - 19065
3DMark 2003 - 10090
The 3DMark01 score surprised me. My 9800 Pro scored a 19184. 3DMark01 is an older test and doesn't show off the newer capabilities of the 6800 series and a reformat may alleviate the discrepency. For now, I'll just assume that the 9800 Pro's specs give it a slight advantage in the older benchmark. As for the 03 test, I'm pretty sure this falls right in line where it should. This score represents the card running at the overlocked frequencies.
After a day of using the card, I can honestly say that it was money well spent. If you've got an older video card in your rig and you're not looking to do any major upgrading until PCIe becomes more mainstream, then the 6800 "Vanilla" is for you. I'd say that it keeps pace nicely with most systems and doesn't cause everything else to be the bottleneck. Bottom line is that it's more than enough power 'right now' and it's not too much power either. A year down the line, the 6800 'vanilla' is likely to be severely handicapped by it's 12 pipes and 128 MB of DDR. The caveat to that is the eventual upgrade. If you plan on updgrading sometime next year, then the 6800 is a nice "low(er) cost" solution that should get you from here to there with relative ease without wasting too much money in the process.
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Please post them.
The solution? I initially preordered an eVGA 6800 Ultra. The buyers remorse was too much, however, and I cancelled my preorder a few days before it would've shipped. As painful as that was, I couldn't bear to spend $500 on a video card that I won't even be able to use on my system in another year. Based on the results and user opinions as well as my budget constraints, I purchased the MSI NX6800 which is their take on the "vanilla" 6800 card. I purchased the card from NewEgg for $290. Much easier on the wallet. The is the first "bang for the buck" card I've purchased since my original TNT and I've gotta say, it feels good. My upgrade progression looks a little something like this:
TNT--> GeForce DDR --> GeForce 3 --> GeForce Ti4600 --> 9800Pro --> 6800
The MSI card appealed to me because of the bundle, cooling solution, and overall image of the company. The game comes with an insane 17 games and a few applications. Granted, most of the games suck and people don't usually buy a video card just to get the games, but it's still nice to see a manufacturer put some value-added material with the card. At a $290 pricepoint which is still under the MSRP, why not buy a card that has a little extra?
As I mentioned, the cooling was also another selling point. The MSI card comes equipped with a solid copper heatsink with speed-controllable fan that reminds me of the 9800XT cooling. The fan has a speed slider that adjusts from 2800 - 4000 RPMS (30-39dBA respectively). At high speed, the card is audible over the CPU fan, but not so much with the case closed. Based on other posts, I'd say that the MSI 6800 runs slightly cooler than other branded cards using the reference cooling.
At stock speeds, the MSI NX6800 runs at around 51 C idle. This rises to a little of the 60 C mark after about 20 minutes of Doom 3. I have the fan speed set to the max speed.
After installing coolbits2, I detected my optimal frequencies as 381/811 (stock is 325/700). At these speeds, the cards runs at about 55 C idle and doesn't rise above 67 after another 20 minutes of Doom 3 goodness. I'd consider this a fairly nice overclock, especially without having to do anything to the card or modify the cooling in any way.
Real-World Gameplay.....
65.62 Beta ForceWare
High-Quality Image set via ForceWare, no optimizations enabled
Since everyone agrees that the 6800 series was made to play Doom 3, it comes as little surprise that the MSI NX6800 shines in this games. My 9800pro had trouble maintaining 30 fps (1280x1024, medium quality, 2xAA). The 6800 blazes ahead managing 60+ FPS the majority of the time (1280x1024, high quality, 2xAA) dipping into the 50s only on occasion. This is obviously cause for celebration because Doom 3 is all of a sudden a different game, and it's not on account of the visual splendor. The game is no longer as herky-jerky and monster movement is now much more fluid. I felt like the game looked and played like it was suppose to on my 9800 pro, but I was wrong. Moving to the 6800 definately brings things to a new level.
Haven't tried any other games yet, but as I do, I will continue to edit my post with new info.
Canned Benchmarks......
For those who like synthetic benchmarking, this section is for you. While I don't believe that 3DMarks tests represent 'real' gameplay, I believe there is value in using their benchmarks as a diagnostic tool. It's an especially quick and easy way to test for problems in a system. So, on with the numbers:
3DMark 2001 SE - 19065
3DMark 2003 - 10090
The 3DMark01 score surprised me. My 9800 Pro scored a 19184. 3DMark01 is an older test and doesn't show off the newer capabilities of the 6800 series and a reformat may alleviate the discrepency. For now, I'll just assume that the 9800 Pro's specs give it a slight advantage in the older benchmark. As for the 03 test, I'm pretty sure this falls right in line where it should. This score represents the card running at the overlocked frequencies.
After a day of using the card, I can honestly say that it was money well spent. If you've got an older video card in your rig and you're not looking to do any major upgrading until PCIe becomes more mainstream, then the 6800 "Vanilla" is for you. I'd say that it keeps pace nicely with most systems and doesn't cause everything else to be the bottleneck. Bottom line is that it's more than enough power 'right now' and it's not too much power either. A year down the line, the 6800 'vanilla' is likely to be severely handicapped by it's 12 pipes and 128 MB of DDR. The caveat to that is the eventual upgrade. If you plan on updgrading sometime next year, then the 6800 is a nice "low(er) cost" solution that should get you from here to there with relative ease without wasting too much money in the process.
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Please post them.
we need more threads like these!