6600GT vs 6800NU vs 6800GT

[Ronin13]

I'm bulding a new PC and have to decide on which PCI-e card to get.

I've decided to go with Leadtek and these are the 3 cards I've narroved it down to:

WinFast PX6600 GT TDH Extreme

WinFast PX6800 TDH

WinFast PX6800 GT TDH

For the following, I'll list prices in my local currency, as they are some nice, round and easily comparable numbers:

The 6600GT has 128MB DDR3 RAM. It costs 1500 Dkr.

The 6800 has 256MB RAM (not DDR3). It costs 2000 DKr.

The 6800GT has 256 MB DDR3 RAM. It costs 3000 DKr.

(Obviously, there are other differences, like the clock speed and number of Pixels per clock. I'm listing the RAM differences, as Leadtek also have a 6800 model with 128 MB DDR3 RAM available here in Denmark. Here, it's more expensive than the 256 MB version. Strangely, I can't find it on their site.)

So, which of the 3 cards would give me the most bang for my buck?

The 6600GT seems like a good buy in it's price range, but won't the 6800 that cost 33% more, often be at least 33% faster?

As for the 6800, my own thoughts are that it has the best price/performance ratio.

Doubtless, the 6800GT is the better card, but will it consistently be 50% faster than the 6800?

(Games will propably not be played at resolutions higher than 1280x960.)

 

[cbehnken]

WinFast PX6800 TDH

I have one and it's a great balance of price/performance. Games that have large textures (Doom3/EQ2/etc) benefit a lot from the 256 MB. At your res the non GT 6800 will play almost everything at very comfortable speeds. I run Doom3 at 1600x1200 and get between 40 and 60 FPS using FRAPS.

 

[christopherzombie]

As an overclocker, I would go with the 6800nu. It's only clocked at 325/600, but it'll overclock to at least 400+/800+. The 6600gt is a great budget card, but it still only has 128MB of 128bit RAM with 8 pixel pipes. 256MB of 256bit RAM with 12+ pipes is what you want. If you want to be "future proof" get a 6800 series card.

Here are some links:
Leadtek PX6800NU @ 420/826
Leadtek PX6600GT
Leadtek PX6800GT

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: christopherzombie
As an overclocker, I would go with the 6800nu. It's only clocked at 325/600, but it'll overclock to at least 400+/800+. And you may even be able to unlock all 16 pixel pipelines. The 6600gt is a great budget card, but it still only has 128MB of 128bit RAM with 8 pixel pipes. 256MB of 256bit RAM with 12+ pipes is what you want. If you want to be "future proof" get a 6800 series card.

Here are some links:
Leadtek PX6800NU @ 420/826
Leadtek PX6600GT
Leadtek PX6800GT

The PCI-E cards will not unlock. They physically don't have the extra pipes.

 

[christopherzombie]

The PCI-E cards will not unlock. They physically don't have the extra pipes.[/quote]

Thanks for the info. I'd still get the PX6800nu.

 

[Ronin13]

Thanks for your replies!

christopherzombie, thanks for your links (even though I'd already seen all of them). In return, let me give you a link of my own (you may know it already) :

8dimensional - I actually use this as my start page, as it daily gives me a quick overview over both hardware and game reviews.

cbehnken, you say you have (and are happy with) the WinFast PX6800 TDH. It doesn't have the large copper cooler that many other Leadtek cards have, right? How noisy is the cooler?

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: Ronin13
Thanks for your replies!

christopherzombie, thanks for your links (even though I'd already seen all of them). In return, let me give you a link of my own (you may know it already) :

8dimensional - I actually use this as my start page, as it daily gives me a quick overview over both hardware and game reviews.

cbehnken, you say you have (and are happy with) the WinFast PX6800 TDH. It doesn't have the large copper cooler that many other Leadtek cards have, right? How noisy is the cooler?

It's about like any other 6800. Take an 80 MM case fan running about 3000 RPM and that's the noise it makes. You can run experttool though and it will slow the fan down when you aren't in 3d mode. The card is barely noticeable then.

 

[Matthias99]

(Games will propably not be played at resolutions higher than 1280x960.)

If you're not planning on running at higher than 1280x960, then I'd stick with the 6600GT. The 6800NU is not going to be 33% faster at those settings; they start to pull apart at 1600x1200 with AA/AF on, or at 1280x1024 with everything cranked all the way up.

Also, that particular 6800NU its memory at 300Mhz, rather than the more standard 350Mhz. It will perform closer to a 6600GT than a "standard" 6800NU would. Of course, if you're overclocking, it may end up being significantly faster (but as always, YMMV, and no warranty).

 

[xtknight]

I got my Leadtek WinFast PX6800 TDH up to 450/850 MHz stable...no extra cooling. Stock is 325/600 MHz. Great card. Same chip that powers the Go6800 Ultra (smaller process). As you can see even though christopherzombie's machine has a (overclocked) 6800U I only have the overclocked 6800NU ($200 cheaper) but the 3Dmark05 scores are close. Mine was 5201 and his was 5600. My CPU was 200MHz faster though, so that matters.

Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 256MB DDR, 256-Bit, HDTV-Out/ DVI, PCI-Express, Model "PX6800TDH-256MB" -RETAIL(SLI support)

Highly overclocked, the 6800NU is equivalent to a 6800GT. It runs cool at 42C idle and 65C load also (overclocked). Stock is something like 35C idle and 55C load. I haven't even tried pushing my card farther yet. I don't know the breaking point of it is but I don't want to find out the hard way, either. This card also has all the PureVideo features (whenever they're available) unlike the bridged 6800GT/Ultra, and is cheaper, so it's a really good deal. But no, you can't unlock pipelines unfortunately because this is not a bridged NV40 chip, it's a brand new NV41 that only has 12 pipelines versus the GT/Ultra's 16. The NV42 is an NV41 on a 110nm process. I wish nVidia would mount that on a PCB for a super 6800NU card. FYI, that notebook chip (Go6800U) beats the desktop 6800U sometimes!

If you'd like, I'll do some benchmarks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't confirm the 1600x1200 benchmark because I used virtual resolution to fake the card into running it. But it looks about right...

Doom3 "Quality" Mipmap Benchmarks with Athlon 64 3500+ and Leadtek 6800NU 450/850 MHz

ForceWare Settings: Mipmap setting: "Quality"
Doom3 Settings: "High Quality", everything under Advanced enabled (specular lighting, etc.)

timedemo demo1 usecache
1280x1024
Doom3 Setting: 4xAA, ForceWare Setting: App Controlled AF (not sure)
31.5 FPS

timedemo demo1 usecache
1600x1200
Doom3 Setting: 0xAA, ForceWare Setting: App Controlled AF (not sure)
40.1 FPS

timedemo demo1 usecache
1280x1024
ForceWare Setting: 8xS AA, 16x AF
20.1 FPS

Not bad considering the settings...my Radeon 9500 PRO can barely run Medium at 640x480.
Doom3 multiplayer on the 6800NU is pretty comfortable at 1024x768 Ultra settings, and 8xS 16xAF high quality mipmaps, averaging 45 FPS.

Here's some screenshots of Doom3 DM and HL2 DM at 1024x768, 8xS AA, 16x AF (Doom3) and 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16x AF (HL2).

D3: http://tinypic.com/2i3dhe
HL2: http://tinypic.com/2i3deb

 

[Ronin13]

xtknight, thanks for taking the time to run those benchmarks and taking those screenshots; they look pretty good!

For those of you with the Leadtek WinFast PX6800 TDH I have another question which I posted in General Hardware. I would really appreciate it if you could swing by this thread and give me your input.

Thanks!

 

[nRollo]

I ran these benches with two Leadtek 6800NUs in SLI, I really like those cards as a bang for buck alternative.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1540650&enterthread=y

 

[ssvegeta1010]

6800NU

 

[andy nowotny]

of course the 6800GT, 16 pixel pipelines, and you can oc to 6800u

 

[Ronin13]

Originally posted by: andy nowotny
of course the 6800GT, 16 pixel pipelines, and you can oc to 6800u

What do you mean by 'of course'?

That the GT of course is the faster card? (There was never really any question about that.)

Or that it of course will give me the most bang for my buck? (Which was my actual question.)

If it's your belief that the 6800GT consistently will perform 50% better than a 6800NU in resolutions of 1280x960 and below, I'd like to see the tests to back that up, if it's no bother.

Thanks for your help!

(Btw, I won't be OC'ing.)

 

[xtknight]

No, it's not even close to 50% more. My overclocked 6800NU beats a stock 6800GT in 3DMark05 by almost 300 (as seen from Rollo's benchmarks). I'm not sure about stock speeds. If you want me to benchmark anything, I'll be glad to do it (either at stock or overclocked).

 

[Ronin13]

Originally posted by: xtknight
No, it's not even close to 50% more. My overclocked 6800NU beats a stock 6800GT in 3DMark05 by almost 300 (as seen from Rollo's benchmarks). I'm not sure about stock speeds. If you want me to benchmark anything, I'll be glad to do it (either at stock or overclocked).

That's very kind of you, but I'm sure it won't be necessary as I'm pretty set on the 6800NU.

But let me ask you something else (taking my thread off-topic - I hope no one minds. If someone does, let me know and I'll start a new thread).

I can see you have the Maxtor Diamond Max 10 drive. Are you satisfied with that choice? How are the noise levels? I'm planning on getting the 200GB version, which can be had with either 8 or 16MB buffer. Do you believe that the 16MB version is worth a 33% price increase?

And finally, I'd love your input in this thread.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Ronin13

Originally posted by: xtknight
No, it's not even close to 50% more. My overclocked 6800NU beats a stock 6800GT in 3DMark05 by almost 300 (as seen from Rollo's benchmarks). I'm not sure about stock speeds. If you want me to benchmark anything, I'll be glad to do it (either at stock or overclocked).

That's very kind of you, but I'm sure it won't be necessary as I'm pretty set on the 6800NU.

But let me ask you something else (taking my thread off-topic - I hope no one minds. If someone does, let me know and I'll start a new thread).

I can see you have the Maxtor Diamond Max 10 drive. Are you satisfied with that choice? How are the noise levels? I'm planning on getting the 200GB version, which can be had with either 8 or 16MB buffer. Do you believe that the 16MB version is worth a 33% price increase?

And finally, I'd love your input in this thread.

Thanks for all your help!

Well, I'm bored and I have nothing else to do...

I love this drive...MaximumPC says it closely rivals the Raptor. It's very quiet, but I've never been bothered much by noise, so I'm not sure if that's saying anything. I can barely hear it access. Nothing like the drives I used to have 5 years ago that's for sure. I love the huge 16MB buffer on my 250GB. Whenever I do something, then do it again later it's almost 3 times as fast. That goes for almost any application. I'd pay extra. I got the more expensive 250GB 16MB buffer because at the time the 200GB was only available in 8MB buffer.

 

[gobucks]

there is no way a 6800NU is 33% faster than a 6600GT. MAYBE 10% faster. In fact, the 6600GT has a higher pixel fillrate (500MHz x 8 pipes versus 325MHz x 12 pipes), and the only thing that is lower is the memory bandwidth.

And the 6800NU overclocked isn't even close to competitive until you unlock the extra 4 pipelines, which is a gamble on AGP and physically impossible to do on PCIe (they simply don't exist), and even then, your memory bandwidth is way lower than the 6800GT or Ultra (DDR vs. GDDR3), limiting high end performance.

The 6800GT is literally twice the speed of the 6600GT, though. Therefore, they both have the same price/performance value, it just depends on whether you want to spend $200 or $400. And if your budget is $300, then make a beeline for the X800XL, which has 6800GT performance for $300. This card is better than the 6800NU even when unlocked/overclocked, for the same price.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: gobucks
there is no way a 6800NU is 33% faster than a 6600GT. MAYBE 10% faster. In fact, the 6600GT has a higher pixel fillrate (500MHz x 8 pipes versus 325MHz x 12 pipes), and the only thing that is lower is the memory bandwidth.

Really?
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2196&p=6
39 vs 59fps at 16X12 0X0X, that's more like 50% faster. And the 6600GTs fillrate "advantage" 4000 vs 3900 pixels/sec, is pretty negligible, don't you think?

And the 6800NU overclocked isn't even close to competitive until you unlock the extra 4 pipelines, which is a gamble on AGP and physically impossible to do on PCIe (they simply don't exist), and even then, your memory bandwidth is way lower than the 6800GT or Ultra (DDR vs. GDDR3), limiting high end performance.

Competitive with what? The $100 more costly 6800GT? Well, no, but usually $100 and stepping up a bracket gets you some performance.

The 6800GT is literally twice the speed of the 6600GT, though. Therefore, they both have the same price/performance value, it just depends on whether you want to spend $200 or $400. And if your budget is $300, then make a beeline for the X800XL, which has 6800GT performance for $300. This card is better than the 6800NU even when unlocked/overclocked, for the same price.

The X800XL is a a great deal, he didn't ask about ATI though.