6800NU first impressions

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

I have a buddy at nVidia

Well that certainly explains a lot.

Err, what does it explain? How I went from a faster GF1 to a MAXX? How I went from a faster GF2 to a Radeon 32 DDR? How I went from a faster GF3 to a 8500? How I went from a faster TNT to a Rage 32? Why I've used 9700P/9800Ps for 16 of the last 20 months?

You see conspiracy everywhere BFG. I have a friend that can and has given me good deals on Ford cars and trucks, but I drive a Chevy Silverado these days. (and I loved my F250 that I had up till last year)

This only "explains a lot" to you because you want to see me as biased, rather than a guy who just likes to try all cards and doesn't see small differences to be as significant as you do.

The only thing that would bias me toward a company is employment, and there aren't many nVidia offices here in WI....
The 6800s are just more interesting cards at this point in time, my 9700P/9800P showed me all I need to see of R300 tech.

BTW- the 5800U is the only card I literally felt sad taking out of my pc. It's just a lot cooler of a card than most, sort of like a company produced extreme OCing experiment.

 

[rbV5]

rather than a guy who just likes to try all cards and doesn't see small differences to be as significant as you do.

Speaking of trying...did you get a chance to download and run any of those WMV HD videos?

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: rbV5

rather than a guy who just likes to try all cards and doesn't see small differences to be as significant as you do.

Speaking of trying...did you get a chance to download and run any of those WMV HD videos?

Nope, it was my birhtday last night. Played volleyball, had guests after. Taking my four year old boating/fishing now, promise to do it by tomorrow night.

 

[Illissius]

Heh. Happy birthday. Mine's today .

 

[Robor]

Happy birthday to Illissius and (belated) happy birthday to Rollo!

 

[nRollo]

Thank you guys. :beer:

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Finally someones using a real processor in thier review and the scores show it.


Rollo what is that card exactly? 12 pipes? thanks. Looks nice and stomping my 5900..hmmm...

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Finally someones using a real processor in thier review and the scores show it.


Rollo what is that card exactly? 12 pipes? thanks. Looks nice and stomping my 5900..hmmm...

The card is 12 pipes, 335MHz core and 700MHz RAM Zebo

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
I can't wait for these things to hit mainstream. Most companies don't have a 6800nu yet. Just the Ultra. Im waiting for newegg to load up on um, hopefully get another black t-shirt.

Rollo, you have a 'friend' at nvidia, and he just now let you use a card... not much of a friend. hold'in out like that! :frown: watchin you toke swag (5800), when he's got that ooey gooey, sticky wicky. :laugh:

Hey, if the 5800U is "swag", who needs the hash oil?

 

[JBT]

Happy B day.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: rbV5

rather than a guy who just likes to try all cards and doesn't see small differences to be as significant as you do.

Speaking of trying...did you get a chance to download and run any of those WMV HD videos?

Man did I try. I don't see what watching movie previews has to do with gaming cards, BUT:
I downloaded both versions of that Step Into Liquid. I have cable, didn't take long.
I watched them didn't see statistics view. Saw I don't have WMP9, got it, installed it, watched those dull waves again.
No stats. Looked for "Statistics View" in the Tools and Options, did not see it at all. Googled it, got a million hits and said, "Uh huh".

Unless you can tell me very succinctly how to show the statistics view, the world may never know how many frames are being dropped? (it looks like watching tv to me, but I guess it could be dropping some)

In any case, this wouldn't have been my deciding factor in a gaming card.

I'm going to install Far Cry and 3dMark now.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Waves dull????? I guess you have to surf to get it. Slater is our own home-grown legend here in Central Florida and he says it best in that flick. "Surfing is like the mob or somethin', once you're in, you're not getting out."

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Waves dull????? I guess you have to surf to get it. Slater is our own home-grown legend here in Central Florida and he says it best in that flick. "Surfing is like the mob or somethin', once you're in, you're not getting out."

I imagine it's like most sports DaPunisher- if you watched guys fishing for bass, it would probably be dull to you. To me, it sort of makes me feel like when I do it.

I've never surfed, probably never will, but it looks fun. So the only way that preview is rocking my world is if those women are nekkid...

 

[rbV5]

I watched them didn't see statistics view. Saw I don't have WMP9, got it, installed it, watched those dull waves again

In WMP from the menu at top:
View>Statistics

I understand that it isn't a deciding factor for you, otherwise you would have mentioned it. I'd like to see how it handles WMV HD playback since it is highly compressed, it requires substantial processing power to decode despite its fairly low bitrate...enough that the 1080p files will stutter on even somewhat powerful rigs at full screen. I'm interested in the DRM enabled demos, as I hear it can takes 25% of the cpu cycles just for the DRM<-- which is ridiculous IMO.

The stats will show the dropped frames even if you can't see them, so thats important for comparisons.

As far as the dull waves, I've surfed for over 2 decades in the Pacific Northwest in pretty demanding fall/winter conditions (I've never surfed without my 5mm wetsuit). If the waves are good, I probably wouldn't notice the nekkid chicks on the beach stepping over them on my way out...sad but true

 

[nRollo]

Forest ||| Trees|| Rollo
LOL at not finding that.
OK, watched it 2X at full screen, the 1080 one. Dropped 3 frames the first time, 4 the second, at about the 1:20 spot. Does this help you? It did not stutter.

My sincerest apologies to the surfers- I retract my dull waves statement if you promise not to flame Midwesterners for cow tipping.

I also just ran GLBench in response to a request at nVNews, my results:

Maximum Texture Size 4096
Maximum Viewport Dims 4096

Pixel Data Range Extension Found
Vertex Array Range Extension Found


CLEAR BUFFER Time(us) (GB/sec)
8x8 Color 1.1 0.23
256x256 Color 13.4 19.63
1280x1024 Color 247.1 21.22

8x8 Depth 1.5 0.13
256x256 Depth 6.1 31.99
1280x1024 Depth 93.0 42.29

8x8 Col&amp;Depth 2.0 0.22
256x256 Col&amp;Depth 19.0 24.18
1280x1024 Col&amp;Depth 341.2 26.89

8x8 Stencil 1.5 0.04
256x256 Stencil 4.6 14.39
1280x1024 Stencil 60.7 21.58

MATRIX Time(us)
glMatrixMode 0.01
glLoadIdentity 0.05
glTranslate 0.05
glRotate 0.30
glGetFloat 0.08
glMultMatrix 0.15
glLoadMatrix 0.10
glScale 0.05

PIXEL MB/sec
glCopyPixels 7130
glDrawPixels 831
glReadPixels 183
glReadPixels(PDR) 213

TEXIMAGE MB/sec
glTexImage2D 448
glTexSubImage2D 451
glCopyTexImage2D 8160
glCopyTexSubImage2D 8446

FILLRATE MPixels/sec
Single Texture 3788
Blended Texture 2322

VERTEX TRANSFORM MVertices/sec

450 TRI MESH
Immediate Mode 52.0
Display List 608.8
Vertex Arrays 85.2
Vertex Arrays(VAR) 492.6

6 QUAD CUBE
Immediate Mode 41.6
Display List 62.6
Vertex Arrays 73.1
Vertex Arrays(VAR) 234.7

 

[BFG10K]

The 6800s are just more interesting cards at this point in time, my 9700P/9800P showed me all I need to see of R300 tech.

Actually the 6800 is your first reasonable acquisition given that it's actually faster than what you had before.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

The 6800s are just more interesting cards at this point in time, my 9700P/9800P showed me all I need to see of R300 tech.

Actually the 6800 is your first reasonable acquisition given that it's actually faster than what you had before.

Yes it is:
3dmark03
6800NU = 8504
9800Pro = 5780

On same computer, that's a substantial increase, albeit in a synthetic benchmark.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: rbV5

I watched them didn't see statistics view. Saw I don't have WMP9, got it, installed it, watched those dull waves again

In WMP from the menu at top:
View>Statistics

I understand that it isn't a deciding factor for you, otherwise you would have mentioned it. I'd like to see how it handles WMV HD playback since it is highly compressed, it requires substantial processing power to decode despite its fairly low bitrate...enough that the 1080p files will stutter on even somewhat powerful rigs at full screen. I'm interested in the DRM enabled demos, as I hear it can takes 25% of the cpu cycles just for the DRM<-- which is ridiculous IMO.

The stats will show the dropped frames even if you can't see them, so thats important for comparisons.

As far as the dull waves, I've surfed for over 2 decades in the Pacific Northwest in pretty demanding fall/winter conditions (I've never surfed without my 5mm wetsuit). If the waves are good, I probably wouldn't notice the nekkid chicks on the beach stepping over them on my way out...sad but true

I knew I liked you Nothing but props for you bastages that brave cold water looking like the Carcharodon carcharias's favorite treat, a seal! I get to skin it almost the whole year, and most the shark bites here are actually not even sharks *another story* and usually amount to no more than some sutures and a good story to tell. The downside here is that we don't get waves consistantly throughout the year. It's Lake Placid here at the moment

Anywho, back on-topic, I ran the trailer@2x and with a A64@2.4ghz and 9800pro I dropped 24 frames with F@H running, and 10 frames with it off so I think that 6800's DVP must help. I could turn off some of the services I have running but I doubt it's going to drop to 2 frames even then.

 

[BFG10K]

On same computer, that's a substantial increase, albeit in a synthetic benchmark.

You picked 3DMark? How about a real game?

It's a shame - you were doing so well until now.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

3dmark is the only thing that the vanilla 6800 runs well enough to justify its price point. Go figure.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

On same computer, that's a substantial increase, albeit in a synthetic benchmark.

You picked 3DMark? How about a real game?

It's a shame - you were doing so well until now.

I did qualify my statement with "albeit in a synthetic benchmark?

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
3dmark is the only thing that the vanilla 6800 runs well enough to justify its price point. Go figure.

I don't know about that General. It's clearly faster than a 9800XT or 5950, and it's MSRP is less than either.

It's hard to know what the future holds for the 6800 vanilla.

It's MSRP is $100 less than the X800 Pro, so it will be always be cheaper as more vendors start getting cards.

It offers features the X800Pro doesn't have that may be useful.

You should probably be more concerned about the value of your X800XT as the patches for Far Cry and Painkiller come out, and the SM3 native games, which could well make your X800 seem like the V5 a few years ago:
Fast enough, but where are the features?

 

[GeneralGrievous]

It's clearly faster than a 9800XT or 5950, and it's MSRP is less than either.

Is it 50% faster than the 9800 Pro? 40%? Maybe 30%? Only morons and rich people bought those 2 cards you mentioned.

You should probably be more concerned about the value of your X800XT as the patches for Far Cry and Painkiller come out, and the SM3 native games, which could well make your X800 seem like the V5 a few years ago:

They could. But the 6800 already seems like the V5. For someone who tired of old tech R300 core revisions, you surely didn't tire of old tech R300 memory chips.

I believe the XT is fast enough to run any SM3 games under the SM2 path. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong, who knows.