*DEAD* XFX GeForce 6800 XTREME 256MB AGP $90 at Buy.com

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BIGFOOTPI

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
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ah-here we go- my x700pro 128meg I had before the 6800extreme was 5fps faster in Oblivion, but slower at hi resolutions in other games due to its 128bit memory instead of 6800extremes 256bit.
So I guess the following x700pro AGP may be ok for gaming up to 1024ish res in newer games, 1280ish in older ones. But the 6800extreme would be better for people preferring higher resolutions than that in other games- but definitely avoid the 6800extreme for Oblivion.
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4448996?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
and that one has 256mb ram.
 
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LucJoe

Golden Member
Jan 19, 2001
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@ BIGFOOTPI: It sounds like you had a bad experience with a PCI-E version of this card with a certain game at a certain resolution. Perhaps it was a driver issue? I ordered this card, and coming from a Radeon 9500 non-pro, I'm sure it won't seem "slow" to me. Will update with some performance info when I get it up and running.




EDIT: Just wanted to add - the best alternative I could find in this price range for AGP was the X1600PRO from Bestbuy on Black Friday $99 with no rebates. However, with tax it would be ~$16 more than this 6800XT. All the charts I've seen show these cards as being very close performance wise. I couldn't justify a ~17% price increase and dealing with Black Friday crowds for the higher video ram, which I don't even need.
 
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BIGFOOTPI

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Mar 8, 2005
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I tried like 5 different driver sets from 2 older at the time to latest betas with the 6800extreme PCIE and made no difference in performance. Card just was very poor in Oblivion and un-inspired in everything else. Basically performed same as my x700pro except allowed me to run one or two steps up in resolution in older games like ut2004 without noticable slowdown (thanks to change from 128bit to 256bit memory). But I wasnt looking for a card that would allow me to run ut2004 at 1600res, I wanted a card that ran Oblivion faster than my x700pro and it ran 5fps SLOWER. Overlocking barely helped either. So disappointed by that card. It should have been faster. But I guess ATIs X cards shader/vertex pipelines are just better for newer DX9 games than nvidias 6series at similar, even at lower spec levels.
ps- and this was on a nforce4 motherboard and Athlon64 cpu.
 
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iseestars

Senior member
Jun 24, 2006
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strange. I have the vanilla pci-e 6800 in one of my machines and it runs Oblivion no problem. One thing you should note is that it's generally best for nvidia on older cards to use the default windows driver or whatever driver came with the card. Sometimes their newer drivers don't work so well for older cards.

btw, and by no problem, I mean no problem at 1680x1050 res
 
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BIGFOOTPI

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
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the 6800 is a better card. The 6800extreme is a 6800XT- which is lower end model. The Xtreme is just with higher ram speed than default 6800XTs.
 
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iseestars

Senior member
Jun 24, 2006
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one thing you aren't realizing is that for AGP these are all the same core NV40, or at least used to be. There is no difference between the 6800xt and the gt except pipelines and such are disabled. So depending on your card and a little luck, you may be able to unlock it to a 6800gt on this card. Now that is one thing you absolutely can't do on a x700 pro
 
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Compton

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2000
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One thing I don't understand about this card is that the memory interface is 256 bit. I thought pretty much all 6800XTs were 128 bit? And is there a significant different between a 128bit and 256bit 6800XT? Or is the GPU the limiting factor?
 
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BIGFOOTPI

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: iseestars
one thing you aren't realizing is that for AGP these are all the same core NV40, or at least used to be. There is no difference between the 6800xt and the gt except pipelines and such are disabled. So depending on your card and a little luck, you may be able to unlock it to a 6800gt on this card. Now that is one thing you absolutely can't do on a x700 pro
Click to expand...

AH- I bet the AGP ones are better than the PCI-E ones, cuz the PCIE ones are the new unlockable cores for a while...
so maybe the AGP ones are better. Good luck.
 
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BIGFOOTPI

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: Compton
One thing I don't understand about this card is that the memory interface is 256 bit. I thought pretty much all 6800XTs were 128 bit? And is there a significant different between a 128bit and 256bit 6800XT? Or is the GPU the limiting factor?
Click to expand...

I could never get a read on my card. Read as 0bit in the apps I tried to read it with, but I chocked it up to the fact the newer 6800XTs use the newer unlockable cores that werent recognized properly yet in the apps out at the time. but who knows- Im just glad they waived the restock fee when I returned it.
 
mindless1

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,682
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X1600 is significantly slower card, it just happens that oblivion is badly designed and runs better on newer ATI architecture (in budget cards). Most newer cards in this price range are significantly slower too, so a benchmark might show similar, even higher performance at newer games, these benches fail to show what the important factor is- minimal framerates, and how these cards would compare if enough eyecandy were disabled to make minimum framerate acceptible.

In other words, forget benchmarks that show higher resolution and max eyecandy on newer games, that's not what you'll want to use on a $100 card looking forward in time.

6800XT is not all NV40 now, some have not been able to unlock the pipes. Even so, it's been reported several times that they o'c to around 430 Core / 1.2GHz memory, or higher, with most of that being practically a given and that or higher frequency, likely.

It is a fairly power hungry and larger card (length), if you have what you deem a marginally sufficient PSU it could be an added cost.

If only there were better odds of unlocking these to 12-16 pipes, it'd be a great overclocker's budget upgrade. As it is, on average it outperforms other $90 cards but as always, game demands keep growing, it's not a long term solution.
 
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BIGFOOTPI

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: mindless1
X1600 is significantly slower card...
Click to expand...


Yes-the plain x1600 DDR2 and x1600pro DDR2 are slow. But the PCI-E one I have (and linked to) is a special "overclocked edition" x1600PRO that has DDR3 and basically runs at the x1600xt speeds. Trust me when I say they are NOT in the same league ;).
ps- its just too bad they didn't make an AGP one...
 
mindless1

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,682
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Originally posted by: BIGFOOTPI
Originally posted by: mindless1
X1600 is significantly slower card...
Click to expand...


Yes-the plain x1600 DDR2 and x1600pro DDR2 are slow. But the PCI-E one I have (and linked to) is a special "overclocked edition" x1600PRO that has DDR3 and basically runs at the x1600xt speeds. Trust me when I say they are NOT in the same league ;).
ps- its just too bad they didn't make an AGP one...
Click to expand...

There are different speeds of 6800XT too, and oblivion is a special exception, not typical performance on most games.

X1600Pro and X1650 are not very powerful, most people would be better off with X800GTO/850 because SM3 isn't so useful when future games require more raw power than X1600 series can provide.
 
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LucJoe

Golden Member
Jan 19, 2001
1,295
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Originally posted by: mindless1
X1600 is significantly slower card, it just happens that oblivion is badly designed and runs better on newer ATI architecture (in budget cards). Most newer cards in this price range are significantly slower too, so a benchmark might show similar, even higher performance at newer games, these benches fail to show what the important factor is- minimal framerates, and how these cards would compare if enough eyecandy were disabled to make minimum framerate acceptible.

In other words, forget benchmarks that show higher resolution and max eyecandy on newer games, that's not what you'll want to use on a $100 card looking forward in time.

6800XT is not all NV40 now, some have not been able to unlock the pipes. Even so, it's been reported several times that they o'c to around 430 Core / 1.2GHz memory, or higher, with most of that being practically a given and that or higher frequency, likely.

It is a fairly power hungry and larger card (length), if you have what you deem a marginally sufficient PSU it could be an added cost.

If only there were better odds of unlocking these to 12-16 pipes, it'd be a great overclocker's budget upgrade. As it is, on average it outperforms other $90 cards but as always, game demands keep growing, it's not a long term solution.
Click to expand...


Exactly what I wanted to hear! Except for the PSU part...

I'll be running it on an Antec SL350, hopefully it works.


update! Ordered yesterday around 1:30PM CST and it shipped same day! This is much better than my recent experience with buy.com.
 
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