Gainward 6800GT available

[mb]

Not cheap, but in stock.

 

[DoobieOnline]

I hope someone does a review soon. It will be very interesting to see what OC'ing and temps are like with the all-copper cooling and dual fans.

doobie

 

[GeneralGrievous]

It's nice to see at least one vendor is putting something better than these cheap heatsinks on their GT. Too bad they charge a price premium.

 

[hokahknow]

I just ordered one of the Gainward Golden Sample 6800GT for $399 from Xtremegear. It has an ETA of 7/26 Monday. I figure if Monarch got some now, maybe these guys really will have them in on Monday. Plus it was $399 which is a little more reasonable.

If they actually ship next week I will post. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[MemberSince97]

$100.00 price premium for pure copper over PNY's 330.00 dollar GT , meh.. Aftermarket cooling solutions are on thier way. Just an observation not a suggestion....

 

[ponyo]

I think stock reference 6800 GT cooler is excellent. Temps drop very quick from load to idle. I don't think idle of 52 C is bad at all.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

I think stock reference 6800 GT cooler is excellent. Temps drop very quick from load to idle. I don't think idle of 52 C is bad at all.

Excellent is the last word I'd use to describe this cooler. Aren't you getting load temps of mid 80's C? At least I am. It might be fancier and larger than last generation coolers, but it still isn't adequate enough for the card. Even if they are designed around high temps, a lot of users aren't especially happy about it.

I don't understand why they just didn't slap the Ultra cooler on a GT. They can't cost that much more to make (maybe $1-2 at most, considering VGA silencers sell for as low as $7), and the 2 slot cooler isn't an issue for the majority of users. It sucks that Nvidia and its board makers had to be so cheap. I guess the have to sell the Ultra somehow.

 

[BJKNR2004]

I dont think they are being cheap, they purposley do that stuff so people have a reason to buy the more expensive cards. Think about it. If they got the temps down another 5-10 degrees celsius by adding the Ultra cooler, and they overclocked very well to Ultra clocks and beyond, who the heck would buy the Ultra. Atleast thats what I think, I could be wrong though.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Ultra has takes up an extra pci slot that's probably why they didn't use it on the gt

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

I think stock reference 6800 GT cooler is excellent. Temps drop very quick from load to idle. I don't think idle of 52 C is bad at all.

Excellent is the last word I'd use to describe this cooler. Aren't you getting load temps of mid 80's C? At least I am. It might be fancier and larger than last generation coolers, but it still isn't adequate enough for the card. Even if they are designed around high temps, a lot of users aren't especially happy about it.

I don't understand why they just didn't slap the Ultra cooler on a GT. They can't cost that much more to make (maybe $1-2 at most, considering VGA silencers sell for as low as $7), and the 2 slot cooler isn't an issue for the majority of users. It sucks that Nvidia and its board makers had to be so cheap. I guess the have to sell the Ultra somehow.

I don't really know what max load is but I go by games I play. When I play FarCry, my max temp is usually around 74 C. I know this because I run dual monitors so I can monitor the temps on the other monitor while I play. When loading level, it quickly drops down to mid 60s. That's fast heat dissipation. It takes like 30 seconds to go from 74C to my idle temp of 52-53C when I exit a game. I say that's effective cooling.

EDIT: I just ran 3DMark03 again and checked the temps. Max temp reached was 76C for like a second. During loading screen between test, temp dropped again into mid 60s. You're telling me that's not good cooling design when temps drop that quick from load to idle? If anything, stock reference 6800 GT cooler is too good.

 

[betterkarma4519]

Hey membersince97,
I was wondering where you found (hopefully can still find) a PNY 6800GT for $330?....I ordered one from provantage.com for around that price...but they jacked it up to $440 before it even shipped and I was forced to cancel. Do you know of a place I can get a sub $350 6800GT? Thanks.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

You're telling me that's not good cooling design when temps drop that quick from load to idle?

I'm more worried about overheating the card for an extended period of time and frying it. I don't know why your temps are so low compared to the rest of us, have you added extra fans or modified it in some way?

It's great that the cooler dissipates heat quickly, but it's not keeping temps down and all that heat is going right into the case. The Ultra cooler would help greatly. How long will it be until someone fries their card after 12 straight hours of gaming and 90 C temps?

 

[oldfart]

The Arctic Cooling HS/Fans cant come quick enough. Maybe a few more weeks from what I hear.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

You're telling me that's not good cooling design when temps drop that quick from load to idle?

I'm more worried about overheating the card for an extended period of time and frying it. I don't know why your temps are so low compared to the rest of us, have you added extra fans or modified it in some way?

It's great that the cooler dissipates heat quickly, but it's not keeping temps down and all that heat is going right into the case. The Ultra cooler would help greatly. How long will it be until someone fries their card after 12 straight hours of gaming and 90 C temps?

The ultra sink sux as well, it dumps all it's heat back into the case. I'll be waiting for the arctic cooling solution myself.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

You're telling me that's not good cooling design when temps drop that quick from load to idle?

I'm more worried about overheating the card for an extended period of time and frying it. I don't know why your temps are so low compared to the rest of us, have you added extra fans or modified it in some way?

It's great that the cooler dissipates heat quickly, but it's not keeping temps down and all that heat is going right into the case. The Ultra cooler would help greatly. How long will it be until someone fries their card after 12 straight hours of gaming and 90 C temps?

My card is stock BFG and haven't been modded in any way. My Antec full tower 1080AMG case does have excellent case cooling and airflow though and my computer is in the basement where it's cool.

These cores are rated at pretty high temps so I wouldn't be worried. Even if you game 12 straight hours, you won't have any problems because as these cooler dissipates heat so quickly that temps drop really quick during any pauses, level loading, or low utilitization periods. When running 3DMark03, temps varied 10-15 C depending on the action on the screen. If you have good case cooling, you shouldn't have to worry about heat from the card being dumped into the case. That's what case fans are for.

 

[hokahknow]

Well I feel if you can get the Gainward at $400 with the Copper cooling, plus the golden sample version is pre-overclocked like the BFG. I would think it would perform somewhat better than the stock cards. The PNY are even hard to find in stock now under $400.


Problem is the Gainward doesn't bundle Farcry in with it. Anyone know where I can get that cheap??

 

[Fuchs]

s u p r n o v a

 

[MangoTBG]

Originally posted by: Fuchs
s u p r n o v a

Lol. As funny as I think that is, most people here don't find pirating funny. Sorry.

 

[hokahknow]

Oh well I just got the email that the Gainward won't be ready to ship for another week

I think I will just grin and bear it so they hold my place in line.

I prefer a retail version of Farcry

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Naustica
I think stock reference 6800 GT cooler is excellent. Temps drop very quick from load to idle. I don't think idle of 52 C is bad at all.

I agree. My card never hits higher than 61c after hours of hard gaming@431/1100 despite my computer room getting a bit warm this time of year. It's single slot, single molex, and can't be heard over my CPU fan. I paid $317.99 for a 6800U shipped to my door for all intents and purposes. I'll be sticking with the stock cooler as I can't see anything short of water making a big enough difference to care about, particularly given I am not into silent computing at all.

 

[obeseotron]

I have a Gainward 6800GT from ZZF, just got it up and running an hour ago, but it seems like the custom cooler is doing the trick. 434/1.16 autodetected and stable.