Geforce 6800LE?

[Maximilian]

1. I got a 9800 PRO now, is it worth upgrading? btw i plan to unlock and make it a 6800GT/Ultra if possible, if not ill send it back.

2. What are my chances of getting one that will unlock?

3. Is there a 256MB version of this card? I cant seem to find one.

 

[Gamingphreek]

1. Yes you will notice a difference. However, it probably isn't worth buying.

2. Not likely nowadays. Nvidia switch to a new revision for those chips, and it all but prevents any unlocking. Some of the AGP cards still might have the old core though.

3. Not of the LE. Of the NU i believe Asus and a few others sell 256mb versions. But they aren't really usefull... to slow to effectively and efficiently address all that memory.

I would hold off until the next generation cards arrive (Mid-Range that is).

-Kevin

 

[Maximilian]

Thanks.

 

[BrokenArrow]

1. If it unlocks, then yes its probably worth upgrading (IMHO), given its low price. However, if you expect to reach 6800gt/ultra performance levels then no. It will beat a stock 6800 vanilla, probably end up between the 6800nu and 6800gt, but you will likely never reach gt/ultra performance levels.

2. I'm not sure where Gamingphreek got his info, but I have read there is a high success rate of getting these cards to unlock at least 1 quad and 1 shader. I personally purchased one and have it unlocked to 16/5 (the last shader causes artifacts) and it works very well. I haven't agressively overclocked it, currently running 370/770, but thats up from 300/700 and I get 3d03 score > 10K and 3d05 score > 4k. I'm running an athlon xp-m 2400 @ 2.2ghz, 1gig pc3200.

3. No, there is no 256mb version that I have ever seen/heard of.

Hope this info helps.

 

[Maximilian]

Well, ill keep it in mind for a future upgrade as my 9800 PRO wont cut it forever. Ive decided to put my funds into building a retro beast of a comp!

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: BrokenArrow
1. If it unlocks, then yes its probably worth upgrading (IMHO), given its low price. However, if you expect to reach 6800gt/ultra performance levels then no. It will beat a stock 6800 vanilla, probably end up between the 6800nu and 6800gt, but you will likely never reach gt/ultra performance levels.

2. I'm not sure where Gamingphreek got his info, but I have read there is a high success rate of getting these cards to unlock at least 1 quad and 1 shader. I personally purchased one and have it unlocked to 16/5 (the last shader causes artifacts) and it works very well. I haven't agressively overclocked it, currently running 370/770, but thats up from 300/700 and I get 3d03 score > 10K and 3d05 score > 4k. I'm running an athlon xp-m 2400 @ 2.2ghz, 1gig pc3200.

3. No, there is no 256mb version that I have ever seen/heard of.

Hope this info helps.

This will not beat a stock 6800NU! That was one card way back when which had a particularly high success rate, and that had GDDR3 memory. The standard 6800LE's that are selling right now a merely lower clocked 6800NU's with GDDR.

The success rate isn't nearly as high as it used to be. The new batch of NV41's do not unlock nearly as much as the older ones do. Fortunately these are most prevalent on the PCI-E models, some AGP models have the older revision.

1 quad and 1 shader?? Ok first of all there is only one quad (A group of Pixel Pipelines) to unlock. Second of all the second thing you can unlock is IIRC 2 Vertex Pipelines. Most only have success with 1 though. It makes a noticable difference but you are still held back by the fact that it is running GDDR1 instead of higher clocked GDDR3 memory.

As for the 256mb version that is no longer sold in the LE flavors. It is only sold in the higher clocked NU (6800) flavor. Link

Your 9800Pro is fine. I wouldn't consider anything less than X800XL 6800GT caliber. While the lower cards are still very noticably faster, you might as well hold off until ATI and Nvidia come out with their next generation mid-range cards.

-Kevin

 

[BrokenArrow]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: BrokenArrow
1. If it unlocks, then yes its probably worth upgrading (IMHO), given its low price. However, if you expect to reach 6800gt/ultra performance levels then no. It will beat a stock 6800 vanilla, probably end up between the 6800nu and 6800gt, but you will likely never reach gt/ultra performance levels.

2. I'm not sure where Gamingphreek got his info, but I have read there is a high success rate of getting these cards to unlock at least 1 quad and 1 shader. I personally purchased one and have it unlocked to 16/5 (the last shader causes artifacts) and it works very well. I haven't agressively overclocked it, currently running 370/770, but thats up from 300/700 and I get 3d03 score > 10K and 3d05 score > 4k. I'm running an athlon xp-m 2400 @ 2.2ghz, 1gig pc3200.

3. No, there is no AGP 256mb version that I have ever seen/heard of.

Hope this info helps.

This will not beat a stock 6800NU! That was one card way back when which had a particularly high success rate, and that had GDDR3 memory. The standard 6800LE's that are selling right now a merely lower clocked 6800NU's with GDDR.

The success rate isn't nearly as high as it used to be. The new batch of NV41's do not unlock nearly as much as the older ones do. Fortunately these are most prevalent on the PCI-E models, some AGP models have the older revision.

1 quad and 1 shader?? Ok first of all there is only one quad (A group of Pixel Pipelines) to unlock. Second of all the second thing you can unlock is IIRC 2 Vertex Pipelines. Most only have success with 1 though. It makes a noticable difference but you are still held back by the fact that it is running GDDR1 instead of higher clocked GDDR3 memory.

As for the 256mb version that is no longer sold in the LE flavors. It is only sold in the higher clocked NU (6800) flavor. Link

Your 9800Pro is fine. I wouldn't consider anything less than X800XL 6800GT caliber. While the lower cards are still very noticably faster, you might as well hold off until ATI and Nvidia come out with their next generation mid-range cards.

-Kevin

Yes, it will beat a stock NU. IF you do not unlock the NU, and you unlock this card, this will match or beat (depending on how much it unlocks) a NU. I have used both, and so I know this. Where are you getting your info?

The NV40 chip, which is what the 6800le is based on, has 16 pixel pipelines (4 quads) and 6 vertex shader units. In the 6800le they disable 8 pixel pipelines (2 quads) and 2 vertex shader units. I was (and I can send screenshots to prove it to you) successful in unlocking all 16 pixel pipelines and 1 of the locked vertex shader units. Also, the AGP 6800NU (aka Vanilla) uses GDDR and NOT GDDR3. Once again, your information is incorrect. Do you or have you actually owned any of these cards? Please do your research before giving someone bogus information. I can backup everything I say with sources, can you?

The only thing you have right is that there are no 256mb versions of AGP 6800le cards that I am aware of. Edit: Correction for me - inno3d does make (and perhaps other manufacturers) do make PCI-E versions of 6800le cards, perhaps these use NV41 chipsets and do not have a full set of 16 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex units.

Also I agree that a 9800pro is probably viable until the next gen mid range cards come out, but you will be looking at PCI-E probably. I have not heard plans (at least not yet) of the newest cards comming in AGP flavors, but who knows.

Edit: All of my references are for AGP. Given the OPs current card, I am assuming he is also using an AGP motherboard. Please OP let us know if you are talking AGP or PCI-E. Thanks.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Good God READ WHAT I AM TYPING!!

Yes, it will beat a stock NU. IF you do not unlock the NU, and you unlock this card, this will match or beat (depending on how much it unlocks) a NU. I have used both, and so I know this. Where are you getting your info?

Well no sh!t it will. If you give a card 4 extra pipelines over another card chances are the card with the extra pipelines is going to win.

The NV40 chip, which is what the 6800le is based on, has 16 pixel pipelines (4 quads) and 6 vertex shader units. In the 6800le they disable 8 pixel pipelines (2 quads) and 2 vertex shader units. I was (and I can send screenshots to prove it to you) successful in unlocking all 16 pixel pipelines and 1 of the locked vertex shader units. Also, the AGP 6800NU (aka Vanilla) uses GDDR and NOT GDDR3. Once again, your information is incorrect. Do you or have you actually owned any of these cards? Please do your research before giving someone bogus information. I can backup everything I say with sources, can you?

It is based off of NV41, the 6800LE (Official spec not manf changed) came out after the 6800 was released in PCI-E! It is based off of the same PCB and chip that the 6800NU uses. The standard 6800LE has 12 pipes. I am aware of the Leadtek card that only has 8 Pixel Pipelines. Again read what i am typing. I said that 2 Vertex Pipelines/Units are disabled.
Where did i ever say that the 6800NU uses GDDR3. Point it out in my post where i said it. I said that one of the first 6800LE's that was released was a 12 Pipe NV40 (41 was not yet released), that was in fact using GDDR 3. There is one exception to the GDDR standard, and that was it. No where else in my post did i say that they used GDDR3.

The only thing you have right is that there are no 256mb versions of AGP 6800le cards that I am aware of. As far as I can tell, there are NO PCI-E versions of the 6800le cards. NV41 is the PCI-E replacement for NV40 but there are no 6800le cards based on this chip that I am aware of.

The LEs are merely Underclocked versions of the NV41 (6800NU) chip which has an AGP bridge chip. Additionally, at one point in time almost all 6800LE's had 12 pipes (Yet all but one still ran off of GDDR1) now however it seems that they are opting to disable another quad. Recent news now says that this should be a new chip that is lower priced. The 6800XT (if it is real) boasts the exact specs.

6800XT 8 Pixel Pipes
6800LE 12 Pixel Pipes Lower clocked than NU
6800NU 12 Pixel Pipes Higher clocked than LE
6800GT 16 Pixel Pipes GDDR3

-Kevin

 

[BrokenArrow]

Well no sh!t it will. If you give a card 4 extra pipelines over another card chances are the card with the extra pipelines is going to win.

But before you said...

This will not beat a stock 6800NU!

After I said that It would if it unlocks. Maybe you need to be the one reading what I said.

ALSO, the AGP versions of the 6800le cards are NV40, not NV41 with bridges. Therefore they have 16 pixel pipes and 6 vertex shaders. This is a card I bought recently from an online retailer NEW, not some old 'back in the day' card. Once again, AGP=NV40, PCI-E=NV41. ALL of the AGP 6800le cards come with 8 pixel pipes and 4 vertex shaders enabled. Please note everywhere I reference AGP. I do not own PCI-E, and I am making the assumption based on the OP that they are also using AGP. One would be lead to believe that if the origional post was about replacing an AGP card, then they would be asking about a new AGP card, and not PCI-E.

I did misread your initial post where I thought you were referring to the 6800 vanilla cards as having GDDR3, my bad. I concede that point.

My main points are that an AGP 6800le...
1. Has an NV40 core
2. Has 8 pixel pipes enabled, and 8 locked out
3. Has 4 vertex shaders enabled, and 2 locked out.
4. Using a program like rivatuner, it is possible to unlock these cards and if you are lucky (like I was with 16/5) have a new card that performs at a higher level than a STOCK 6800NU.

The Leadtek 6800le on newegg and the Chaintech 6800le on zipzoomfly are both AGP versions, and are based on the NV40 chips. Now if I said anything incorrect in my main points above, let me know and back it up. Once again, this covers AGP cards. If there is an NV41 with a bridge chip to make it AGP please link the info in your post. I'm not trying to get into an argument, I'm just trying to put out useful information. Thanks.

 

[Gamingphreek]

I believe that they have quit using the NV40 for the lower highend and are now using the 41... however i could be wrong.

As for your quote. I was not aware that you were referring to an unlocked 6800LE.

-Kevin

 

[gwag]

man with 34 posts is correct, man with 5949 post is incorrect.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: gwag
man with 34 posts is correct, man with 5949 post is incorrect.

Man with 335 posts is trolling.

I would hardly put one of us at correct. We both made errors in out statements and both admitted it.

-Kevin

 

[Maximilian]

Good job guys

 

[gwag]

wasn't trolling just pointing out that you were spreading misinformation.
when talking about AGP cards or the card most likely in question = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122212
BrokenArrow was spot on.

 

[Gamingphreek]

I was not spreading anymore misinformation than he was... which is none. Both of us had our own mistakes.

I even linked that card in my post up above.

Look, no disrespect intended, but you weren't in the argument to begin with. So unless you have something usefull to add other than sitting on the sidelines posting stuff like "pwned" and what not.

-Kevin