opinions on Leadtek 6800 Vanilla PCIe card for $170?

[discounteggroll]

hey fellas, im wondering the following:

is an OEM REFURB 6800 (vanilla, not GT, ultra, etc) PCIe card for $170 a worthwhile investment? specs are here:
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_px6800_tdh_2.html

im wondering if it's worth the extra ~$20 over a 6600GT card. its gotta 12 pixel pipeline and seems to overclock nicely, but i don't know much more about it. new they sell for around $215

can anyone help me out here? I was about to buy a 6600GT until I saw this, so what would I be better off with? any help/opinions/experiences would be greatly appreciated. thanks, Mike

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: discounteggroll
hey fellas, im wondering the following:

is an OEM REFURB 6800 (vanilla, not GT, ultra, etc) PCIe card for $170 a worthwhile investment? specs are here:
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_px6800_tdh_2.html

im wondering if it's worth the extra ~$20 over a 6600GT card. its gotta 12 pixel pipeline and seems to overclock nicely, but i don't know much more about it. new they sell for around $215

can anyone help me out here? I was about to buy a 6600GT until I saw this, so what would I be better off with? any help/opinions/experiences would be greatly appreciated. thanks, Mike

I had two of those, at stock speeds they're pretty equivalent to a 6600GT. The advantage to them would be that because you get your fillrate from 4 extra pipes rather than MHz, and your memory bandwidth from 256bit access rather than MHz, they run much cooler than 6600GTs.

Also you can increase performance significantly OCing the 6800NUs, 6600GTs are pretty maxxed out.

Note- you cannot unlock this card, the pipes aren't there. Also, in SLI they're pretty equivalent to a 6800U in some games.

 

[discounteggroll]

thanks

this review:
http://reviews.pimprig.com/video_cards/leadtek_px6800_tdh_videocard.php?page=3
compares the 6800 vanilla to the X800, and for the most part they both have their strengths and weaknesses (both stock and with mild overclocking)

all I really wanna know is, for $170, will I be happy with this card over a 6600GT and/or x800? I dont wanna drop more than $200 on a PCIe card, and I thought the 6600GT was the best bang for the buck until this came around

thanks for and and all help. Mike

 

[NokiaDude]

I had a 6800NU PCI-E with 256mb of RAM and I OC'ed the snot out of it. It did really well at 1024x768. When I got a 19" Samsung 930B, at 1280x1024, the 6800NU even at 450/900 was struggling with some games. Now with a 7800GTX, I can game at 1280x1024 with maxium IQ no problem.

 

[M0RPH]

You might want to consider one of these X800 cards, 128MB ATI OEM PCI-E for $135 shipped:

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[discounteggroll]

nokia, thanks for that insight. I believe I am going to run 1280x1024 on my 19" as well (non-DVI) so I might have to shop around for a beefier card. however, morph's links to x800's which are $50 less and brand new (compared to the 6800 refurb I was looking at) seems to be a better route. any other sugguestions?

 

[BigRedd]

OP -

Any chance you could disclose where you saw the refurb offer for $170? I checked the Leadtek website but didn't see anything there. Thanks.

 

[BigRedd]

Nevermind. I think I found it, at NewEgg. I was enticed by your phrase "OEM refurb," thinking that the card had been refurbed by Leadtek. Unfortunately, it's a typical open box "we know nothing" NewEgg refurb that happens to be an OEM part.

Caveat emptor.

 

[NokiaDude]

Originally posted by: discounteggroll
nokia, thanks for that insight. I believe I am going to run 1280x1024 on my 19" as well (non-DVI) so I might have to shop around for a beefier card. however, morph's links to x800's which are $50 less and brand new (compared to the 6800 refurb I was looking at) seems to be a better route. any other sugguestions?

the x800 is basically's ATI's version of the 6800. I'd spend the dough on an x800XL .

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude

Originally posted by: discounteggroll
nokia, thanks for that insight. I believe I am going to run 1280x1024 on my 19" as well (non-DVI) so I might have to shop around for a beefier card. however, morph's links to x800's which are $50 less and brand new (compared to the 6800 refurb I was looking at) seems to be a better route. any other sugguestions?

the x800 is basically's ATI's version of the 6800. I'd spend the dough on an x800XL .

You know, people are always recommending the higher cards without thinking about the cost/performance ratio. The cheapest X800XL is about $240 shipped. That's about 80% more than the X800 card I recommended. With the XL, he's gonna get maybe 30-40% perfomance increase over the vanilla X800. Ad the guy that started this thread was looking for a sub-$200 card. Not everyone likes to blow all their cash on high end video cards.