We recently took a look at the MSI NX6800 Ultra graphics card which is based on nVidia’s top-of-the-line model of their recently released 6800 GPU. Although this card will be popular with hard core enthusiasts, it wont be affordable for everyone. Thus, nVidia will release the comparatively lower-end GeForce 6800 and GeForce 6800GT models as well. The GT version will basically be a clocked down version of the 6800 Ultra while the GeForce 6800 will have reduced pixel pipelines- from 16 to 12, feature one DVI output connecter instead of two and have 128MB of memory instead of 256MB.

nVidia sent us their GeForce 6800 reference card clocked at 325/700 which they say will be priced around $350. Along with other cards, we’ll compare this card against its main competitor- the Radeon x800 PRO which is ATI’s lowest end card in their new line-up as well. Coming back to the price, it would be interesting to see how this card compares to the high-end older generation of nVidia and ATI cards as well as they are somewhat similarly priced.

The physical differences between the ultra and this version is that this card wont take over the space of the adjacent PCI slot and only requires one power connector. We also found the noise level produced by this card to be lower than the Ultra version which is definitely a good thing. Our reference card overclocked quite well. We managed to get the memory up from 700MHz to 880MHz while the core went up from 325 to 375. This resulted in differences between 4% to 12% which is quite a reasonable performance gain. If we could figure out a hack to increase the pipelines from 12 to 16 then we would definitely have a killer card. Here are a few shots of the card followed by the testbed.

For comparison, we've chosen the MSI NX6800 Ultra, the Sapphire x800 PRO, the Gigabyte 9800XT and the Enyaah FX5900 Ultra. The drivers used to test these cards are mentioned above. For benchmarking we've selected the following applications:

Far Cry:	1024 x 768 and 1200 x 1600 resolutions at no AA, 2x AA + 4x AF and 4x AA + 8x AF
Unreal Tournament 2004:	1024 x 768 and 1200 x 1600 resolutions at no AA, 2x AA + 4x AF and 4x AA + 8x AF
Halo:	1024 x 768 and 1200 x 1600 resolutions at no AA, 2x AA + 4x AF and 4x AA + 8x AF
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness:	1024 x 768 and 1200 x 1600 resolutions at no AA, 2x AA + 4x AF and 4x AA + 8x AF
3D Mark 2001SE:	Default Settings
Aquamark3:	Default Settings
3D Mark 2003:	Fill Rates (Single/Multi Texture), Vertex Shader, Pixel Shader 2.0
SpecViewPERF 7.11:	Default Settings.

If you would like for us to add any additional benchmarking software, please email us at suggestions@tbreak.com