Intro / Testbed
Just a few days back, some info surfaced on a new variant of the 6800 GPU from nVidia modeled as 6800LE. Just out of luck, one of the system integrators that we know of received a sample and wanted us to test the card out. From the little information he had, the 6800LE seems to be targeted as an OEM product and will not be released through the retail channel.
The card is identical to the standard 6800 as far as looks and size are concerned, however, its slightly under-powered. With a little help from Scott Wasson at The Tech Report, we believe that the number of pixel pipelines has been reduced from 12 to 8 although we haven’t received any info from nVidia. The core has also been dropped from 325 to 320 although memory size and speed remain identical to the 6800 - 128MB/350MHz (or 700MHz DDR). We asked for a price indication and were told that the card should be about 30% less than the standard 6800 which would put it at under US$200- a very sweet spot. The following are some pictures of the card
As you can see from the first picture, the card looks identical to the standard 6800. The only difference we could spot was the sticker on the back of the card which says 6800 VE instead of just 6800. We're not sure why the sticker says VE when it really should be LE as reported by the drivers.
Older drivers did not recognize this card but the latest WHQL ones released by nVidia a day or two back worked without any problems. Lets take a look at the testbed.
| CPU: |
AMD Athlon64 3400+ CPU |
| Memory: |
2 x 512MB Corsair XMS3502 v1.1 DDR-433 Memory Module |
| Motherboard: |
Gigabyte K8VNXP (K8T800 Chipset) Motherboard |
| Optical/Hard Drives: |
ASUS 52X CDRW, Western Digital 10,000RPM 36GB Raptor Serial-ATA |
| Monitor: |
Relisys 19" Monitor |
| Operating System: |
Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboard Drivers: |
VIA Hyperion |
| VGA Drivers: |
ATI Catalyst 4.4 (9800XT), ATI Catalyst 4.6 (x800), Forceware 56.72 (FX5900 Ultra), Forceware 61.34 (FX6800/Ultra) |
We used the latest 61.76 drivers for benchmarking the 6800 LE while older cards were benchmarked with older drivers as noted above.For comparison, we've chosen the Sapphire x800 PRO, the Gigabyte 9800XT, the Enyaah FX5900 Ultra, the MSI 6800 Ultra and the reference nVidia 6800 graphics cards. 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 |
| 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. |
Another point that needs to be mentioned is that the 6800 LE was benchmarked using the latest 1.2 Far Cry patch while all the other cards were benchmarked with the older v1.1 If you would like for us to add any additional benchmarking software, please email us at suggestions@tbreak.com
Aquamark3/3DM01/3DM03
| Aquamark 3 |
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| 3D Mark 2001SE |
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| 3DM'03: Single Texture Fill Rate |
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| 3DM'03: Multi Texture Fill Rate |
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| 3DM'03: Vertex Shader |
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| 3DM'03: Pixel Shader 2 |
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While the 6800LE doesnt have any problems overtaking the older generation of FX cards in almost all the tests, we do see a huge difference when compared to the standard 6800 card. Lets take a look at actual gaming benchmarks starting with Far Cry
Far Cry
| Far Cry (1024x768) |
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| Far Cry (1024x768: 2x AA+4x AF) |
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| Far Cry (1024x768: 4x AA+8x AF) |
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| Far Cry (1600x1200) |
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| Far Cry (1600x1200: 2x AA+4x AF) |
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| Far Cry (1600x1200: 4x AA+8x AF) |
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We would again like to mention that the 6800LE was benchmarked using the latest 1.2 patch of Far Cry which does improve performance. Having said that, the numbers produced by the 6800LE are very decent especially considering that this card will be an OEM product.
UT2004
| UT2004 (1024x768) |
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| UT2004 (1024x768: 2x AA+4x AF) |
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| UT2004 (1024x768: 4x AA+8x AF) |
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| UT2004 (1600x1200) |
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| UT2004 (1600x1200: 2x AA+4x AF) |
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| UT2004 (1600x1200: 4x AA+8x AF) |
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Although the numbers look quite a bit lower on the 6800LE compared to its other siblings, it does quite well- producing a very playable 50.5 fps at 1600x1200 resolution with 4X AA and 8X AF.
Halo
| Halo (1024x768) |
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| Halo (1600x1200) |
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Again, while the higher-end current generation of VGA cards perform a lot better, the 6800LE manages to produce better scores than the previous generation of nVidia products as well as the 9600XT/x600 XT which will be in a similar price range
TR: AOD / Conclusion
| Tomb Raider AOD (1024x768) |
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| Tomb Raider AOD (1024x768: 2x AA+4x AF) |
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| Tomb Raider AOD (1024x768: 4x AA+8x AF) |
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| Tomb Raider AOD (1600x1200) |
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| Tomb Raider AOD (1600x1200: 2x AA+4x AF) |
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| Tomb Raider AOD (1600x1200: 4x AA+8x AF) |
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Again, we see a similar trend where the card doesnt compete well with the higher-end cards but leads over the previous generation of nVidia cards as well as the 9600XT. Lets warp things up with the overclocking ability of this card.
Overclocking/Conclusion
Overclocking
Using coolbits, we were able to overclock the 6800LE from its default core and memory speeds of 300MHz and 700MHz to a very nice 400MHz and 850MHz respectively. At these speeds, the card was left to loop benchmarks for almost two consecitive days and it did that without a single glitch. The following are the benchmarks produced by the LE at these speeds.
| 3D Mark 2001SE |
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| Aquamark 3 |
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| Far Cry (1024x768) |
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| Far Cry (1600x1200) |
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| UT2004 (1024x768) |
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| UT2004 (1600x1200) |
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In one word- amazing. The card performed as well as the standard 6800 in most of the benchmarks with an improvement of over 20% in two tests.
Conclusion
To sum up the 6800LE, it utilizes nVidia's latest core, performs faster than their previous core and costs less. Sounds like nVidia has a winning card in their hands. The strategy of selling this card only through the OEM channel is also an interesting one. Although most of the people reading this are DIY users, there is still a very large segment of the market that will never open their PC and still like to play the latest games at respectable frame rates. The 6800LE would be the perfect choice for system integrators at the moment who want to provide a moderately priced system that can do that job very well.
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