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Positive Reviews For Nvidia' GeForce 6800 Ultra

Sander Sassen writes "Following months of heated discussion and rumors about the performance of Nvidia' new NV4x architecture, today their new graphics cards based on this architecture got an official introduction. Hardware Analysis posted their first looks at the new GeForce 6800 Ultra and takes it for a spin with all of the latest DirectX 9.0 game titles. The results speak for themselves, the GeForce 6800 Ultra is the new king of the hill, beating ATI's fastest by over 100% in almost every benchmark." Reader egarland adds "Revews are up on Firing Squad, Toms Hardware, Anandtech and Hot Hardware." Update: 04/14 16:54 GMT by T : Neophytus writes "HardOCP have their real life gameplay review available."

14 of 564 comments (clear)

  1. Wonders Never Cease... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's good to know I can look forward to reading text in a more scintillating black and white, while Flash ads and pop-ups will be more vibrant than ever.

    In a word, "Wow."

    I mean, who'd have thunk it that the 6800 would still have life? Maybe ATI can counter with a Radeon All-In-Wonder Xtravaganza 6502!

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. latest vs last-year by bwindle2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are comparing the latest nVidia GPU to the 9800XT, which is several months old. When ATI's next-gen chip comes out (two weeks?), only then will we be able to see who holds the GPU Speed crown.

  3. Wait.. by bdigit · · Score: 5, Funny

    It seems they forgot to take the card out of its case. Wait no thats just the huge fan/heatsink combo

  4. Power Requirements by Lord_Pall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Okay so it's fast.. no question.. Amazing feature set as well..

    but it requires a 480 watt power supply

    and 2 power connections... And it also has what looks to be a vacuum cleaner tied to it..

    I currently use a shuttle skn41g2 for my main box.. I love the sff pc's. This won't work in that.. It would make the includied power supply very sad.

    My HTPC box uses an antec sonata with a fanless radeon 9000, and ultra quiet everything else.. Forget using this in a quiet pc as well

    I don't care for nvidia's trend towards hideously loud, bulky, power hungry video cards.. They might perform well, but for normal use, i'd prefer something smaller and quieter.. and for god's sake, give me an external power supply.. heh

  5. "... by over 100% in almost every benchmark"?? by sczimme · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article:

    To measure how well both cards perform with actual gameplay we used Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004 and Halo and Far Cry. For both versions of Unreal Tournament we've used the built-in benchmark, which consists of a flyby and a botmatch. We've omitted the flyby scores as they doesn't tell us much about performance during actual gameplay, just how fast the graphics card is able to render the flyby. With UT2003 the lead the GeForce 6800 Ultra takes over the Radeon 9800 XT is less impressive, at a 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions it is only 6% faster. At 1600x1200 however the GeForce 6800 Ultra pulls away and clocks in 21% faster. With UT2004 the difference is much bigger, starting off at 10% at 1024x768 up to 65% faster at 1600x1200. What is also noteworthy is the fact that the performance of the Radeon 9800 XT drops at higher resolutions whereas that of the GeForce 6800 Ultra stays at about the same level.

    I know this is /., but how does this become "beating ATI's fastest by over 100% in almost every benchmark"??

    --
    I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
  6. short review by Gingko · · Score: 5, Funny

    all of the latest DirectX 9.0 game titles

    what, both of them? ;)

    Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I'm here all week. Available for weddings, bahmitzvahs and light-hearted funerals.

    --
    i don't do sigs. oops.
  7. DoomIII now ready to ship? by guile*fr · · Score: 5, Funny

    in other news ID Software announce that DoomIII will
    run at 30@fps on the new Nvidia 6800

  8. Holy mother of crap by l33t-gu3lph1t3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Strong points of new Nvidia card:

    -Obscene performance boosts, on a scale I've never seen before
    -fancy new effects
    -massively improved image quality
    -heatsink fan still pretty quiet
    -basically free 4xFSAA and 8x ANISO

    Weaker points of new Nvidia card:

    -Expensive
    -it seems that shader precision is still not as pretty as ATI's, though that may be fixed by game patches
    -takes up 2 slots with the tall heatsink
    -480W recommended PSU
    -video processing engine isn't implemented in software yet

    I don't really object to the power requirements. This thing is more complicated, bigger, and has more transistors than a P4 Extreme Edition. It consumes about 110W, of which 2/3 is the GPU die's power draw. It is certainly NOT unreasonable to require a big power supply with this thing. It seems as though ATI's solution will have a power supply recommendation as well. Simply put, if you're gonna improve performance by such a margin by means other than smaller manufacturing, you're going to increase power consumption. Get over it.

    This thing isn't meant for SFF PCs or laptops, though I'm sure the architecture will be ported to a laptop chip eventually. As for the 2-slot size, well...It consumes 110W! To put this in perspective, it consumes more than any non-overclocked desktop CPU today! Think of how big your Athlon64/P4EE heatsink/fan is, then you'll realise that 2 slots aren't really that big of a problem.

    My own personal reason for wanting this thing: It can play any current game at 1600x1200 with 4XFSAA and 8x anistropic filtering at a good framerate, and is the only card that can claim to do this right now :)

    --
    ------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
  9. I wish .... by El+Cubano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish that people that pretend to be computer experts would do the teeniest bit of research.

    How about this gem: First introduced in 1995, Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface (API) was designed to make life easier for developers by providing a standard platform for Windows-based PCs. Before the arrival of DirectX, developers had to program their software titles to take advantage of features found in individual hardware components. With the wealth of devices on the market, this could become a tedious, time-consuming process.

    I'm glad he cleared that up for us. Because this little known company called SGI didn't develop OpenGL back in 1992. In fact, were it not for MS, we would still be in the computer graphics dark ages.

    I'm not trying to troll here. I am just pissed that people pretend to be experts when they don't have a clues what they are talking about.

  10. Re:nvidia's back by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    To hell with the die size, check out the power requirements. There's two, TWO! power connectors for that thing. Damn, they've created a monster.

    Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra: $600

    800 Watt Powersupply: $250

    MMORPG: $10/mo.

    The look on your face when you get your next powerbill: Priceless

    There are some things in life your measley paycheck can cover, for everything else there's Massivecharge.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  11. I sense a change in the force..... by Selecter · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If Ati's counter offering, due up on the 26th it seems, has 90% of the performance of this beastie but has lower power requirements ( 1 molex or none ) and does not take up slots then Ati will still beat it.

    There's a very limited number of gamers that will buy this card - you literally have to build a whole new PC around it considering the power requirements and the slot hoggishness. I wont be buying one. My 9500 Pro Oc'ed to 300/300 with a 3000+ AMD *STILL* plays anything without problems ( at least any I can see )

    Even if ATi does come out with a card that beats it, I wont be buying one of those either. Gaming is only *part* of what I use computers for. These days at age 40 I cant compete with the twitchy youngsters anyways :D

    I care a lot more these days about how well my data is protected and how good the whole experience is, not how many fps I get in some game.

  12. C & D Letter Forthcoming.. by Deflagro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear Sir,

    We at Mastercard do not appreciate that you are using our wonderful ad lines to mock our business. We are aware that we do apply massive charges, but to bring that to the forefront is immature and irresponsible.
    Please have your lawyers contact us so we may discuss a settlement which you can pay directly to us at your earliest convenience.

    Thank you.

    --
    Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
    1. Re:C & D Letter Forthcoming.. by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
      Please have your lawyers contact us so we may discuss a settlement which you can pay directly to us at your earliest convenience.

      Do you take American Express?

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  13. "I'm givin' her all she's got, cap'n!" by Professr3 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Update: In 2005, nVidia released the specs for the GeForce 6900. Comments on geek news site "Slashdot" mainly focused on the need for two 1-kilowatt external gas turbines for power. Quotes like "Do the turbines run linux?" and "Will they be louder than my CPU fan?" are rampant, but most users say as long as the benchmarks are better than ATI, they don't mind wearing ear protection.

    When in doubt, mod +1 funny and pray