XFX 6800GS xXx Review

[Schwarz]

This review is not going to be a big indepth review of the XFX 6800GS xXx Edition.
Since reviews have already been made about the card this is only going to be
a little overview of the card such as benchmarks of a few games, pricing and some pictures.
I will pit this card agaisn't the ATI X850 Pro AGP (16 pipelines) at default clock speeds of 500/1000.
This review is going to be for middle range users looking for a good performing card
with a small budget and a decent system.

1. Overview of the card

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/frontbox.jpghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/backbox.jpg
This is the front of the box.Nice art work.
One funny thing is the little story behind the box.
I only have part 2 :(
I guess I would have to buy from now on every XFX product to
finish the story :p

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/content.jpg
You will find a DVI to VGA adapter, a power adapter cord and a TV-out cable.
As far as bundled software there`s not much to talk about but a few game demos I have never heard of.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/controller.jpg
Man that controller is big !

AND FINALY !
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/frontcard.jpg
Here is the front of the card.
XFX has just taken the specified NVIDIA reference cooler and placed it on their 6800GS with no modifications

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/backcard.jpg
Here is the back.



2. System and specs

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/HL2noaaaf.jpg

Now as you can see i'm using a middle range system.
One of the thing you will have to know before we start the benchmarks is
that I actually use onboard sound and this makes games stutter every once
in a while when a big sound loads.
Also my Western Digital Hard Drive is about 2 to 3 years old so this may
degrade its quality.
This may cause the benchmarks to be a little lower then they should.
This is all ran on Windows XP.
For the 6800GS I am using the cd's Forceware version 81.85.
As for the Radeon X850 I once again used the drivers on the cd.
I did this for one reason.
I wanted to install the ATI control Panel and not the Catalyst Control Center wich "OBLIGATES" you
to have the Microsoft .NET framework.
Now this is my personal opinion but my next videocard choice will probably shift towards Nvidia in the years
coming.I am insulted when a company likes something and PUSHES it into your computer or you cannot use its software.
Well anyways I installed with the Express setup instead of the Custom, that was my bad but I pay the price
i'm stuck with a bunch of softwares I don't need !
Anyways it says Driver Packaging Version 8.091
CATALYST version 0?

3. Benchmarks

All the benchmarks will be running with sound since I am not aware of anyone
who actually plays without sound.
I will run all the games at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200.
These resolutions will run twice with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering off and another time
with AA 4x and AF 8x.
V-Sync will be turned off at all times.

- HALF LIFE 2
We start with a custom time demo of d1 Transtation 02.
The settings for HL2 are all set to "High".
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/HL2noAAAF.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/HL2AA4AF8.jpg

- DOOM 3
For Doom 3 I decided to use one of the built-in time demos.
If you do wish to benchmark your own system use this command in the console.
timedemo demo1 1
Doom 3 is also ran at Ultra High settings.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/doomnoaaaf.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/doomaa4af8.jpg

With AA 4x and AF 8x I did not bother benchamrking the x850 because it was too low and therefor not playable.

- CALL OF DUTY 2
In Call of Duty 2 the settings I am using are all at maximum except the level of bodies wich
is left to normal.
The game is also ran in Direct X9.
Once again with a custom time demo of The cold war mission demolition i believe.
( My version of the game is french )

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/COD2.jpg

Since this game seems to ask a lot I only posted the playable modes.
I could not turn AA or AF.

- 3DMARK 03 (free version)
The settings for 3dmark 03 were at default since I used the free version.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/MastamuneSchwarz/3dmark03.jpg

- 3dMARK 06 (free version)
For the 3dmark 06 results you will have to stay tuned !
It should be ready soon...

4.Overclocking

So far the overlocking for this card, in my case anyways, is not worth mentionning.
According to a few websites this is a good overclocker but I guess I got the rotten berry
out of the bunch since mine wouldn't go too high.
First off I tried to detect optimal frenquencies to get it up to 519/1160 but Call of Duty 2
and Half Life 2 gave me a lots of artifacts.
I tried putting it at the X850 core clock speed of 500 but even then I still got those darned arties.

5.Final thought and pricing

I am very pleased with XFX and would gladly review any of their products again.
I have received the card I won very fast for review and once again XFX has surprised me with
not the original 6800GS but the xXx edition of the card which is clocked a lot higher.
To tell you the truth I was a little skeptical at first about this card since it only has
12 pipelines but for the price tag it performs way higher then my expectations.
The average price for this card is $195.00 USD while the Radeon X850 Pro is around $275.00 USD.
This is around $80.00 of a difference.
This card is for the casual gamers who are looking for a high performing video adapter that won't
rip a hole in their wallets.
A little side note.
Why did the x850 perform so poorly compared to the 6800GS.
There's probably a few reason.
The unlocked pipes probably were currupted or maybe all the crap that was installed from the
Catalyst CD jamed up my poor little 40GB...

Schwarz
8.5/10

02/16/2006

[Rafal]

Thanks man! Front-paged :D Great read btw

[Schwarz]

Dont worry i`ll post the all the benchmark results soon and all the pics of the card.
Its just hard to uplaod this to photobucket plus my graphs werent made yet.
I wanted to show XFX that I could produce a review fast and accurate.

[pc_man_iac]

Good **** man good **** glad to see the 6800gs pwns the damn ATI as usual NIce review, good job maybe it should be a clause that the winner of a card must review it in their system just so ppl can see how it runs in a more normal setting that ppl may have

[Schwarz]

Well I think its the least I could do.
Anyways thank you bjorn3d and thank you XFX.
If I ever get the chance to win something again one of these days I will gladly do it once more.

[werty316]

Damn good read Schwarz. Glad to see you are happy. I am not surprised the GS blew the X850 away. Were you able to play COD2 in DX9 without it crashing with some retarded DX error?

[PUTALE]

it's funny that you don't see the X shaped box that the XFX usually comes. I had no idea that 6800Gs actually outperforms 850.

[zachig]

Thanks for a WONDERFUL read, Schwarz!!! I really enjoyed reading what you wrote about the card (I wonder why... :lol: ).

Anyway, I'm really dying to get mine already (should be here on Monday, or at least I hope so... :? ).

[Schwarz]

Weird crashes..
Didnt get any of that so far but i'll try to run it for a while to see if it crashes...

[XJnine]

Thanks for the info.

Not a bad hardware upgrade that you were able to get with just some hard work educating the masses. Good job!

[liqnit]

great review like the pictyres thaks for the quick posting of those

[BlackStar]

Awsome. Great card, and a great review.

I like these "real world" reviews showing what a typical user has for a PC and the performance increase in upgrading (in this case) the video card. It's nice to see what a high end PC with all top of the line components will do, but with a review like this I can see what to reasonably expect if I were to purchase this card for myself.

[Schwarz]

The only problem I found in this review is the fact that i'm pitting a AGP card that is almost clocked the same as the PCIe version wich isn't too fair.
But i did beleive since the AGP one had 16pipelines that it would compete a little but this wasn't the fact AT ALL...
Now i'm selling my x850 :p

BTW thanks to everyone for the great comments its really appreciated.
I thought it might of went unnoticed or no one would really care since the 6800 has already been reviewed.
Thanks again people !

[shanewu]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Schwarz! I'd love to see more readers post reviews of their gear. :)

[tomato]

Thanks for the insightful review, Schwarz! :wink: :)