Hi,
I recently bought one of these to use in my system, and I thought I'd share my brief initial impressions here, as there haven't been any reviews of it yet.
Unlike the PCI-Express version, this card uses the AGP-native NV40 chipset, and is clocked at 350MHz (graphics core) and 1000MHz (memory core). This is important, as people expecting the same performance from the AGP version as has been demonstrated in the many reviews of the PCI-Express version may be setting themselves up for disappointment.
I installed the BETA 82.12 driver, rather than the one supplied in the box (81.89A, which is just the 81.89 driver with a hack to recognise the 6800GS from what I understand). It's worth mentioning that this might have had a bearing on the results, as I don't know how well the BETA driver is optimised for this card. The card is identified as a 6800GT according to the display properties.
I ran it through 3DMark05 (free version), and got a score of 4,201. I don't know how this would compare to other, cheaper AGP cards based on ATI's X800/850 series, or the now-discontinued 6800GT: the benchmarks I've found all have better test systems than me, and given that this card is markedly better than my old Radeon 9800 PRO, it may be that the rest of the system is causing a bit of a bottleneck, which wasn't an issue before AFAICT (my 3DMark05 score on the 9800 PRO was typically around ~2,650).
I then decided to experiment with overclocking. I installed the CoolBits hack to expose the advanced functionality in the NVidia display menus. Rather than do the overclocking myself, I applied the "Optimal settings" for GPU and memory core frequencies. Interestingly, it appears that my "optimal settings" are significantly above what I get out of the box - the card is now overclocked to 404/1100, as opposed to the original 350/1000. As far as I can tell, it seems stable at this level, though the only "game" I have at the moment that really pushes the card is 3DMark05, so it has yet to endure rigorous and prolonged testing. I ran this again, and achieved a score of 4,725. Result! :grinthumb
Temperature-wise, the supplied cooling seems adequate: at the default clock settings, the GPU core reached 58-59C under load, and this went up to 61C when overclocked. When idle, the temperature levels out at around 41-42C. The ambient temperature in all circumstances didn't go above 40C. (It's worth noting at this point that I have the fans turned down as much as I dare in order to preserve my ears, so the temperatures may be a bit higher than some people are used to.)
It's possible that the card could be overclocked further even with the stock cooling, but I'm not entirely sure what a safe temperature is for these chips, and I'm slightly skeptical as to how much any further increase in performance would be noticeable to me anyway, so I decided not to push the card beyond the 404/1100 point.
Overall my impression is positive, and it's certainly a step up from my old 9800 PRO. However, were it not for my specific issues with my old ATI card on this motherboard (and had I been prepared to take the risk that a newer ATI card would not have exhibited the same problems), I suspect that some of the X800/850 cards from ATI would be better value.
I recently bought one of these to use in my system, and I thought I'd share my brief initial impressions here, as there haven't been any reviews of it yet.
Unlike the PCI-Express version, this card uses the AGP-native NV40 chipset, and is clocked at 350MHz (graphics core) and 1000MHz (memory core). This is important, as people expecting the same performance from the AGP version as has been demonstrated in the many reviews of the PCI-Express version may be setting themselves up for disappointment.
I installed the BETA 82.12 driver, rather than the one supplied in the box (81.89A, which is just the 81.89 driver with a hack to recognise the 6800GS from what I understand). It's worth mentioning that this might have had a bearing on the results, as I don't know how well the BETA driver is optimised for this card. The card is identified as a 6800GT according to the display properties.
I ran it through 3DMark05 (free version), and got a score of 4,201. I don't know how this would compare to other, cheaper AGP cards based on ATI's X800/850 series, or the now-discontinued 6800GT: the benchmarks I've found all have better test systems than me, and given that this card is markedly better than my old Radeon 9800 PRO, it may be that the rest of the system is causing a bit of a bottleneck, which wasn't an issue before AFAICT (my 3DMark05 score on the 9800 PRO was typically around ~2,650).
I then decided to experiment with overclocking. I installed the CoolBits hack to expose the advanced functionality in the NVidia display menus. Rather than do the overclocking myself, I applied the "Optimal settings" for GPU and memory core frequencies. Interestingly, it appears that my "optimal settings" are significantly above what I get out of the box - the card is now overclocked to 404/1100, as opposed to the original 350/1000. As far as I can tell, it seems stable at this level, though the only "game" I have at the moment that really pushes the card is 3DMark05, so it has yet to endure rigorous and prolonged testing. I ran this again, and achieved a score of 4,725. Result! :grinthumb
Temperature-wise, the supplied cooling seems adequate: at the default clock settings, the GPU core reached 58-59C under load, and this went up to 61C when overclocked. When idle, the temperature levels out at around 41-42C. The ambient temperature in all circumstances didn't go above 40C. (It's worth noting at this point that I have the fans turned down as much as I dare in order to preserve my ears, so the temperatures may be a bit higher than some people are used to.)
It's possible that the card could be overclocked further even with the stock cooling, but I'm not entirely sure what a safe temperature is for these chips, and I'm slightly skeptical as to how much any further increase in performance would be noticeable to me anyway, so I decided not to push the card beyond the 404/1100 point.
Overall my impression is positive, and it's certainly a step up from my old 9800 PRO. However, were it not for my specific issues with my old ATI card on this motherboard (and had I been prepared to take the risk that a newer ATI card would not have exhibited the same problems), I suspect that some of the X800/850 cards from ATI would be better value.
