GeForce 6800 GPUs launched, benchs are here

[Julio Franco]

NVIDIA Corporation introduced today the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GPU family that consists of the flagship GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800. The new GeForces are meant to be true next-generation parts boosting a 16-pipeline architecture, an updated DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 feature set and an important addition of capabilities in terms of video processing. NVIDIA has also secured an ample number of partners to work with, here's a list.

Looking at figures from gaming benchmarks, you can tell NVIDIA has made sure there is a tangible gap between past performance leaders and its new GF6800 processor. But don't take my word for it and visit some of the reviews floating around the net: Anandtech, Tech-Report, Hexus, NVNews, Hardocp, HotHw.

Expect newer games and drivers optimizations to improve the 20-50%+ margin the 6800 Ultra currently enjoys against previous leaders, the real battle will come however once ATI's X800 is unveiled... and I'm not talking about speed only but feature-set, drivers stability and of course, price!

 

[agissi]

I think this will be very interesting.. lets see if nvidia can go back to what they were.

 

[MaskedBurrito]

The power "recommendations" are insane. A 480 watt PSU and 2 connectors? I might have to stick with ATI if they offer comparable performance.

 

[Rory7]

Well since ATI's card is coming out later, do you think they are waitng to see what they are up against, and to make a few..alterations? I stil have a feeling ATI are gonna Nail Nvidia, dunno why.

 

[Julio Franco]

480w seems a bit exaggerated to me, perhaps a good way to make sure the card will work properly in a wide variety of environments (you’ve probably heard of those crappy 400w PSUs that in reality can’t output much more than a quality 300w PSU). I just recently upgraded to an Enermax 420w PSU, supposedly to have room for future upgrades, etc... and getting a new unit is definitely not in my plans.

 

[agissi]

With ATi's card coming out later, they have more time and room to make a better card.

 

[Rory7]

Yeah, thats what im smoking agissi

 

[BrownPaper]

nvidia's and ati's offerings look to be quite impressive. wow there's so many transistors on that nvidia card. it's like three P4 Northwoods. the problem is i don't know if my electricity company is going to let me run my computer anymore if i get the nvidia card. i would be consuming way too much electricity!

 

[Strakian]

Let's keep in mind that on paper the Nvidia is more promising. Sporting 16 pipelines with 32-bit floating point as opposed to ATI's lower 24-bit floating point pipelines. Also, the ATI R420 is CURRENTLY not pixel shader 3.0 OR Vertex shader 3.0 compatible.... what the hell? I think they'll probably fix this in the future since they're taking more time though, perhaps waiting for the 3.0 spec to be more available to base a decision... because let's face it, if noone prgrams in 3.0 yet, it's a useless feature anyway right?

I'm a budget gamer though anyway, I'm waiting on the new ATI one so I can pick up my 9800XT for 180 bucks

 

[agissi]

you can pickup a 9800pro for 200 right now

 

[Strakian]

I want an XT