best 6800 to buy

[Revkickass]

i am decided on a 6800 as opposed to 66GT

but, wich one?
i aint gettin the GT, i want either the LE or the NU and hope to unlock sum vertex shaders and pipes
wat is the diff between the LE and the NU?
and wich one is most likely to give me the full 16 pipes?
the thing is, i know sum are on 12 pipes as standard but ya may only get them 12 pipes and no-more, whereas i heard that the 8 pipe Aopen card or the galaxy 6800 can have the full 16 pipes unlocked? how true is this?
wich brand of card is the most likely to unlock both shaders and pipes?

while i am on, wats the crack with the ASUS 6800 GT/128. it is the same price as a LE, is this juss another ASUS naming scam?

btw the galaxy has the rev 4 Artic cooling on as standard so that will save me 15 quid, but not too bothered as i will buy one aftermarket if the Aopen or sumtin else is the better card for clocking/unlocking

[c0rr0d3dm0nk33]

The Asus GT is a hybrid using a GT on the NU Board, with NU Ram, its pretty crippled tbh...

The LE is rubbish.

The NU is a bit better on stock...

I've heard there is something like a 25% chance you can unlock the extra pipelines, without causing graphics corruption...

I've always been under the impression (though, this is a few months old this info) that both the LE and the NU could be modded to the 16 pipelines, as they are all based on the NV40.

But if you really want the speed of a GT, you really rather need the DDR3, i think that £130-160 on a card that might become close to a GT, if you get a 1 in 4 lucky break isn't really worth it...specially with that RAM holding it back...

[Revkickass]

i am gettin a 6800 as its better than a 66GT regardless of make
unlocking the pipes and shaders is juss a free bonus tbh
also i think it depends whether the boards are laser cut aswell?
also the 6800 has the 256 ram interface wich the 6600 dont
making it better at higher res so i hear
watever i get will get clocked alot, so basically i need to know wich is the most likely to unlock the card and wich one is better for clocking
to be on safe side ya think i should get the 12 pipe one?
juss incase i get an 8 pipe and cant unlock?

[Revkickass]

am i right in thinkin that the LE is the 8 pipes one and the NU is the 12?
as it stands the galaxy 6800 is the one for me unless i get told different?

goin with that one incase i cant unlock any pipes on the cheaper LE then at the very least i will have 12

[WindyMiller]

Quite a few ppl on the overclockers forum have managed to gully open up the aopen LE cards iirc, dont know about the galaxy one, decent cards for the money seeing as everyone cant spend near £300+ on a card :rolleyes:

[Revkickass]

yea i been readin that windy. juss dont wanna risk not being able to open the pipes and gettin stuck with juss 8

goin for this one on thurs from O/clockers unless anyone thinks it a bad choice?



XFX GeForce 6800 Extreme Gamers Edition 128MB DDR TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail (PVT40KNDD7) (GX-018-XF)
The groundbreaking new NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 graphics processing units (GPUs) and their revolutionary technologies power worlds where reality and fantasy meet; worlds in which new standards are set for visual realism and quality, performance, and video functionality. The GeForce 6800 GPUs deliver powerful, elegant graphics to drench your senses, immersing you in unparalleled worlds of visual effects for the ultimate PC experience.

- 325MHz Core Engine Clock speed
- 128MB 750MHz high speed DDR memory
- Superscalar 12-Pipe GPU Architecture
- CineFX 3.0 Engine
- The Industry's First On-Chip Video Processor
- UltraShadow II Technology
- 64-Bit Texture Filtering and Blending
- Intellisample 3.0 Technology
- Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
- nView Multi-Display Technology
- Digital Vibrance Control 3.0
- High-Speed DDR Memory Interface
- 256-Bit Memory Interface with Advanced Memory Control
- 128-Bit Studio-Precision Computation
- Full-Speed 32-Bit Color Precision
- Advanced Adaptive De-Interlacing
- Video Scaling and Filtering
- TV-Out
- Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
- 0.13 Micron Process Technology
- Games Bundle including X2, Commandos3, MotoGP2 all full games


Full Specification

Price: £164.95 (£193.82 Including VAT at 17.5%)

[Hardy]

don't the standard 6800's use slower ram tho ?, you'll never get it fully clocked if they do.

[Revkickass]

it does yes, but i cant afford a GT tbh
i can hopefully get the full 16 pipes and the vertex shaders unlocked aswell
but if i cant i still got 12 pipes on the NU as opposed to 8 on the LE

[Delpy]

Many French bought this one from England ,upgradable to 16pipes/6vertex and cheap:

http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/graphicscards/productView.htm?quicklinx=37XH

For overclocking ,peeps seem to reach: 400/800
But that's only 128Mo (Hynix 2.2=DDR1?)

You'll gain between 600-1000pts on 3dmark2005 from 12p/5v to 16p/6v depending on your CPU.

I got 3000pts with my x700pro (8p/6v), you can expect 4000pts with a 6800 12p/5v.