Conclusion

Despite its slower clock speeds, the GeForce 6800 is still a good performer. This is made possible due to its NV40 graphics core, which sports 12 pixel pipelines and a 325MHz graphics core. As a result of this combination, the GeForce 6800 has just enough pixel processing power and fill rate to outperform its predecessor, GeForce FX 5950 Ultra in most situations. In some cases, the margin is hardly noticeable, a perfect example of this would be in Lock On: Modern Air Combat. In fact, with AA enabled the 5950 Ultra comes out on top at high resolutions. Performance in Call of Duty was close between the two cards as well.

In other titles, the GeForce 6800 owns a decisive advantage. This was the case in UT and Splinter Cell, as well as Far Cry for the most part.

Considering the GeForce 6800’s shader model 3.0 support and its $300 price tag, it should definitely be an option among those of you who were shopping in that price range. Graphics cards that currently reside in that space include the GeForce FX 5950 and RADEON 9800 XT, so we have a feeling that the 6800 will do well for NVIDIA here: based on what we’ve seen, the GeForce 6800 is basically a well-oiled GeForce FX 5950 Ultra with shader model 3.0. This ensures the longevity of the board through at least 2005.

The real question for enthusiasts though is GeForce 6800 GT and RADEON X800 PRO. NVIDIA has detuned the GeForce 6800 just enough that for $100 more, you can get a more powerful graphics card, ensuring excellent performance in a wider variety of applications or with higher image quality. Many gamers will likely gladly pay a premium for this. Because of this, it will be important to see final street prices for the GeForce 6800/6800 GT and RADEON X800 PRO.

NVIDIA has prepared itself for this by going with more traditional DDR1 memory clocked at 350MHz, whereas the 6800 GT and X800 PRO are both GDDR3-based boards. When you couple this with the aggressive pricing NVIDIA and its board partners have shown in the past, a $250 GeForce 6800 card would not be inconceivable a few months from now.

Of course, ATI is rumored to be ready for this contingency, should it occur. The pipelines within the X800 graphics core can be disabled without affecting the rest of the chip. Because of this, it’s believed ATI may answer the GeForce 6800 with an 8-pipeline X800 SE board of their own. For right now though, the GeForce 6800 is the king of the lower half of the high-end segment.