Final Verdict

FiringSquad says

Competition is a beautiful thing. For proof, you don’t have to look any further than NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 GT. This product, like the GeForce4 Ti 4200 before it, wasn’t in NVIDIA’s original plans, but thanks to good old competition in the form of the X800 PRO, it has become a reality. The 6800 GT’s 350MHz, 16 pixel pipeline core was built for performance, while the 256MB of GDDR3 memory operating at 500MHz it is paired with ensures high frame rates at high resolutions and with eye candy features such as AA/AF enabled. Finally, shader model 3.0 support ensures that the GeForce 6800 GT is compatible with the games of tomorrow, today. With all this going for it, it’s no small wonder why these cards are so highly sought after.

As it’s based on NVIDIA’s reference design, and is actually manufactured directly by NVIDIA, PNY’s Verto GeForce 6800 GT faithfully recreates NVIDIA’s vision for the 6800 GT. And while it may not be the flashiest card on the block, the Verto GeForce 6800 GT gets the job done well, and for a lot of gamers and hardware enthusiasts, that’s all that matters.

To help keep prices down, PNY keeps the bundled accessories to a minimum. For gamers who already have a large library of games, or only play specific genres, this is probably a good thing, as the games that come bundled with a lot of graphics cards are at best a few months old, or worse yet, game demos that can be easily downloaded online anyway. The Verto GeForce 6800 GT is currently one of the least expensive GeForce 6800 GT cards listed on Price Watch. This makes the Verto GeForce 6800 GT one of the strongest values out there at the $400 price point.

If you’re looking to get the most bang from your buck out of a GeForce 6800 GT card, PNY’s Verto GeForce 6800 GT is hard to beat, enthusiasts looking for a little more however may want to wait and see what the second generation of GeForce 6800 GTs brings.

UPDATE 8/16/2004: It has come to our attention that PNY has partnered with CompUSA to provide a free copy of DOOM 3 with the purchase of a Verto GeForce 6800 GT. This allows you to save $55 if you planned on picking up a copy of DOOM 3.