Nvidia came out with their 6800 series, which included the 6800 GT quite some time ago. At that time, there was no other card on the market at the same price point, with the same feature set, as the 6800 GT. Featuring a full 16 pixel pipelines, just like it's big brother the 6800 Ultra, the 6800 GT really took root in its part of the market. Only recently has ATI released their X800 XL series of video cards, which are meant to directly compete with the 6800 GT line of cards.
What we have here today is the PCI-Express graphics card. Not only is this one fast card, featuring full Shader 3.0 support and a whole host of other advanced features, but it is also capable of running in SLI.
Specifications
Under the heatsink you get 256 Megabytes of GDDR3 memory running at 1050 MHz, and the Geforce 6800 GT core, clocked at 367 MHz. The reference specifications for the 6800 GT are 350 MHz core and 1000 MHz memory, so we can see that Asus pushed those up just a little bit to earn this card the Extreme title. Here is a table detailing the specifications, taken directly off of the Asus website:
Graphics Engine GeForce 6800GT
Video Memory 256 MBDDR3
RAMDAC 400MHz
Bus Standard PCI-Express x16
Memory Interface 256-bit DDR3
Max Resolution 2048x1536
TV Output S-VHS and Composite
DVI Output Dual DVI-I
VGA Output Dual VGA (with adaptors)
Before we get into the review, let's take a look at what Asus provides with the N6800GT. The box and packaging are pretty nice and from a retail perspective, it's really nice to be able to actually see the card you are buying before you buy it. The card its self is well secured as well, so unlike some cards I've received in the past, you shouldn't have to worry about it sliding all over inside the box during shipping and transport.
As with most graphics cards, the Asus Extreme N6800GT comes with a few accessories aside from the card. One interesting addition is the web cam that Asus provides with this card. And this isn't just some silly little web cam, it's actually a pretty nice one complete with built in microphones and 640x480 video resolution.
As should be expected, Asus has also included a driver CD, quick setup guide, and a multi-language manual on CD-ROM. Another of the interesting additions is that rather than just include the paper cases for the game CD's, Asus includes a nice plastic CD case, which didn't feel cheap and should hold up for quite some time. And, Asus also included a full version of Joint Operations for you to test out your new graphics card on.
Also included are an S-Video cable, and 2 DVI to VGA converters. All things considered, this is a pretty good bundle, and the web cam is definitely unique among video cards.
And here is the actual video card that you get from Asus. The blue pcb looks really nice, and is complimented by a blue led fan in the heatsink. The heatsink its self is a simple, yet really nice looking brushed aluminum with nothing on it other than Asus in raised lettering. Overall, the looks of this card are quite striking, and it should go nicely in almost any system setup.
The card also features dual DVI connections, and an S-Video connector. It is nice to see manufacturers including dual DVI connections on their graphics cards now, especially since the cost of LCD monitors is dropping and dual monitor setups can be really nice when used correctly.
Test Setup
Intel Pentium 4 560 3.6 GHz, 1024 Megabytes of Mushkin PC5300 DDR2, Foxconn 925xe motherboard, Western Digital 250 Gig hard drive 8 meg Cache, Asus Extreme N6800GT, HIS X800XL
We installed a fresh version of Windows XP on the test system, the latest drivers for all of the hardware, and the latest versions of all of our benchmark software. By latest versions, we are referring to what was available at the time of writing this review. We will be using the HIS X800XL as a comparison card.
Test Software will be:
Doom 3 - While AA and AF are not really that important to the quality, given that Doom 3 is a dark game anyway, even without them enabled even a high end system can still take a beating. For testing, we ran at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions, leaving AF settings at 8x for all tests, and using 0xAA as well as 4xAA.
Half Life 2 - While Half Life 2 doesn't have the same awe inspiring graphics as Doom 3, they do have quite a few cool effects in use, as well as the use of shaders. As with the other tests, we will be running this test at 1280x960 as well as 1600x1200 with 0xAA/0xAF and 4xAA/16xAF enabled.
Unreal Tournament 2004 - Even though the graphics in UT2K4 are not on the same playing field as that of Doom 3, maxing out all of the settings still proves to be a formidable opponent to most any system out there right now. We ran the benchmarks at 1280x960 and 1600x1200 Resolution, using both 0xAA/0xAF as well as 4xAA/16xAF.
Need For Speed: Underground 2 - NFSU2 is another title that features great graphics, cool effects, and can really stress a video card. We tested NFSU2 at 1280x960 resolution, as well as 1600x1200 resolution. We set all of the detail and quality settings to their highest, including the Anti-Aliasing control. We left the driver settings for both cards to application controlled for AA and AF.
Colin McRae 2005 - another racing game, quite a bit different than NFSU2. Instead of mostly city driving, you are doing more realistic off-road racing in CMR 05. The environments and graphics quality provide an excellent base to test a video card with. We will be testing 1280x960 resolution and 1600x1200 resolution, with no AA/AF and 4xAA/16xAF in each resolution.
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth - Ok, so LOTR:BFME is an RTS game, and generally, RTS games don't boast graphics good enough to warrant being used as a benchmark for a high-end video card. However, BFME makes good use of shaders, and that makes it worth using as a benchmark. However, there is a 30 FPS frame cap in place in BFME, so what we are looking at here is the raw performance of the card with everything maxed out, not how fast it can go. As such, we are running the benchmark in 1600x1200 resolution with 4xAA and 16xAF enabled, and all of the settings maxed out in game.
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