Not so bad in the world market for lovers of dynamic games, as many manufacturers of video adapters note. You can understand them - a lie for the benefit of sales is a paramount task for them, but many buyers are not happy with the constant financial costs of improving computer performance.
The focus of this article is on the remarkable GeForce 6800 graphics accelerator. The reader is invited to get acquainted with its modifications, find out the characteristics, see the review and find out what many owners think about this video adapter. Naturally, expert reviews and testing are indispensable.
Entry Level Game Class
Although the device belongs to the budget class, the performance potential of this adapter is much higher. The Nvidia GeForce 6800 graphics card can safely be in the initial gaming class, as in testing it can exceed the power performance demonstrated by integrated Intel solutions.
Accordingly, the potential buyer has no doubt that he is facing a fully-functional product, albeit in the lower price category. The only noticeable drawback of this graphics accelerator are obsolete technologies that limit the capabilities of the video card in games, but first things first.
Basic characteristics
The chip, code-named NV40, has long been discontinued, but fans still often recall it with kind words in their reviews. The fact is that it was this experimental chip that allowed the world to see Nvidia devices running on a 256-bit memory bus. Naturally, against the background of other products, the performance of such a novelty did not go unnoticed.
The GeForce 6800 video card is presented on the market by several modifications that differ not only in performance, but also in platform. So, the global market got acquainted with the markings Ultra, XT, GS, GT, LE and Go. In fact, all of the listed models of the device, created on the basis of one chip, are completely different video cards and are combined into one family only to avoid confusion in the world market.
Announced chip specifications
A breakthrough in the performance of gaming graphics cards was not only 256-bit technology, but also the 0.12-micron technical process. Having received the GDDR3 memory bus in addition, the device has become more attractive to many potential buyers. When comparing the graphics accelerator with modern devices, only the memory capacity (256/512 megabytes) can be considered the weak link.
For the Nvidia GeForce 6800 chip, performance characteristics were clearly in the first place, since many owners saw many problems with the cooling of the video card. Particularly noticeable is a flaw in the process of overclocking the graphics core, which in normal mode has a limit of 400 MHz. As for the memory modules, here the chip is much better: they accelerate superbly from 500 MHz to 600-650 megahertz, demonstrating high performance in games.
mobile version
Better to start with the fact that on the basis of the 6000th series, the manufacturer created several video adapters for mobile equipment, to which he assigned the marking GeForce 6800 Go. The controller was built on the basis of the NV42M chip and had several modifications that differed between each other by the memory bus width (128 and 356 bits) and had different types of memory (DDR, DDR2 and DDR3).
As for the technical characteristics and the use of technology, there were no significant differences. The same indicator for the graphics core, memory and shader units is 300 MHz, the memory of 256 megabytes is occupied from RAM and all this works at the software level with DirectX 9c instructions.
Zoo modifications
As for the other models, here the manufacturer acted predictably - put on the conveyor one chip, which was subjected to factory overclocking during testing. So the rejection received a modification of LE, and the rest of the models divided the model range among themselves in terms of performance.
Modification Ultra GeForce 6800, whose characteristics are close to the flagship of the Nvidia line (7800 GT), took the top position in the rating. Behind it, priority is placed on the XT, GS and GT models. In terms of price-quality ratio, buyers, judging by their reviews, give preference to the last two modifications.
Nearest competitors
Judging by the performance, the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra video card is a direct competitor to the performance of the ATI Radeon X800 XT graphics accelerator. Accordingly, the entire line of the 6800 series chip fully complies with the lightweight versions of the X800 series video cards (GT, GTO, PRO).
Two chips from different manufacturers demonstrate almost the same performance in synthetic tests, are in the same price category and have similar technical specifications. There is no need to talk about superiority, and to convince a potential buyer that a brand is better, it makes no sense.
Two turns of evolution
But it’s not worthwhile to touch modern graphics accelerators and compare them with outdated chips. According to the performance table, the Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS video adapter is on a par with the GT 430 graphics card and the integrated Intel HD 4000 solution. It is clear that in testing the old product is able to demonstrate high performance in games using DirectX 9c instructions (FarCry, Call of Duty, Splinter Cell).
However, in modern games with updated software, serious problems can arise. These chips should not be considered at all as an alternative to improving the system. As for 3D support, working with high-quality video files, encoding and digitizing an analog signal, there is absolutely nothing to surprise a potential buyer with. Therefore, all users who are considering purchasing a video adapter for such purposes should once again review their priorities or decide on another product on the computer market.
Note to tankers
Owners of the GeForce 6800 GS video adapter, who prefer to spend time playing World of Tanks, may think that their graphics accelerator is out of date and needs to be replaced with something more productive. Experts in the field of IT technologies recommend not to rush and get to know the requirements stated by the developer for the hardware of the computer.
The favorite toy of many users is focused on a powerful processor with two cores. Moreover, the manufacturer has created code that integrates perfectly with both Intel processors and the AMD platform. It is only important to provide the system with crystals operating at a frequency of 3 GHz and higher. In their reviews, many users claim that the GeForce 6800 graphics accelerator, the Xeon processor for the 775 socket and 3 gigabytes of RAM allow you to squeeze 40-50 frames per second from the game at medium settings.
Dancing with a tambourine
The only problem that future owners of an obsolete video adapter may encounter is the inability to correctly identify the device with the Windows 10 operating system. It has become known from unofficial sources that Microsoft took this step only to stimulate sales of modern video cards. But as practice shows, any software restrictions are easy to circumvent, it would be a desire.
With the Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT graphics accelerator and its modifications, the problem is solved quite simply: you need to download outdated software from the manufacturer’s official website (driver version 307.83, oriented for Vista). You just need to control the bit depth of the operating system, and you can enjoy the full performance of the gaming video card.
Also, experts in their reviews recommend that users update the graphics accelerator driver only at the request of the operating system. The fact is that at the hardware level, the device does not support modern Nvidia technologies, so there may be problems in the stability of Windows.
Graphics Accelerator Diseases
A banal overheating can damage any GeForce 6800 video adapter whose characteristics have been improved by overclocking. The user has only two options for preventing this problem: refuse to overclock or install a professional cooling system on the video card instead of a regular fan. Scythe Musashi cooler (SCVMS-1000) is recognized as the best purchase for cooling this type of graphics accelerator. It is built on the basis of a copper radiator and has two independent fans that will not allow the graphic crystal to burn out during acceleration.
Not everything is simple with the memory modules of the video adapter. The manufacturer installed them outside the standard cooling system, so overclocking fans should think about decent airflow of Samsung branded modules, which easily fail when overheated.
Small oddities in the process
Having become acquainted with the basic problems of a graphics accelerator, a potential buyer will decide that you can forget about video cards based on the GeForce 6800 GT with passive cooling. And it turns out to be wrong, because it is on the basis of this controller in the computer market that there are a lot of interesting offers from different manufacturers.
The main feature of silent solutions is low performance, because the factory equipped these devices with the old type of DDR RAM using a 128-bit memory bus. Naturally, lovers of dynamic games should not even consider such an instance as a purchase. But for working with multimedia and office tasks, such a solution is quite suitable.
Decent Market Deals
Oddly enough, in the store windows you can find an original product from Nvidia, based on the GeForce 6800 chip. This solution will appeal to all customers who plan to get rid of the standard cooling system by installing a more powerful device for blowing the chip and memory modules. As for other world manufacturers, the product is presented under the logos of ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Palit and many other well-known brands.
Judging by the reviews of the owners, the Gainward 6800 Golden Sample (GS) graphics accelerator gained the most popularity in the market. True, to unlock its potential, it is recommended that it be equipped with a powerful cooling system and dispersed. In performance tests, this device in working with DirectX 9c instructions exceeds the performance of more modern gaming video adapters that operate at standard frequencies.
Workshop for video cards
Most game video adapters fail due to overheating of memory modules. The damage is indicated by artifacts (multi-colored cubes and stripes) appearing on the monitor display. For owners of graphics accelerators based on the GeForce 6800 chip, there is a loophole that can partially eliminate the breakdown.
The video adapter must be sent to the workshop and ask a specialist to heat the memory modules with a hairdryer. In 99% of cases, artifacts disappear, and a morally outdated video card has a second life. True, the owner of the device will have to forget about overclocking forever, since the graphics accelerator can no longer withstand the next overheating. The board will simply have to be thrown away.
Finally
A good entry-level video adapter GeForce 6800 GT is quite capable of surprising any user who can create all the conditions for providing the system unit with productive components for games. Experts recommend not focusing on the video card if the game application was developed according to DirectX 9c instructions. In most cases, the solution here is for RAM, a processor and a hard drive.
Naturally, attention should be paid to the cooling system, if the owner plans to overclock to improve performance. However, the graphics accelerators of this line have problems, so you should think carefully before proceeding with such actions.