PNY 6800 $199 @ Compusa Black Friday sale

[Ruined]

Fantastic card for only $199 (reg. $299) at CompUSA black friday sale on nov26. Pick one up

specs are as follows:
--
pipelines: 12x1
memory: 128mb
memory bus: 256-bit
core speed: 325mhz
memory speed: 700mhz
Shader Technology: Shader Model 3.0 (PS3.0/VS3.0/DX9.0C)
HDR Technology: OpenEXR HDR Lighting

here is the link to the manuf website with specs on the card:
http://www.pny.com/products/verto/performance/6800.asp

[Ruined]

Also, for those looking to upgrade, here is an idea of how much of a performance gain you will get from your current card to the GeForce 6800:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra..._guide-08.html

[plissken99]

I've got the Geforce 4600 waaay down there on that list. No wonder D3 is almost unplayable. The first monster you encounter that throws fireballs at you, as soon as they hit the game slows way down due to the smoke effect. I wasn't able to get the 6800GT, but it's lined up for me for Xmas.

[Ruined]

get yer geforces today is teh day!

[Sycho]

Yes! 6.2 frames per second.

[plissken99]

Tempting... but the 256MB 6800GTOC is on my X-Mas list.

[Sycho]

i kinda want the 6600 gt AGP, what do you think ruined? i want to run most games @ 1280x720 2x AA, ok maybe 4x,

oh ya, i was playing hitman 2 @ 1080i yesterday, no AA no AF, it was fucking awsome good frame rates, very little slow down.

[3DMan]

Heh heh heh. I bought the 6800 a week ago for $300, and took it back Friday afternoon for a price adjustment. No fuckin lines for me. I know what I'll be doing next year now.

Farcry with HDR=

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Sycho

i kinda want the 6600 gt AGP, what do you think ruined? i want to run most games @ 1280x720 2x AA, ok maybe 4x,

oh ya, i was playing hitman 2 @ 1080i yesterday, no AA no AF, it was fucking awsome good frame rates, very little slow down.

6600GT AGP ain't as fast as the 6800nu, but its close. Main drawback is the 128-bit memory bus. But since the memory runs at 1000mhz its not so bad. Other problem is most of them are going for $230 now when u can get the faster 6800nu for $250ish.

6600GT AGP will run most games at 1280x720 4xAA/8xAF

[Sycho]

but i NEED WMVHD acceleration

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Sycho

but i NEED WMVHD acceleration

ah, well in that case go for the 6600GT AGP

this is the cheapest one I could find in stock:

Albatron 6600GT AGP DVI/VGA (in stock)
http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/Prod...ku=VC-ALBA-036

If you can wait a bit and want Dual DVI instead of DVI/VGA, snag this one:
XFX 6600GT AGP Dual DVI (Backorder)
http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/Prod...sku=VC-XFX-035

[Sycho]

i thought the GT had 256MB of ram?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Sycho

i thought the GT had 256MB of ram?

only the 6800GT & 6800U have 256mb, the 6800nu and 6600GT have 128mb (according to reference specs).

[Ruined]

Unfortunately it seems many of the $199 PNY 6800nu cards that COMPUSA had on sale may have come broken in the box due to rough handling and/or manufacturing defect.

Some are missing the capacitor circled in this picture:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...7&postcount=36

So if you took advantage of this deal, check the backside of your card to make sure it has the circled cap. If it doesn't, exchange it for a new card.

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by Ruined

only the 6800GT & 6800U have 256mb, the 6800nu and 6600GT have 128mb (according to reference specs).

if my dad gets a HiDef TV on boxing day, I am going to make a dedacadited HTPC, how would a card like this workout? PCIe 256MB Ram

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Sycho

if my dad gets a HiDef TV on boxing day, I am going to make a dedacadited HTPC, how would a card like this workout? PCIe 256MB Ram

That would be fine, but its much slower than the 6600GT 128mb. Still a fast card though if you don't want to pony up the cash for the 6600GT.

[Sycho]

sorry I didn't notice that that wasn't a GT, how bout this?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Sycho

sorry I didn't notice that that wasn't a GT, how bout this?

That's a review of the 6600GT?

If you want a 6600GT, I linked a place above that has it in stock, both dvi/vga and dual dvi variants.

You probably won't be seeing 256mb RAM on the 6600GT (at least not without a price premium) because it uses 1000mhz GDDR3, which is hard to come by. OTOH, the cheaper 6600 uses much slower 500mhz ddr ram which is easy to come by, so 256mb variants of that will be easy to find, though they will be much slower than a 128mb 6600GT. To be honest, you don't really need 256mb for performance unless you are in the 6800GT performance range anyway, as that card will be able to handle the load that will come with 256mb of texture detail while the 6600/6600GT/6800nu probably couldn't.

[Sycho]

well, I'm going to be waiting a long while before building my HTPC, rumor is the creative will have PCIe cards soon, hopefully they have a firewire audio output, or at lease good DAC's

[Ruined]

btw here is a nifty chart comparing the 6800nu vs. 6600GT & 6600 I made.

FASTEST

BFG 6800 OC
fillrate: 4200 mpps (12 x 350)
memory bandwidth: 22.4 gbps (256 * 700 / 8)
vertex shaders: 5
pipelines: 12
core: 350mhz
memory: 700mhz
memory bus: 256-bit
hardware mpeg2/dvd video encode/decode

6800 reference
fillrate: 3900 mpps (12 x 325)
memory bandwidth: 22.4 gbps (256 * 700 / 8)
vertex shaders: 5
pipelines: 12
core: 325mhz
memory: 700mhz
memory bus: 256-bit
hardware mpeg2/dvd video encode/decode

6600GT
fillrate: 4000 mpps (8 x 500)
memory bandwidth: 16 gbps (128 * 1000 / 8)
vertex shaders: 3
pipelines: 8
core: 500mhz
memory: 1000mhz
memory bus: 128-bit
hardware mpeg2/dvd, divx, wmvhd video encode/decode

6600 (128-bit)
fillrate: 2400 mpps (8 x 300)
memory bandwidth: 8 gbps (128 * 500 / 8)
vertex shaders: 3
pipelines: 8
core: 300mhz
memory: 500mhz
memory bus: 128-bit
hardware mpeg2/dvd, divx, wmvhd video encode/decode

SLOWEST

[Sycho]

so i'll probaly go for the 6600gt, but how can it speed up wmvhd ENCODE? i will proably be going HD editing within a 1~2 year, so it would help.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Sycho

so i'll probaly go for the 6600gt, but how can it speed up wmvhd ENCODE? i will proably be going HD editing within a 1~2 year, so it would help.

The video processor on the NV4x is supposed to be capable of both accelerating decoding and encoding. However no encoding plugins have been made available at this point (in fact they just enabled the hardware decoding in the drivers released 2 weeks ago), but when they do it should be able to encode some of the formats in hardware.

[plissken99]

Sycho, I use an HTPC, I may be able to help. Will you be using this for DVD playback I assume? If so, these cards may be overkill. On AVS forums the latest card to get praise for DVD playback is the Geforce 6800. I don't think it even has to be the GT version. Also, what display is the HTPC for?

It used to be Radeon cards were the best(which is whats in mine), but the recent Geforce cards have proven to be better, especially at colors.

[Sycho]

DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, WMV-HD, MPEG-2 HD, Games, Music, more moives, more games, PVR, ect.

[plissken99]

Being for games as well, the 6800GT will do all of that easily, thats what I would get.

[Sycho]

but it won't do wmvhd, i got lots of trailers! but, if i get a nice cpu, i might get a 6800