6800le cards

[viper2ko]

I need a new video card and want to buy either

Leadtek A400LE Geforce 6800LE 128MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...22212&ATT=Video+Cards&CMP=OTC-d3alt1me


Chaintech SA6800L GeForce 6800 LE AGP 8X 128MB DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI Retai
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe...?ProductCode=323278&affiliate=shopping


I have read about people unlocking pipelines and stuff with rivatuner. Now I know NOTHING about video cards and have found some guides on how to unlock. But i want to know which of these to cards has the higher success rate of unlocking? Also if u cant unlock the pipelines when u try does that ruin ur card or something? Does unlocking them cause them to heat up more? Just give me the lodown on unlocking them. The pros and cons. Thanks.

 

[Crescent13]

Leadtek, good japaneese transisitors, better warranty, better cooling, and better brand!
Chaintek, cheap chineese (no offense if you're chineese) trahsistors, bad warranty, look at that cooling for yourself, 4 ramsinks and a fan, instead of pure copper all over.

Welcome to the Forums!

EDIT: oh yeah, unlocking just causes the card to heat up more, wich means the leadtek would be a better choice because of the cooling. Unlocking the card unlocks 4 extra pipelines which the 6800GT/ultra uses. The more pipelines, the better the card will perform. (example, a 500mhz card with 8 pipelines will be just as fast as a 250 mhz card with 16 pipelines).

 

[baddog121390]

it takes more power when its unlocked right?

 

[Susquehannock]

Far as I know the chance of damaging your card is extremely slim. And you can always go back.

Success at unlocking is luck of the draw with any brand. However my vote goes for the Leadtek as well.
If nothing else for their cooler design. They seem to OC well too.

Have you read through 2Xtreme's unlock thread yet? The answer to all your questions should be there.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1500237&enterthread=y

By the way ... Charlie over at XS has great results with his Leadtek 6800LE and scored just shy of 13,000 in 3dMark2003.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=964477#post964477

 

[baddog121390]

damn... the leadtek 6800le has dropped 30 bucks in price since i bought it a week ago!

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

6800le = crap. get a 6800 over it.

 

[viper2ko]

hey guys, thanks for all your help. But supertyphoon, why is the 6800le crap? I just wanna make sure its good before i get it. Why the 6800 over the 6800le.

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

6800le = 8 pixel pipelines, which is 3/4 that of the 6800's and only has 4 vertex pipelines enabled. it is not really "crap". your chances of unlocking the 8 pipelines is slim, and the core is slower. however, they are the same gpu and if you take your chances you can get a 6800 nu or better. still, get the 6800gt and get more bang. here is refurbed, 6800gt: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130203R
and if you don't have the money, spend a few more bucks for the 6800nu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133148R

 

[Avalon]

$135 isn't half bad for an 8 pipe 6800 card. If you could even unlock just 4 pipes, you'd be sitting pretty on a very decent card for such a small sum of money. I'd take the Leadtek over the Chaintech due to the very nice and large HSF it has.

 

[Rage1881]

I say get the evga 6800nu the unlock rate is very good...and can be had for like 20 more dollars than that Le

 

[Fardringle]

Originally posted by: Rage1881
I say get the evga 6800nu the unlock rate is very good...and can be had for like 20 more dollars than that Le

Where can you get a new, retail eVGA 6800nu for $155 US dollars ($20 more than the $135 the retail 6800le is going for at NewEgg)? It's currently $189 at NewEgg and $193 at ZipZoomFly, and I don't see anything cheaper on any legitimate retailer's site.

Yes, the 6800nu is better stock than the 6800le. That's why the 'le' is ~$50 cheaper. But the apparently very decent chance that the 6800le will unlock to at least 6800nu specs and quite possibly even higher, is more than worth the $50 difference for someone on a budget like myself... (A $20 difference might be a different story, so I'd be very interested to find out where you are seeing that price!)

 

[GTPoompt]

I remember that newegg used to have a PNY oem (white box) 6800 NU for about 155 a while back. But I believe a lot of people had missing parts or non-working cards.

I bought the 6800LE and I hope to get it soon. Good deal if I can unlock at least 4 pipes.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Fardringle

Originally posted by: Rage1881
I say get the evga 6800nu the unlock rate is very good...and can be had for like 20 more dollars than that Le

Where can you get a new, retail eVGA 6800nu for $155 US dollars ($20 more than the $135 the retail 6800le is going for at NewEgg)? It's currently $189 at NewEgg and $193 at ZipZoomFly, and I don't see anything cheaper on any legitimate retailer's site.

Yes, the 6800nu is better stock than the 6800le. That's why the 'le' is ~$50 cheaper. But the apparently very decent chance that the 6800le will unlock to at least 6800nu specs and quite possibly even higher, is more than worth the $50 difference for someone on a budget like myself... (A $20 difference might be a different story, so I'd be very interested to find out where you are seeing that price!)

There was a PNY 6800NU OEM card @ Newegg for $159 for a while, but it's PNY. Enough said.

Typically, the unlock sucess rate is around 60% for a quad. I'd imagine that your chances of getting both quads unlocked would be 60% of the initial 60%...maybe about ~35%. However, the vertex units almost always unlock, so at the very worst you could still enjoy a small boost from unlocking those. Good luck.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: SuperTyphoon
6800le = crap. get a 6800 over it.

The only LE cards that unlock were the ones made by EVGA.

They used the Ultra core and PCB and memory.

Those things sold out quick, it was an ultra for half the price.

These 128 mb LE's dont unlock I believe.

Just get a NU.

 

[fibes]

How much gaming do u do? I think that's a great price for a 6800LE. I believe the 6800LE is almost as compatiable as the 6600GT.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: fibes
How much gaming do u do? I think that's a great price for a 6800LE. I believe the 6800LE is almost as compatiable as the 6600GT.

I doubt that.

The GT has much higher core clock speeds and memory.

Not to mention it has GDDR3.

The only thing this has over the GT would probably be the 256 bit memory.

Remember, a GT is pretty much equall to a NU at lower resolutions without AA/AF.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: BouZouki

Originally posted by: SuperTyphoon
6800le = crap. get a 6800 over it.

The only LE cards that unlock were the ones made by EVGA.

They used the Ultra core and PCB and memory.

Those things sold out quick, it was an ultra for half the price.

These 128 mb LE's dont unlock I believe.

Just get a NU.

Wrong. The eVGA 6800 Limited Edition (not LE, they had an LE card as well) was a freak card that was basically a lower clocked 6800GT. It had 16 pipes out of the box, but ran at something like 325/1000. These 8 pipe LEs do have a chance of unlocking, just like an NU, so long as its an AGP version.

A 6600GT has only 70% of the memory bandwidth that a 6800NU/LE has.
However, the 6800NU only had 95% of the fillrate of the 6600GT, which was why at lower resolutions it was a smidget faster. If you compare the fillrate of a 6800LE to that of a 6600GT, you'll see that it only has 60% of the fillrate

So basically, the 6800LE at stock would take a much smaller hit when you enabled eye candy over the 6600GT, but otherwise, the 6600GT would be a good ammount faster until at very high resolutions where both were unplayable. Either way, you're looking at a $135 6800LE vs. a $150 6600GT for the AGP flavor. If you manage to unlock even one pipeline quad, you're pretty golden at that price range.

 

[fstime]

Wrong. The eVGA 6800 Limited Edition (not LE, they had an LE card as well) was a freak card that was basically a lower clocked 6800GT. It had 16 pipes out of the box, but ran at something like 325/1000.

Thats what I meant, the LE that had 256 MB of memory made by EVGA.

The other LE made by EVGA has 128.

And no, its not a 6800GT, it used the Ultra core.

These 8 pipe LEs do have a chance of unlocking, just like an NU, so long as its an AGP
version.

If your going to bother to even TRY to unlock these cards, just get the NU since it can unlock to 16 pipes,

It's harder than you think, I got a NU thinking it would unlock, nope.

Its 50/50.




The 6600GT is almost equall to the Nu with no aa/af turned on at anything bellow 1280x.

Now, the LE only has 8 pipes compared to the Nu's 12 so it would be much closer.

That LE is probably around the speed of a 9800P.

 

[Rage1881]

forgot to mention i meant used/refurb 6800nu.. i would say its higher than 50/50 with the evga

 

[Wag]

Every refurb I bought from Newegg had a problem with it from the outset or died after the 30days were up. Don't do it.

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: Rage1881
forgot to mention i meant used/refurb 6800nu.. i would say its higher than 50/50 with the evga

There was a poll not to long ago.

It was around 50/50, thats what i'm going by.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: BouZouki

Wrong. The eVGA 6800 Limited Edition (not LE, they had an LE card as well) was a freak card that was basically a lower clocked 6800GT. It had 16 pipes out of the box, but ran at something like 325/1000.

Thats what I meant, the LE that had 256 MB of memory made by EVGA.

The other LE made by EVGA has 128.

And no, its not a 6800GT, it used the Ultra core.

The 6800GT and 6800Ultra are the same core.

These 8 pipe LEs do have a chance of unlocking, just like an NU, so long as its an AGP
version.

If your going to bother to even TRY to unlock these cards, just get the NU since it can unlock to 16 pipes,

It's harder than you think, I got a NU thinking it would unlock, nope.

Its 50/50.

That's why you're not supposed to buy these banking on an unlock. The unlocking is just a bonus on a card that fits your price range. Unlocking is not hard at all. It's simple, and the chances of a full pixel pipe/vertex unlock was about 60% in the last big poll I saw. The chance that you could at least unlock the vertex units was 90%. With the 6800LE, you've got a very good chance of at least reaching 6800NU level, with a smaller but still sizable chance of reaching 16 pipes.


The 6600GT is almost equall to the Nu with no aa/af turned on at anything bellow 1280x.

That's what I said.

Now, the LE only has 8 pipes compared to the Nu's 12 so it would be much closer.

That LE is probably around the speed of a 9800P.

Probably, left at stock. It has a lot of potential for growth.

 

[pibb]

http://www.pcunleash.com/bbs/zboard.php?id=MyItemReview&no=39

http://www.doomedpc.com/drupal-4.5.2/?q=/node/9

 

[BrokenArrow]

Just got my 6800le today (chaintech). Works great. Unlocked all 16 pixel pipes and 5 of 6 vertex shaders. $139 shipped 2nd day air from ZZF. Well worth it if you ask me.

 

[Mektarus]

Originally posted by: BrokenArrow
Just got my 6800le today (chaintech). Works great. Unlocked all 16 pixel pipes and 5 of 6 vertex shaders. $139 shipped 2nd day air from ZZF. Well worth it if you ask me.

I agree, I have the Chaintech 6800LE and was able to unlock all pipes and shaders. Went from a 6806 to 9256 in 3Dmark03 and I haven't even tried overclocking it yet. It is hit or miss, but it seems like a very high percentage are able to unlock at least 4 pipes and 1 shader which basically makes this card a 6800nu for a lot less money (which matters to some of us). And if you get more than 12/5 unlocked its gravy. In my opinion, the 6800LE is far and away the best bang for the buck on the market right now.