HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Gainward 6800GT *GS*

[noctdeus]

I just received my Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample today. I've been searching for good deals everywhere for well over a month. I waited for the Buy.com MSI 6800GT + Doom 3 deal to come through since it's first posting here back on August 2nd. I tried snatching several of the 6800 Ultra deals only to find out it was a scam. So I finally broke down and bought the Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample from Newegg for $437.

Here's my result:

GPU overclocked to 440MHz!
Memory overclocked to 1200MHz!
Rock solid stable for hours!!

440/1200 in my hot computer-case completely blew me away. Highest I've seen it go for temps was 72C, and I hear that's well within normal ranges for even a stock-clocked 6800GT card.

Yes, the fans are a little noisy. You can adjust the speed of them though. My computer-case is hot so I have a lot of fans in it already. My solution to the computer noise problem was to put it in the closet with a floor fan and use long cables (monitor/keyboard/mouse/USB), it's a crude but effective solution.

I ran the Dawn demo and was totally blown away, but I noticed the edges were very rough. So I went and turned on Anti-aliasing. I figured I'd try turning it all the way up along with the Anisotropic filtering. I went back into the Dawn demo knowing it would probably slow it down quite a bit since I maxed everything out -- guess what!! NO SLOWDOWN WHATSOEVER that I could notice!

I highly recommend the Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample card, I'm very happy with it. I don't know if you'll get 440/1200, but with the Golden Sample you're guaranteed at least Ultra speeds (400/1100).

 

This isn't a hot deal - post it in the Video or General Hardware forums.

 

[hytek369]

good for you, next time post a hot deal

 

[noctdeus]

Sorry, you're right I should have posted it in the Video forum. Sorry 'bout that. If a mod sees this, please move it, thanks.

 

[hytek369]

no harm intended.

btw, where and how much did you buy it for?

doesnt that card take up 2 slots?

 

[CrazyGamer]

Originally posted by: noctdeus

Here's my result:

GPU overclocked to 440MHz!
Memory overclocked to 1200MHz!

Nice overclock there.

 

[INGlewood78]

have you benched it?

link

 

[Bateluer]

I got one on the way.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: noctdeus

I just received my Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample today. I've been searching for good deals everywhere for well over a month. I waited for the Buy.com MSI 6800GT + Doom 3 deal to come through since it's first posting here back on August 2nd. I tried snatching several of the 6800 Ultra deals only to find out it was a scam. So I finally broke down and bought the Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample from Newegg for $437.

Here's my result:

GPU overclocked to 440MHz!
Memory overclocked to 1200MHz!
Rock solid stable for hours!!

440/1200 in my hot computer-case completely blew me away. Highest I've seen it go for temps was 72C, and I hear that's well within normal ranges for even a stock-clocked 6800GT card.

Yes, the fans are a little noisy. You can adjust the speed of them though. My computer-case is hot so I have a lot of fans in it already. My solution to the computer noise problem was to put it in the closet with a floor fan and use long cables (monitor/keyboard/mouse/USB), it's a crude but effective solution.

I ran the Dawn demo and was totally blown away, but I noticed the edges were very rough. So I went and turned on Anti-aliasing. I figured I'd try turning it all the way up along with the Anisotropic filtering. I went back into the Dawn demo knowing it would probably slow it down quite a bit since I maxed everything out -- guess what!! NO SLOWDOWN WHATSOEVER that I could notice!

I highly recommend the Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample card, I'm very happy with it. I don't know if you'll get 440/1200, but with the Golden Sample you're guaranteed at least Ultra speeds (400/1100).

Over the next few weeks, you will notice your GT start to run hotter, and hotter, and hotter. They can overclock, but that doesn't mean they like to. You will notice you will have to start backing down on your o/c because of artifacts or stability issues. And you'll wonder why this is happening. Why is it that I could run 440/1200 without a hitch, and only a week or two later I can't make 400/1100 without problems. Its because damage has been done. No other explaination. Not wishing this on you, just telling you what to expect. Unless you received a miracle card. My GT has been stock from Day1 and will stay there. Palunty quick enough. No reason to risk the card, too damn expensive. Good Luck with yours and congrats.

 

[INGlewood78]

[/quote]

Over the next few weeks, you will notice your GT start to run hotter, and hotter, and hotter. They can overclock, but that doesn't mean they like to. You will notice you will have to start backing down on your o/c because of artifacts or stability issues. And you'll wonder why this is happening. Why is it that I could run 440/1200 without a hitch, and only a week or two later I can't make 400/1100 without problems. Its because damage has been done. No other explaination. Not wishing this on you, just telling you what to expect. Unless you received a miracle card. My GT has been stock from Day1 and will stay there. Palunty quick enough. No reason to risk the card, too damn expensive. Good Luck with yours and congrats.

[/quote]

Really..hmm, I never knew that. Interesting, does this pertain to CPUs too..b/c I was able to overclock my t-bred an extra 200mhz after 9 months for some odd reason..was at 2.3 stable...now able to almost get to 2.5 without a problem.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: INGlewood78

Over the next few weeks, you will notice your GT start to run hotter, and hotter, and hotter. They can overclock, but that doesn't mean they like to. You will notice you will have to start backing down on your o/c because of artifacts or stability issues. And you'll wonder why this is happening. Why is it that I could run 440/1200 without a hitch, and only a week or two later I can't make 400/1100 without problems. Its because damage has been done. No other explaination. Not wishing this on you, just telling you what to expect. Unless you received a miracle card. My GT has been stock from Day1 and will stay there. Palunty quick enough. No reason to risk the card, too damn expensive. Good Luck with yours and congrats.

[/quote]

Really..hmm, I never knew that. Interesting, does this pertain to CPUs too..b/c I was able to overclock my t-bred an extra 200mhz after 9 months for some odd reason..was at 2.3 stable...now able to almost get to 2.5 without a problem.[/quote]

No, not CPU's.I don't think I actually mentioned this happening to CPU's. It seems only with 6800 series cards when they are aggressively o/c'd. I think it might have to do with the super high transistor count and the current 130nm manufacturing process. I hope they shrink the 6800 core to 110nm for the fall refresh 6850's. This will allow unpenalized higher clockspeeds along with a refined process. At least I hope it will.

 

[Deskstar]

I think (but am not certain) that the Gainward 6800 based cards have different configurations with the same model numbers, based on what region of the world they are offered. The web sites for gainward and review sites in Europe, South America and the US show the different configurations for the cards that have the same names and model numbers. The differences are in memory speed (1.6ns vs 1.8ns on the Ultras from different countries; and sometimes 2.0ns vs 2.8ns on the GTs and plain 6800s) Dual DVI (some yes-some, no with the same model number). Stock clock settings probably are matched with whatever memory is supplied, etc.
I assume that the 6800GTs that are offered in the US are the US configurations, but the listings on the vendors sites do not give enough detail to be certain. Just a possible head's up. If true, then this is an interesting model for vendors.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: INGlewood78

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003


Over the next few weeks, you will notice your GT start to run hotter, and hotter, and hotter. They can overclock, but that doesn't mean they like to. You will notice you will have to start backing down on your o/c because of artifacts or stability issues. And you'll wonder why this is happening. Why is it that I could run 440/1200 without a hitch, and only a week or two later I can't make 400/1100 without problems. Its because damage has been done. No other explaination. Not wishing this on you, just telling you what to expect. Unless you received a miracle card. My GT has been stock from Day1 and will stay there. Palunty quick enough. No reason to risk the card, too damn expensive. Good Luck with yours and congrats.

Really..hmm, I never knew that. Interesting, does this pertain to CPUs too..b/c I was able to overclock my t-bred an extra 200mhz after 9 months for some odd reason..was at 2.3 stable...now able to almost get to 2.5 without a problem.

No, not really, he is just trying to justify keeping his gt at stock.

 

[Deskstar]

I continued to review the descriptions of the Gainward cards on different sites in Europe and the US. In spite of the differences in the various postings, I am willing to wager that those differences are more related to erroneous data placed into the webpage or reviewer than due to actual differences in the country's version of the card. This is most true for the 6046 verions that can be found as dula DIV or not, as 350/900 or 350/1000 or 1.6ns or 2.0 ns memory speed. Although I cannot locate the posting, I do recall one post that had the Ultra version with 1.6ns memory and another had it with 1.8ns memory. I suspect that these are all confusing the various products, ie Golden Samples vs non-GS versions, dual DVI vs VGA/DVI versions, etc. Once the products are actually delivered to the resellers, I'm bet that they revise their posts and get it consistent at all locations. Just my guess.

 

[kylebisme]

I didn't even realise there was 1.8ns memory, I thought it was all 1.6ns or 2.0ns for gddr3 sofar.

 

[conlan]

I agree the 6800GT is hands down the best price/performance VidCard out right now. I was just at Best Buy and they had 2 BFG 6800GT OCs on the shelf for 399.99. It was hard to resist.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman

Originally posted by: INGlewood78

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003


Over the next few weeks, you will notice your GT start to run hotter, and hotter, and hotter. They can overclock, but that doesn't mean they like to. You will notice you will have to start backing down on your o/c because of artifacts or stability issues. And you'll wonder why this is happening. Why is it that I could run 440/1200 without a hitch, and only a week or two later I can't make 400/1100 without problems. Its because damage has been done. No other explaination. Not wishing this on you, just telling you what to expect. Unless you received a miracle card. My GT has been stock from Day1 and will stay there. Palunty quick enough. No reason to risk the card, too damn expensive. Good Luck with yours and congrats.

Really..hmm, I never knew that. Interesting, does this pertain to CPUs too..b/c I was able to overclock my t-bred an extra 200mhz after 9 months for some odd reason..was at 2.3 stable...now able to almost get to 2.5 without a problem.

No, not really, he is just trying to justify keeping his gt at stock.

I wasn't aware that I needed to justify being afraid of killing my 400.00 video card there Snowy.

 

[kylebisme]

Well you don't need to, but telling other people that overclocking is going to kill theirs is rather disshonest.

 

[Bateluer]

I keep my Golden Sample at stock. A P4 2.4C makes my GT pretty CPU bound.

 

[Corporate Thug]

i've had a similar experiance to keysplayr2003

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: conlan
I agree the 6800GT is hands down the best price/performance VidCard out right now. I was just at Best Buy and they had 2 BFG 6800GT OCs on the shelf for 399.99. It was hard to resist.

More like its the hands down best price/performance high end card. The 9700 Pro's price/performance is just as high if not higher, and then there are the $40 cards that can't really game but the ratio is still high.

 

[KutterMax]

Have any of you looked at putting water cooling on this card. I was looking at adding a Zalman Resonator to my system. It sounds like some people were able to get the VGA water block to work with the 6800.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
Well you don't need to, but telling other people that overclocking is going to kill theirs is rather disshonest.

First of all, I said that "I" was afraid of killing "my" card. Not once did I say "overclocking is going to kill". I said that damage will be done. It will be evident when they can no longer obtain the clocks they once did. This forum is full of instances where 6800GT/Ultra owners complain about not getting what they used to without artifacting and have to back down from what was once stable.

I can't even begin to believe that you would think I was dishonest for saying this. It looks like your just in a provocative mood. Maybe you can explain why this happens to 6800's then? It's the best I can do.

 

[jim1976]

Regardless if that fact holds some truth or not ,why on earth would someone want to o/c his GT more than 400/1100(ultra speeds)? Just to say that he has a great 3dmock03 score? Plz....
I have an A64 3400+ and the cases that Ultra speeds offer something worthmentioning against stock speeds are not in my book.
Stock speeds are hard to be utilized 100% even for a high end cpu. The only advantage I've seen from running@ultra speeds is the min framerates.
So....

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
Well you don't need to, but telling other people that overclocking is going to kill theirs is rather disshonest.

First of all, I said that "I" was afraid of killing "my" card. Not once did I say "overclocking is going to kill". I said that damage will be done. It will be evident when they can no longer obtain the clocks they once did. This forum is full of instances where 6800GT/Ultra owners complain about not getting what they used to without artifacting and have to back down from what was once stable.

I can't even begin to believe that you would think I was dishonest for saying this. It looks like your just in a provocative mood. Maybe you can explain why this happens to 6800's then? It's the best I can do.

Show me a person that had to turn his gt down to get a stable overclock and I will show you someone who didn't test his overoclock well to being with. Careful overclocking isn't going to hurt a gt any more than any other videocard.