I appreciate your efforts to bring some real dicussion to the Video forum, it sure could use some. I like the idea of bios control of your video card myself. I'm not sure what Gigabyte means by "clandestinely overclocks the frequency of memory and core engines of ATI based PCI Express graphics", are the cards clocks "cloaked" somehow? Why can't they do the same for NVidia cards btw? I want more options for my hardware configuration, so I welcome this kind of innovation. It may force video card makers to take a look at overclocking implications for enthusiasts, its pretty much crap the way they offer overclocking while at the same time <wink> "of course it voids your warranty" <smile>, like that doesn't invite abuse.
I also agree that the 6800 standard is a decent buy at its pricepoint, and certainly not only if you play Doom3 (I don't even have it yet myself) I'm a bit behind everybody I guess since I'm just now playing Far Cry retail (thanks eVGA!) and enjoying it quite a bit, (and yes my AIW 9700pro also handles it very well). It was a big step-up from the ti4200 it replaced, and performs well in every game I've thown at it yet. I'll have Doom3 this week, so I'll see what the hulabaloo is all about