BFG 6800GS AGP is identical to BFG 6800GT AGP?

[Wolfshanze]

As some may or may not have noticed, for anyone interested in upgrading an AGP system, it would seem the BFG 6800GS OC is the way to go.

For $200 shipped at NewEgg, you can get the BFG 6800GS OC card, which oddly enough, comes STOCK with 16-pipes* and 370MHz core clock, warrantied. Note these are the identical stats of the earlier BFG 6800GT OC card. The only differance (as a BFG 6800GT owner) I can tell between the two cards is the heatsink, which is a stock cooler on the GS, while the older GT had a custom dual-fan BFG cooler.

As far as I know, this is the only card you're going to get for AGP that is garaunteed and warrantied with 16-pipes for a $200 price tag off the shelf (certainly for NVidia anyways).

Just a heads-up for those that my not have noticed this great deal.

*EDIT:
Upon further review it may seem that it's a typo and this is a warrantied 12-pipe card (that should unlock to 16 with a little luck). Still a good deal though.

 

[CP5670]

It's a good thing my 6800GT auction on ebay will end in three days. Once word gets out about this, nobody would buy that card.

 

[shaggydoug]

According to a post in this thread, newegg is in error stating it has 16 pipes.

Can anyone who got the card could confirm or deny this fact.

- shaggy

 

[Farfle]

Is a $200 6800GT overclocked to 375/1050 better than an $206 X850XT?

Hmm, I dunno, it seems to vary by the benchmarks. Older games seem to prefer the X850XT, but newer ones seem to run equally on both (not to mention the SM3 support).

 

[NoStateofMind]

Yes, I am also looking for confirmation.

 

[CKXP]

so is it 16 or 12 pipes??? i've seen some people say the BFG says it's 16 and vice versa...if it is 16 pipes then why call it a GS, it's a GT...or maybe BFG is trying undercut EVGA and XFX for sales by labeling it a GS...justifying the lower price.

 

[SelfishGene]

I should point out BFG tech support doesn't really know anything beyond tech support questions. Once on the phone with them, as his computer was doing it's thing, i tried to strike up a conversation in the dead time. I said that i'd like to get a 6800 GT but that they were virtually impossible to find. The tech support guy said, "oh, we haven't stopped making them.". Of course, all 6800 GTs worldwide dried up from the market a few weeks after tha . So i don't really put much faith in what any tech support dude says.

BFG doesn't make these chips. Odds are they aren't going to have the authority or capacity to say "lets make this a 16 pipe chip" where everyone else cannot. More then likely these extra pipes are 'unlocked' - but that doesn't, imo, guarantee that they'll work either. Newegg also had an error in their description regarding the memory, which was unfavorable but overlooked.

OTOH - BFG's own website lists the 6800 GS as having the exact same horsepower as the GT; 555 million Vertices/second and 33.6 Gb/second bandwidth.

My card is in-transit about two days away. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[SelfishGene]

BTW Newegg just changed it's page to say 12 pipes.

Probably the best guess about it's performance it to look at the XFX 6800 GS thread. Odds are you'll be able to open up the pipes and run it at least close to GT speeds.

 

[Wolfshanze]

BFG doesn't make these chips. Odds are they aren't going to have the authority or capacity to say "lets make this a 16 pipe chip" where everyone else cannot.

BFG doesn't make the chips... but they DO make the BIOS on the card... the BIOS tells you what is and isn't available and the clock settings... since "the chip" is made by NVidia and sold to BFG, one has to realize it's the N40 chip... that ALREADY has 16-pipes on it... it's the BIOS that tells wether or not all 16 are usuable or only 12, and this BFG has total control over.

It seemed that BFG was selling these as 16-pipe cards with a warranty as-such, but if that is not the case (as NewEgg has changed what they stated), then you just get the "regular" good deal of a $200 AGP card that should unlock to 16 pipes (but no garauntee to that). Oh well... it seemed like a good deal at the time... still is, even at 12-pipes.

It's worth noting BFG's own website doesn't mention how many pipes are available on the AGP card... odd... you think they would.

So does anybody have an AGP BFG 6800GS?

 

[RussianSensation]

newegg corrected it to 12 pipes

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
newegg corrected it to 12 pipes

it's still the best 6800GS agp deal to date though.

edit: besides that's what Rivatuner is for

 

[SelfishGene]

They also just upped the price 15$ at Newegg :/. I think they have some kind of automated script that raises the price of any item that seems to be selling unusually quickly.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: SelfishGene
They also just upped the price 15$ at Newegg :/. I think they have some kind of automated script that raises the price of any item that seems to be selling unusually quickly.

I wouldn't doubt that. It may even go as far to actually count how many times it's been viewed. No surprise to me. Always trying to get that extra buck! ....Nevermind...I'm not going any further with that.

 

[SelfishGene]

IMO-- the AGP 6800 GS cards are only worth it if you can enable those extra pipes. The PCI-e version is a different fab process and has only 12 pipes but runs nearly 100+ mhz faster. 200$ for the equivalent of an x800 pro isn't, perhaps, the most exciting deal.

My biggest consideration was the power supply. I'dve waited for the 7800 GS AGP, but i don't have the rated PS (mine is several years old, but rated at 350W). When you factor in a 50$ ps, the 300$+ vcard upgrade becomes much less cost efficient. The same formula for not upgrading to a PCI-e version of the 7800GT; by itself, it more cost effective per FPS, but with the cost of the MB and PS it's hardly a no-brainer purchase.

The only other option it too wait it out for the x8x0 XTs to get around the 200$ mark. But i prefer NVidia for last gen cards, and BFG because of who they are as a company. Although, ironically, BFG doesn't really make the best O/C cards anymore. Still nice to get support from a guy in Chigago vs. someone in Asia whom barely speaks English, however.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Still nice to get support from a guy in Chigago vs. someone in Asia whom barely speaks English, however.

I hear you... truth be told, 99% of on-line tech-support calls (from a variety of companies) are farmed out of India (cheap labor of "supposed" English speaking people).

 

[Chriz]

Check this out, just noticed on Newegg:

New EVGA 6800GS 256-A8-N397-TX:

Core clock: 430MHz
Memory Clock: 1100MHz

 

[Chriz]

Also, the BFG card is now up to $229.99

 

[NoStateofMind]

eVGA's site lists it as 400Mhz, CO version......is it the same?

 

[Chriz]

The model number matches (256-A8-N397-TX), so I'd assume it's the same. So either Newegg is in error (most likely) or EVGA is.

 

[Chriz]

Yep, Newegg's goof, they already changed it down to 400 Mhz.

 

[MX2]

How is a 12 pipe card that "might" unlock identical to a 16 card that "is" unlocked

 

[The Sly Syl]

This thread is actually the first place i've heard that 6800GS's AGP were (much) slower than 6800GS PCI-E.

Thank's for mentioning that, i need to change a videocard upgrade reccomendation then.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

IMO the best deal in an AGP card - by far - is the X850XT at Microcenter, which is faster than a 6800 Ultra in most applications, and sells for $199 after rebate.

 

[SelfishGene]

Well... it's a give and take

If you get a 6800 GS, O/C it to 400 and unlock all the pipes - whala! you have yourself an 6800 Ultra. Which is pretty much the fastest last gen card there is, at least in Open GL games.

The PCI-e 6800 GS IS about 100 mhz faster out of the box - so its a better deal stock. But i believe it's BUILT with only 12 pipes - it's actually a more advanced chip, a 90nm vs. the old AGP 6800's 110nm fab process. Is 480mhz 12 pipes better then 400mhz 16 pipes?

Also which card is best for you really depends on what game you play. I'm a pretty hardcore flight simmer, so Open GL performance is a big thing for me. Ergo, the Nvidia cards are generally much faster in Pacific Fighters. If your big into Counterstrike ATI would probably be a better choice.

Tomshardware has their VGA charts. At the end of their latest PCI-e VGA charts they came up with some sort of average of every test they ran and created a spreadsheet you can look at determine "% increase in performance vs. your current card, on average." I would direct link, but, well, you know, protocol vs. the two sites and all. They rated all the X800 and X850 card above the 6600GT and 6800 but below everything else, including SLI 6600GT, the 6800GT and 6800 Ultra. In fact they rated the 6800 GT about 10% better then the X850 XT PE. But again, all on average.

Sucky thing is that Newegg kicked ass and shipped my card in less then half a work day. But UPS hasn't even done anything in two days :/. It's been in transit for two days to Dallas. Hopefully i'll have it by Monday to post some relative comparisons between it and a 6600 GT as well as whether or not i can run it with 16 pipes.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Yeah, I'm upset with NewEgg for switching their default carrier from Fed-X to a shipping company named "ooops" (UPS). UPS sits on packages all the time, no matter where it came from or where it's going to... I'm military, and I've lived all over this country, and everywhere I go, UPS always sucks... just take promised delivery time from UPS and add a couple of days... that's their service for you.

NewEgg was a lot better when they shipped Fed-X, but they got cheap on their carrier (but didn't lower the shipping fees to the customer one bit).