Gainward 6800GT Dual-DVI for $385 (dropped from $400)

[JoeAtHome]

Originally posted by: SgtRock
You know I find it very funny that after at least ten of us mentioned that we received the standard GT and not the GS that everyone was promising us that JOE MONARCH disappeared form this forum..... Should tell you somthing right there... Thank goodness for Reseller Ratings.

Well, it is a Holiday weekend, I'm not much at my PC.

I have apologize immensely to those that have felt slighted during this process.

The facts are, yes, many people were sent GS cards while they purchased a non-GS card. And yes,
many people received a non-GS card which IS what they purchased.

It was never meant to be an advertised deal, and unfortunately once word got out it DID make it more difficult for those to obtain the GS cards as the initial stock dwindled. As soon as I heard about the "deal" in the forum, I got on here to tell everyone that it was not a guaranteed deal. (Which, coincidentally, the deal was posted as to begin with)

I did try to honor requests for a GS, but, I did receive MANY more requests for a GS card that the guys on here that did not get a GS.

It was no bait-and-switch, if it was to be one, it should have been done for more profit than what it was. The Gainward card was the least expensive GT card on our site, and was priced better than most GT cards out there.

Bait-and-switch? Mark that card up to $410, promise to all that without a doubt they will get a Golden Sample, pull all the GS cards, and then make the profit while screwing everyone on the deal. We did not do that. The price of the card remained low. GS cards remained in inventory under the same item code. People received both GS and Non-GS cards.

If you feel dissatisfied with your order, contact us before bashing on Reseller Ratings.

Otherwise, I hope you've had a chance to enjoy your card during this holiday weekend! (And my Geforce2 MX card hates your 6800GT. *laughs*)

 

[Glow]

Joe, nothing you can say can change anything. 12 people got non-GSes, 0 got GSes. It does not even matter since the non-GSes overclock great anyway. But it does not change the fact that your company most definately lied. There is no chance in hell that more than 50% of your cards were GSes that you shipped when the price was 380. Please just stop posting because it just makes me angrier. Not one person got a GS, and it was told that 95% of the cards were. GSes. End of story. Take your 40 thousand dollars and deal with the bad reseller ratings and next time don't overstate things.

 

[grohl]

wpenhall: dude, these temps are much higher than what I am seeing.

At stock 350/1000 my temps are about 52/40 on no load, about 58/45 after an hour of Doom3

At 400/1100 my temps are 65/48 after an hour or more of gameplay. I have only moderate case cooling installed.

BTW at 400/1100 3dMark 2003 went up 10% to 12000! Nice.

I have experienced a little video stuttering, on both stock and nl speeds, running at all resolutions (I mostly run at 1600x1200), on "very high" graphics quality. It's only noticeable sometimes. It's more of a flickering, very hard to describe. FarCray and UT 2004 are beautiful; no stuttering. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[Glow]

Originally posted by: grohl
wpenhall: dude, these temps are much higher than what I am seeing.

At stock 350/1000 my temps are about 52/40 on no load, about 58/45 after an hour of Doom3

At 400/1100 my temps are 65/48 after an hour or more of gameplay. I have only moderate case cooling installed.

BTW at 400/1100 3dMark 2003 went up 10% to 12000! Nice.

I have experienced a little video stuttering, on both stock and nl speeds, running at all resolutions (I mostly run at 1600x1200), on "very high" graphics quality. It's only noticeable sometimes. It's more of a flickering, very hard to describe. FarCray and UT 2004 are beautiful; no stuttering. Anyone else seeing this?

When the overclock is too high you will see textures randomly flicker. I got this when I ran at max o/c settings before crashing. At slightly higher than GS speeds, mine runs fine though and I have not seen flickering.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: grohl
wpenhall: dude, these temps are much higher than what I am seeing.

At stock 350/1000 my temps are about 52/40 on no load, about 58/45 after an hour of Doom3

At 400/1100 my temps are 65/48 after an hour or more of gameplay. I have only moderate case cooling installed.

BTW at 400/1100 3dMark 2003 went up 10% to 12000! Nice.

I have experienced a little video stuttering, on both stock and nl speeds, running at all resolutions (I mostly run at 1600x1200), on "very high" graphics quality. It's only noticeable sometimes. It's more of a flickering, very hard to describe. FarCray and UT 2004 are beautiful; no stuttering. Anyone else seeing this?

There are large threads in goth GH and Video which outline the causes and fixes for stuttering with 6800GTs.

 

[grohl]

Glow - I am seeing the stuttering only in Doom3 on stock speeds and when OC'ing - seems it's not related to OCing.

HOP - thx, yeah I am checking those threads out now...


edit: Sorry, I'll keep these discussions to other forums, last post.

 

[Glow]

Originally posted by: grohl
Glow - I am seeing the stuttering only in Doom3 on stock speeds and when OC'ing - seems it's not related to OCing.

HOP - thx, yeah I am checking those threads out now...


edit: Sorry, I'll keep these discussions to other forums, last post.

Oh, must be a different stutter than I was talking about. COuld you link the other threads, I'm interested in seeing the issues. I have not noticed any stutter on mine, but maybe I missed it. I don't know what websites he meant by "goth GH and video". Sounds like a novelty video store or a club.

 

[Codyz28]

What is the diference between this card and the Evga 6800gt? Is it just the overclocking and warranty that makes it so special, or is it better?

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Codyz28
What is the diference between this card and the Evga 6800gt? Is it just the overclocking and warranty that makes it so special, or is it better?

Dual DVI and better/louder cooling.

 

[wpenhall]

Originally posted by: grohl
wpenhall: dude, these temps are much higher than what I am seeing.

At stock 350/1000 my temps are about 52/40 on no load, about 58/45 after an hour of Doom3

At 400/1100 my temps are 65/48 after an hour or more of gameplay. I have only moderate case cooling installed.

BTW at 400/1100 3dMark 2003 went up 10% to 12000! Nice.

I have experienced a little video stuttering, on both stock and nl speeds, running at all resolutions (I mostly run at 1600x1200), on "very high" graphics quality. It's only noticeable sometimes. It's more of a flickering, very hard to describe. FarCray and UT 2004 are beautiful; no stuttering. Anyone else seeing this?

Hi - thanks for the info,

I've noticed a few funky things with this card:

1) Temp issue - as described in previous post. I'm in the mid 60's (GPU) / low 40s (PCB) at idle, and I'm really not showing much temp difference between stock and o/c. I hit the mid-90s using rthdribl, however.

2) I don't see anything unusual in the benchmark tests when I run at 400/1100; however, I definitely see speckles on some of the wall textures in Doom3. They disappear when I back it down to stock.

3) I've also noticed subtle horizontal strings of flickering light blue pixels, at stock, on the right side of my screen (2001fp) with my 2D apps - particularly on my scroll bar areas. They also move up and down with the bars when I scroll. What I see is somewhat similar to the picture that brystmar posted, but only in the horizontal, MUCH less pronounced, and won't show up in a screen capture.

4) Sometimes, when switching between apps using the taskbar, my entire screen blanks out for a second or so. Anyone else have this problem?

So - all these things combined make me suspect that my particular card may have some issues. Thoughts?

BTW - I'm pairing it with an XP 2200+ and 512 MB RAM. I'm also using an Enermax 350 PS. Could this power supply be a potential cause?

Thanks!

 

[oakleaf00]

Originally posted by: Glow
I don't know what websites he meant by "goth GH and video". Sounds like a novelty video store or a club.

I think Hero means "both GH and Video", referring to the 'General Hardware' and 'Video' forums here.

 

[grohl]

AT thread link

Stuttering fixit link

NVNews link

Some of these problems in these threads are different than what I am seeing. Some people have described pauses or crashes - not me. Mine are horizontal flashes/lines I see only on movement, sometimes. That's the best way I can describe it. I'll give these fixes a try later today.

 

[imported_sjaxkingpin]

So I see folks here talking 80-90C temps. I haven't seen em that high on mine, but it makes me curious. How hot can these run w/o doing damage? I realize when oc'ing that tex tearing is a better measure, but I'm just curious

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: oakleaf00

Originally posted by: Glow
I don't know what websites he meant by "goth GH and video". Sounds like a novelty video store or a club.

I think Hero means "both GH and Video", referring to the 'General Hardware' and 'Video' forums here.

No, there's a super secret goth hardware forum where we discuss vampirism as it relates to AMD CPU stepping.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: grohl

1) Temp issue - as described in previous post. I'm in the mid 60's (GPU) / low 40s (PCB) at idle, and I'm really not showing much temp difference between stock and o/c. I hit the mid-90s using rthdribl, however.

2) I don't see anything unusual in the benchmark tests when I run at 400/1100; however, I definitely see speckles on some of the wall textures in Doom3. They disappear when I back it down to stock.

Mid 90's is too hot. The threshold is around 120°, so you're technically "sorta okay", but the accepted recommendation is not to go above 90°. That's why there's speckling, ime. Sorry if I missed it, but have to slowed down the fans or something? What are your ambient case temps?

My guess is there's something wrong. I'd check the obvious things and then ask in Video, C&C, of GH.

 

[wpenhall]

HoP -

Yeah, seems pretty hot to me. I don't know my ambient case temp - how do I monitor that? My mobo is the Epox 8k5a+ - I'm not sure if that has an ambient thermometer built in. I'll have to check that out.

Couple other weird things - when set to dynamic, the fans constantly speed up and slow down - both in 2D and 3D. Pretty annoying - I actually prefer to just leave them fixed at 100%. Do your fan speeds often fluctuate at dynamic?

Also, I set both my 2D and 3D GPU clock to 400. In 2D, the rivatuner temp/clock monitor shows that. HOWEVER, when I start D3, riva shows my GPU clock dropping back down to 350! When I exit Doom, it goes back to 400. What's up with that?

All this stuff combined is leading me to believe I have a flaky card. I'm becoming more and more tempted to RMA it for a new one.

 

[oakleaf00]

Originally posted by: wpenhall


Couple other weird things - when set to dynamic, the fans constantly speed up and slow down - both in 2D and 3D. Pretty annoying - I actually prefer to just leave them fixed at 100%. Do your fan speeds often fluctuate at dynamic?

Mine does the same thing - that's why I don't like using the dynamic setting. I have mine set at 50%/80% (2D/3D).

 

[Glow]

Originally posted by: grohl
Some people have described pauses or crashes - not me. Mine are horizontal flashes/lines I see only on movement, sometimes. That's the best way I can describe it. I'll give these fixes a try later today.

This sounds like you do not have vysnc enabled. You probably should just lock it always on in Nvidia display properties unless you are benchmarking something.

 

[wpenhall]

Originally posted by: Glow

Originally posted by: grohl
Some people have described pauses or crashes - not me. Mine are horizontal flashes/lines I see only on movement, sometimes. That's the best way I can describe it. I'll give these fixes a try later today.

This sounds like you do not have vysnc enabled. You probably should just lock it always on in Nvidia display properties unless you are benchmarking something.

I was seeing that on my 2001fp until I enabled vsync - cleared it right up! Looks much better now. I'm taking a frame rate hit, but at least it doesn't look like my screen is tearing in half anymore when I do a quick pan.

Now if we can just fix that stuttering problem...

 

[Maximus96]

I received mine today. Also not a GS. Bought it at $380 right at the price drop. I haven't install it yet, still waiting on all the parts for a new build.

 

[wpenhall]

Some people have suggested updating the BIOS to stop the stuttering problem.

Has anyone here tried that? I used the EXPERT Update utility, but for the life of me I can't find the latest BIOS version on Gainward's site.

My board shipped with 5.40.02.15.01. The downloaded file is named 4202BE00. I tried the "nvflash.exe --version 4202BE00.ROM" command and got 5.40.02.15.01. This suggests to me that there is no newer verson - is that correct? Or does anyone know of a newer BIOS?

Thanks!