Leadtek 6800GT AGP

[MrPabulum]

So Newegg is running a very good deal on the Leadtek 6800GT AGP, and I was wondering what were folks' experiences with the 6800GT AGP batch of cards? Also, if anyone's had to use Leadtek's customer service, what was the service like getting the thing RMA'd? Or just speaking to customer service in general.

I've heard great things about BFGTech (nice one on sale in the FS/FT section ), but the Leadtek comes with a massive cooler that help bring the card to Ultra speeds, and the price is tempting for a new card.

Thoughts?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i have that card

very pleased, lovely n stable, mine gets past 400/1100Mhz (about 410/1.12 seems the max) which is more than anyone can ask for anyway since this is a 6800GT. newer cards will probably get higher

the cooling system is heavy....but beautiful. i likes me lots of copper and heat pipes . its a quiet card too, cools very well (mine idles bout 55, load rarely goes above 75)

2d is excellent, overall a very solidly engineered card, with solid performance to back it up. and some how i beat a 6800Ultra (clocked 464, 1.1Ghz!! with mine only pushing 410mhz on the core) at 3d mark (tho he had a Athon XP system, i have a Athlon64)

if its a good price go for it, you wont be disappointed...i wasnt.

heres mine nestled in my rig (ignore wiring its all neat now)

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Pretty much what Otis said.

My first card I bought from www.buyxg.com. It's fan was freaking out on me, so I sent it back, they sent me back an Ultra that was so bad it had artifacts from the BIOS screen. I couldn't get in touch with the vendor again, so I went to Leadtek. It was a bit of a PITA to figure out which email to use, but they were fairly helpful.

It did however take an extreamly long time to get a new card. They had run out of cards to return to customers, so I ended up waiting about a month to get a new one. When it did show up, it was a full retail pachage, so I was happy, and it has worked flawlessly since then.

I recently took the cooling solution off and put some AS5 on it, and it dropped the temps like a rock, moreso than the awesome copper cooler did normally. I think it had a slightly loose fitment, which was solved when I reapplied the goope.

I'm still using the 71.88 drivers, and it idles between 55-60(depending on room temp) and doesn't hit 80*C anymore even when running rthdribl.exe

 

[garkon]

ya, i've had the card for a few months now, and it hasent given me problems. I've never overclocked it, as that is not my thing, but i'm sure it could take a bit. Mine idles at 55, under load 65 - 70 ish.
One little tip, if u go w/ the card, notice the intake above the fan, w/ the small screen it has, dust gets caught easily, so be sure to check that ever so often. I din check minf for a while after i bought it, and noticed my card was idleing at 63 ish, checked, dusted the intake off (which was CAKED, i felt like a bad computer owner, just askin for trouble), back to 55.

edit, btw, never had to deal w/ rma or anything like that, cards been perfect since i got it, so cant help w/ that. bbbbuuuuttttttt, i would definatly recoment this quite, stable, great performing card if u dont plan on overclocking, might be able to take a little, but not sure as i havent tried.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: garkon
ya, i've had the card for a few months now, and it hasent given me problems. I've never overclocked it, as that is not my thing, but i'm sure it could take a bit. Mine idles at 55, under load 65 - 70 ish.
One little tip, if u go w/ the card, notice the intake above the fan, w/ the small screen it has, dust gets caught easily, so be sure to check that ever so often. I din check minf for a while after i bought it, and noticed my card was idleing at 63 ish, checked, dusted the intake off (which was CAKED, i felt like a bad computer owner, just askin for trouble), back to 55.

edit, btw, never had to deal w/ rma or anything like that, cards been perfect since i got it, so cant help w/ that. bbbbuuuuttttttt, i would definatly recoment this quite, stable, great performing card if u dont plan on overclocking, might be able to take a little, but not sure as i havent tried.

yes thats a slight problem though, i recently took mine out for cleaning the other day, there was a thin layer of dust, as expected, but the inside of the heatsink is spotless, so it does a good job of catching the dust

 

[MrPabulum]

The more I hear, the more likely I am to get the 6800GT. My 9800XT feels...err...sluggish at times. But then, I do like eye candy.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: MrPabulum
The more I hear, the more likely I am to get the 6800GT. My 9800XT feels...err...sluggish at times. But then, I do like eye candy.

i definately see it as one of the best 6800GT's made

the cooling solution can take alot more.....their 6800Ultras run above the stock 6800Ultra spec. the cooler can easily handle the 425/1.1Ghz speeds of the ultra, so its gonna keep a stock GT nice n cool. definately room to overclock substantially if needs be.

solid card, and fairly original in design, definately up there with BFG and Gainward, even though they sell their cards factory overclocked.

 

[MrPabulum]

There is one other consideration. Newegg has the Sapphire X800 XL for $335. Are there any good arguments for choosing the X800 XL over the 6800GT, particularly since the price difference is $15?
Aside from the fact that Nvidia offers better OpenGL performance and ATI better D3D performance...

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: MrPabulum
There is one other consideration. Newegg has the Sapphire X800 XL for $335. Are there any good arguments for choosing the X800 XL over the 6800GT, particularly since the price difference is $15?
Aside from the fact that Nvidia offers better OpenGL performance and ATI better D3D performance...

For $15 difference, I'd go with 6800GT. It performs significantly faster in chronicles of riddick and is faster in doom 3. You should expect it to be faster in OpenGL games in the future. Yes it does have "free" PS3.0 support (even though 1% importance right now), and i wont sing this song. But, most sweet point is 6800GT @ ultra speeds. If this was PCIe cards we were comparing, I'd definately recommend x800xl for cheaper price. If price is so close, I'd take 6800GT though. Plus I think you get splinter cell pandora tomorrow and prince of persia games, which arent bundled with the ATI card I believe.

 

[Soulkeeper]

BFG and Leadtek both seem like the top of the heap right now imo

 

[Skunkwourk]

its a great card, just hope you don't have to RMA it. My first one would show random colored squares when I booted back in december and I just got it back last week after threatening them with a complaint from the BBB. Check Brag and Moan if you want to read my rma experience. That being said, seems the price went down and I would definitley say its worth the price. The ealier ones come with Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and Price of persia, but the new ones have Prince of Persia 2 instead. The copper heatsink works pretty well and I haven't had any problems with dust yet. Every directx9 game I've played on it (Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Price of Persia 2, World of Warcraft, Halo, etc...) has been smooth on the higest settings minus the ultra high settings on Doom 3, but High is fine.

 

[MrPabulum]

Well..now eVGA and Leadtek are priced at $299..making my choice a bit tougher. Interesting decision. Thanks for the advice everyone. :beer:

 

[ddogg]

well u can find some GTs for under 300 in some places. one guy in this forum got his for 270 so u should. if u find a 6800GT for under 300 or the same price as a XL, get the GT anyday!!

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Yeah, it takes them a good long while to get throug the RMA process, and after I threatened the BBB and some legal action, I got a new card. But I'm still loving it today

 

[spwango]

I'm thinking about purchasing this card as well--Is the weight an issue? I do haul my box around to lan parties a few times per year...I don't have any retention mechanism in my case aside from the AGP slot lock and the screw--am I going to be OK with this board?

 

[ddogg]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: MrPabulum
The more I hear, the more likely I am to get the 6800GT. My 9800XT feels...err...sluggish at times. But then, I do like eye candy.

i definately see it as one of the best 6800GT's made

the cooling solution can take alot more.....their 6800Ultras run above the stock 6800Ultra spec. the cooler can easily handle the 425/1.1Ghz speeds of the ultra, so its gonna keep a stock GT nice n cool. definately room to overclock substantially if needs be.

solid card, and fairly original in design, definately up there with BFG and Gainward, even though they sell their cards factory overclocked.

425 is easy...i got my ultra to overclock all the way to 460 with that fan....!!

 

[Frown66]

spwango - Weight is not an issue for me. I've got this and the xp-90 attached to my motherboard. Looks fine to me.

My Leadtek 6800GT hits ultra speeds with ease, yet not much further. I can do 412/112.. I know some people have gotten higher with this card. Coolbits won't let me go any higher. Are you guys using a different method for overclocking?

My gpu temps at high 60's under load. That sound normal? I wonder how much these gpu's can normally take. High 60's are typically bad for cpu's, but not sure what gpu cutoff points are.

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

here is mine in my cramped hp pavillion compute R (some day, a new case awaits). i ahve mine at standard bfg oc 370 core and 1000 memory. i don't need to co since i don't need any more performance on mine and don't want to fcuk up another card. about 56 idle and 68 load.

6800 gt

 

[spwango]

How power hungry are these beasts? My Antec 380 going to be enough (AMD 64 3000+, 2 WD 80G JB drives, dvd rom, dvd burner...)? Thanks.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

It might get you by, but I would suggest a bigger one. Although Antec has always made really good stuff.

And weight isn't an issue with them. Sure it'll add to the over all weight of the case, but it's still tightly in the AGP slot, even after a couple of LAN parties.

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

yeah, that would be enough.

 

[JokerRulez]

Warning to all:

I recently purchased one of the Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT cards from Newegg. $299. Awesome deal right?

It worked fine for 24 hours, then fritzed on me. I RMA'd the card and very quickly recieved a replacement card that was shipped from a location other than where I sent my card in ( so I know the replacement was not the same card I sent in). The second card did not work either. Lot's of 'snow' even at the most basic VGA level, like when viewing bios, etc.

I detailed my work on that and a description of the problem HERE.

On Saturday I went to Best Buy and picked up a BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC and it works fine. Happy gaming all weekend (although I'm going to underclock it back to stock to help prevent heating issues).

You know how it is, if you have a bad experience with, say a Ford car then you never want a Ford car again. I am never purchasing a Leadtek product again.

Luck all,

Joker

 

[BuckNaked]

How is the noise and 2D on this card? I had bought a BFG 6800 Ultra and found it to be a little on the noisy side, and the 2D to be not as sharp as my 9800 Pro. I do alot of work on my computer, and need sharp 2D, so I am trying to decide between the 800XL and the 6800GT. Both are about the same price.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[JokerRulez]

Buck_Naked
I was also moving from a 9800 Pro and couldn't tell any difference with the Leadtek 6800 GT.

Using my BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC is a dream in all environments and not very noisy. One of the big selling points with the Leadtek incarnation is the huge heatsink setup with a small, quiet fan. Very quiet. That is fine as long as you can get one of these cards that actually works. I'm guessing at the moment that my first card burned out after 24 hours (it was NOT overclocked) and the second was a RMA, not new, replacement that had experienced the same thing. No way to verify this but it is my best guess.

Bottom line, imo, if you want top of the line 3D performance you are going to have to be a little bit flexible in some other areas. Just not too much right?

Joker

Edited for clarification.

 

[spwango]

Originally posted by: JokerRulez
I was also moving from a 9800 Pro and couldn't tell any difference with the Leadtek 6800 GT.

What kind of a system you trying to run it in?