Leadtek A400 Geforce 6800GT $210 + $1 shipping

[photoguy99]

Just got my card today, full retail box, all the parts included.

Works fine so far - don't know how long before you know for sure.

Booted, installed latest drivers, played BF2 Demo for about 10 minutes, 1280x1024 4xAA - looks nice, see special effects I didn't know were there before.

Played FarCry 4xAA/8xAF again for about 10 minutes, then let the menu screen run with video in the background for a couple hours no problems yet.

Guess this was about a 50/50 chance of getting a working card.

 

[timxpx]

add me to the working list - mine came in yesterday.

this card is about 4 times as big as my 9600xt aiw... my board has a pci slots width of null space between the agp slot and the first pci slot, and this card still comes over the first pci slot.

i switched from ati drivers to the nvidia drivers with no problems. i played CS: Source at 1280x1024 4xAA/8xAF for about an hour and it didn't skip a beat. i ran aquamark fine. i played guild wars at 1280x1024, 4xAA for a little while and it also went along with no problem.

i'm only using the vga cable- i'll check the dvi with an adapter when i get home today. i'm also going to make sure the tv-out and stuff works because i use that a lot.

what's other stuff i should use to try and stress things out? i'll try riva tuner later and get load temperatures.

 

[shagman]

You can change mine from DOA to working... I'm a freeking idiot, after playing around in BIOS, found that turning off the "AGP fast write" fixed my problem... great price and great experience with newegg refurbs, 3 out of 4 of the hardware upgrades I ordered last week were refurbs, and they all worked like a champ!

 

[Bad Dude]

This thing is dead ha?

 

[ncage]

Originally posted by: shagman
You can change mine from DOA to working... I'm a freeking idiot, after playing around in BIOS, found that turning off the "AGP fast write" fixed my problem... great price and great experience with newegg refurbs, 3 out of 4 of the hardware upgrades I ordered last week were refurbs, and they all worked like a champ!

No your not an idot. I don't see why the card shouldn't work with AGP fast write enabled but im going to go home tonight and see if that fixes my problem also. Leadtek is already sending me a card that they are cross shipping.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Mine works with it enabled. Intel 865PE system.

 

[Zap]

I agree that shagman is not an idiot. Yes, fastwrites should be working on a card of this caliber.

 

[Auryg]

I RMAed mine to newegg...I got my first email saying they received it on monday, and still nothing else..is there a way I can check on the status of the rma?

 

[deals99]

I have seen several people with problems becuase of fastwrites. Stuttering tends to be the most common problem. Problems dont happen all the time, but they do happen.

From here:
"Fast Writes: This setting, whether in the BIOS or in the Catalyst Control Panel/Control Center (See ATI Control Panel/ATI Control Center sections below), is meant to speed up AGP read performance. In practice however it is known in almost all cases to have no noticeable performance impact, and indeed often causes many problems such as crashes and general system instability, especially on overclocked graphics cards. My personal testing has shown it to have literally 0% impact on performance on several different setups. Therefore I strongly recommend disabling Fast Writes in the BIOS (if available) and also disabling it under SmartGart in the ATI Control Panel/ATI Control Center for optimal stability with little or no performance loss."

 

[photoguy99]

Yeah I think calling yourself an idiot is a tad harsh .

Most people have never even heard of AGP fast writes, let alone think that it might cause a problem.

Makes you wonder how many of the DOA's were actually working cards with some issue like this, inadequate power supply, or other non-obvious side issue.

 

[sheltem]

Originally posted by: shagman
You can change mine from DOA to working... I'm a freeking idiot, after playing around in BIOS, found that turning off the "AGP fast write" fixed my problem... great price and great experience with newegg refurbs, 3 out of 4 of the hardware upgrades I ordered last week were refurbs, and they all worked like a champ!

Man I didn't try that... But I guess your problems were different from mine, as I was getting graphical corruption from the very second I booted up! I also got a DOA card from Newegg and I sent it out on Monday for RMA. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Bad Dude]

Hey guys,
How long is the warranty on a Leadtek Retail card? I can't find that information anywhere on their website. It must be no more than a year.
Thanks.

 

[donxvi]

Last page of the manual says 1 year.

 

[swatX]

anybody got their Replacement cards from leadtek?

 

[ncage]

Originally posted by: swatX
anybody got their Replacement cards from leadtek?

Mine is on its way. I had them cross ship it..of course you have to provide them with your CC info for them to do it but i wanted me card fast. I think it was still worth buying this card since 211 is damm cheap for 6800gt. Im sure the replacement from leadtek will work fine.

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: ncage

Originally posted by: swatX
anybody got their Replacement cards from leadtek?

Mine is on its way. I had them cross ship it..of course you have to provide them with your CC info for them to do it but i wanted me card fast. I think it was still worth buying this card since 211 is damm cheap for 6800gt. Im sure the replacement from leadtek will work fine.

I got my replacement today. All is well with the card now. BF2, CS Source, HL2 etc... all run well at high settings with AA/AF. Great card, and well worth the time to RMA for the good deal!

 

[swatX]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Originally posted by: ncage

Originally posted by: swatX
anybody got their Replacement cards from leadtek?

Mine is on its way. I had them cross ship it..of course you have to provide them with your CC info for them to do it but i wanted me card fast. I think it was still worth buying this card since 211 is damm cheap for 6800gt. Im sure the replacement from leadtek will work fine.

I got my replacement today. All is well with the card now. BF2, CS Source, HL2 etc... all run well at high settings with AA/AF. Great card, and well worth the time to RMA for the good deal!

how long did the RMA process take?

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: swatX

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Originally posted by: ncage

Originally posted by: swatX
anybody got their Replacement cards from leadtek?

Mine is on its way. I had them cross ship it..of course you have to provide them with your CC info for them to do it but i wanted me card fast. I think it was still worth buying this card since 211 is damm cheap for 6800gt. Im sure the replacement from leadtek will work fine.

I got my replacement today. All is well with the card now. BF2, CS Source, HL2 etc... all run well at high settings with AA/AF. Great card, and well worth the time to RMA for the good deal!

how long did the RMA process take?

YHPM. About a week and a half with no cross ship.

 

[KaranG4]

Can you point to their contact information, I haven't found any rma specific phone number or website.

I'm also really unsure about my card. It seems to work perfect if my card's temperature is under 65. Always freezes after a random amount of gameplay. To experiment, I took the side panel off and put a fan on my video card. Now the video card never freezes in any games and I've done 3dmark 05 (even while overclocked above 6800 ultra settings). The only thing that can screw it up right now is if i use ati tool to scan for artifacts. It gets the temperature in the upper 60's after about a minute of operation and then freezes the computer unless I get out of it (lots of corruption on the screen until I close it). I can't figure out why it would have problems because of a temperature of 65C on load. I'm still not sure weather to return to newegg, rma to leadtek or get it working on my own.

 

[KaranG4]

I requested a rma from newegg for a refund and it said that they would charge me a $31.50. So i requested another rma that was for replacement... I figure if its replacement and they can't replace it, they'd give me a full refund, either way is fine with me.

Btw, can u reuse the fedex (express) box that you get from newegg for an rma to them? I don't have any other around and it seems like a simple solution.

 

[donxvi]

When I called I just made sure they were going to waive the restocking fee .

 

[Juice Box]

can someone post a direct link? I cant seem to find it

 

[deals99]

Originally posted by: KaranG4
I requested a rma from newegg for a refund and it said that they would charge me a $31.50. So i requested another rma that was for replacement... I figure if its replacement and they can't replace it, they'd give me a full refund, either way is fine with me.

If the card isnt working, call/send them an email with whats wrong and the RMA#. They should drop the fee if its defective.

 

[donxvi]

Originally posted by: Juice Box
can someone post a direct link? I cant seem to find it

To what ?
I hope you don't mean the deal in question. This deal is over 2 weeks old on a refurb. But the link is the first word in the first post if that IS what you're looking for.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: donxvi

Originally posted by: Juice Box
can someone post a direct link? I cant seem to find it

To what ?
I hope you don't mean the deal in question. This deal is over 2 weeks old on a refurb. But the link is the first word in the first post if that IS what you're looking for.

lol