Leadtek GeForce 6800GT misleading product naming?

[Gstanfor]

Hi,
I'm in the market for a new graphics card. I decided I wanted a GeForce6 6800GT AGP and I liked the look of the leadtek offering (I've also owned other leadtek cards and been more than happy with them in the past).

However, when I went to their website to check out the specifications more carefully it turns out that Leadtek offer two versions of their 6800GT

One is the proper nVidia specification
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400_1.html
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400_2.html

and one has cutdown memory clocks (450/900 effective instead of 500/1000 effective)
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400gt_tdh_c350_1.html
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400gt_tdh_c350_2.html

I emailed my parts supplier as to which version of the card he stocked and he is unsure because (according to him)

The box makes no mention of clock speeds - how would you tell - what are we to look out for?

Does anybody know anything more about this? If true it is very dodgy and I certainly would not expect such behavior from the likes of leadtek.

Perhaps the specific model is mentioned near the serial number & barcoding on the box?

 

[Viper96720]

The boxes look different.

 

[Gstanfor]

Is it possible for you to provide an image of the cutdown cards box at all? It would be appreciated if you could.

 

[UzairH]

I think you are confusing the 6800 GT and 6600 GT. The 6800 GT's official clocks are 350 MHz core, while the Ultra is 400. The 8 piped 6600 GT is clocked higher at 500MHz. You won't find ANY 6800 GT that has 500 MHz core clock.

 

[Gstanfor]

I'm not confusing anything as you will see if you follow the links I provided.

The clocks I quoted are core/mem (500 mem speed gives you 1gig effective (DDR)).

Anyhow, the problem has just resolved itself quite nicely (for me anyhow).

I've found the Leadtek card on special at another supplier I regularly deal with and they are advertising the 350/1000 clock speeds which the other site wasn't.

http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=00012145 (on special, speeds advertised)

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=VI-LTA400GT256&input[category_id]=1173 (the original site I looked at).

Makes it a no-brainer now.

 

[nRollo]

While it would annoy me a lot to get a card with 900MHz RAM instead of 1000MHz RAM, in use you probably couldn't tell the difference.

 

[vshah]

nm

it seems like a typo or something....

 

[Gstanfor]

(EDIT: vsash was enquiring about the card being double hieght) It is a 2 slot solution height wise. It has a very large copper heatsink that it shares with the Ultra design. However it only has a single width I/O plate unlike the Ultra which is double width.

I would be very annoyed indeed to receive the 900mhz part if I had ordered what I believed to be a 6800GT which is officially specced to be 350/500 (1000 effective) by nVidia, especially when the cutdown version has the same price tag as a full blown GT.

I have no problem with Leadtek selling the cutdown part so long as it is cheaper and correctly advertised. I do disagree with the GT moniker however - it needs to be GTL or something similar. I have emailed Leadtek suggesting this to them.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

are there probs with GDDR3 supply? maybe theyre using slightly less capable memory due to yields so they can continue selling products? just a stab in the dark thought

 

[imported_Kensai]

Ew. I don't think so. GDDR3 is just expensive stuff.

 

[cbehnken]

PCI-E 6800GTs do run 900 Mhz. AGP versions run 1000

 

[orangat]

I brought this up about a month or 2 ago. The difference on the box is that its missing some stickers on the lower right.

And the specifications look wrong also - 12 pipe apu architecture? for the slower GT version.

 

[Viper96720]

Yeah look at the lower right corner.
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400_2.html
http://www.leadtek.com/3d_graphic/winfast_a400gt_tdh_c350_1.html

Wizard dude is holding the staff different also. Across on the 350/450 one and straight up and down on the 350/500.

 

[Gstanfor]

Thanks guys.

The boxart at Scorptec matches the 350/500 product, so I'm pretty confident in ordering now. What an ordeal.

On a side note though, I thought PCI-e GT's were the same clock rate as their AGP counter parts unless you used them in SLI mode, when they clock themselves down slightly?
http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/nvidia/nv45/index.php?p=2

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
Thanks guys.

The boxart at Scorptec matches the 350/500 product, so I'm pretty confident in ordering now. What an ordeal.

On a side note though, I thought PCI-e GT's were the same clock rate as their AGP counter parts unless you used them in SLI mode, when they clock themselves down slightly?
http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/nvidia/nv45/index.php?p=2

PCIE 6800GTs do run at 350/1000, they do not downclock in SLI.

Beyond that, I don't know how much of that Beyond3d article on SLI you can believe. His 6800NU benches are seriously flawed, his only defense of that to me was that he is trying to get someone to give him new cards to disprove them.

Common sense disproves them. I like Dave and his page, but I won't believe anything there until he fixes the SLI article. To knowingly print 6800NU SLI being slower than 6600GT SLI is absurd, and discredits the whole article, maybe the site.