nVidia 6800GS, what's the catch?

[LoungeAct404]

Do mine eyes deceive me? Is NewEgg really selling a 6800GS for $209.00 and a 6800GT for over $280.00? Do benchmarks really say that the 6800GS is performing HIGHER than a 6800GT? Is there a catch? I'm definitely interested in buying this, if there is indeed no catch. I do hear, however, that it's quite a power-intensive card.

 

[mwmorph]

not higher, comparable and it drops off somewhat at higher resolutinos and with aa enabled. the reason it;s so cheap is because it uses the much cheaper to produce nv41 core instead of the 16pipe nv40 core which nividia no longer produces. less supply of 6800gt coupled with higher production costs drive prices up.

 

[LoungeAct404]

Hmm, so would you suggest a 6800GS over a 6800GT or not? I won't be using high resolutions or AA, I just want to play Quake 4 without any FPS drops.

 

[Malladine]

You answered your own question pretty much...

 

[LoungeAct404]

Heh, well, if the 6800GT performs Quake 4 better than the 6800GS does, if it's like a 5 fps difference, I want to know.

 

[johnnqq]

it's a new core which costs less because it was designed to have only 12 pipes (vs more expensive 16) and it's on the 7800 pcb.

 

[Rage187]

the 6800GS is positioned between the 6800GT and the 6800 vanilla.

So 6800GT>6800GS>6800

 

[Wentelteefje]

Both are excellent cards, and have the exact same feature set. If you can buy a 6800GS for such little money, I wouldn't hesitate on doing so... It'll play Quake 4 just fine, given that the rest of your setup can provide the needed horsepower...

 

[kpb]

The 6800gs and 6800gt are pretty much equivilent in performance. The 6800gt is based on the 130nm original 6800 chip that is natively agp and uses a pci-express bridge for pci-express with 16 pipes. The 6800gs is a newer chip design that uses 110nm, is Pci express natively (no bridge chip) and is only 12 pipes. It runs at a higher clock speed to make up for the few number of pipes. The design differences mean smaller and cheaper for nvidia to manufacture so cheaper card.

The only reason I could see to get a 6800gt at this point would be to sli it with an already existing 6800gt or agp (no 6800gs yet).

 

[Some1ne]

Even a 6600 GT can play Quake 4 at decent resolutions without issues. If this is your only concern, either card should work just fine. Also, I think I read something about the 6800GS cards overclocking fairly well.

 

[crazylegs]

Originally posted by: Some1ne
Even a 6600 GT can play Quake 4 at decent resolutions without issues. If this is your only concern, either card should work just fine. Also, I think I read something about the 6800GS cards overclocking fairly well.

Yeh i happily play Quake 4 on my system.... and all other new games!