GeForce 6800 XT with Dual BIOS Smart Flash
Company Galaxy
Price: 175 USD/EUR
Info: galaxytech.com

Oy ! .. did you know that NVIDIA silently introduced yet another graphics card from their Popular Series 6 ? Seriously Sam .. I'm not kidding !

It's a new product targeting at the higher range of the mainstream (affordable) market. NVIDIA did this once before with the rather popular GeForce 6800 LE, the company did not make any announcements on it. Meanwhile NVIDIA's partners, in stealth mode, introduce this particular product onto the market. Today's new element in our gaming fun is called the GeForce 6800 XT.

Oy (2) .. speaking of that LE version ... you'll notice in the upcoming pages that the specifications of the GeForce 6800 XT look a lot like those of the GeForce 6800 LE, but the foremost distinction is that the LE  actually is based on the chip code-named NV42 (graphics processing unit) GPU and is made using 110nm process technology at TSMC, whereas the XT may utilize NV40 or other even other chips .... funky stuff huh ?

The generic consensus however is this: the XT has 8 pixel and 4 vertex pipelines, the chip "should" be clocked at 325MHz, whereas memory should operate at 700MHz. These are the reference specificationd. Manufacturers have been granted the strength called freedom though. The XT we test today is clocked at a Core clock of 425 MHz and a Memory clock : 500 MHz (1000M Hz effectively) with 256MB 256-bit DDR3 1.6ns memory. Keep that "1.6ns" in mind would ya ?

Let me catch your attention .. the XT product line is priced at roughly $175. Now it suddenly became more interesting eh ?

Galaxy is one of several companies who manufactures these XT's .. and what Galaxy recently started is start a series of products with a switchable dual BIOS and rather silent cooling. Today's tested GeForce 6800 XT is no different, in fact it's cooling originates from that great company, Zalman. Seriously .. Zalman is almost holy in my book. They know exactly what the audible future should be like.

First let's briefly look at the difference between the GeForce product line and then talk a little about features and technology. Then we'll show you a photo shoot, followed by overclocking, benchmarks/tests and of course we'll be concluding with "the verdict" on this product.

A first glimpse of the GeForce 6800 XT from Galaxy.