The Verdict
Our previous GS article showed that I really like the GeForce 6800 GS series. It's a really fun card whilst being relatively affordable especially if you are a more serious gamer. XFX did something really extraordinary with this "XXX Edition" product in two fold. First of all the higher core and memory clocks are just brilliant. It boosts the performance way beyond the 6800 GT for a better price. A default manufacturer overclock will always fall under the manufacturers warranty. This means at these lovely clock speeds you are two years safe of any defects.
Secondly I just have to mention the inclusion of both Far Cry and Call of Duty 2, now that's just great value isn't it ?
The 6800 GS from XFX simply is a fantastic choice, period.
The 6800 GS crammed up the breach in the market on price versus value. The 6800 GS is a very cool product and I'd buy it over the standard 6800 any time. You've seen the price and you've seen the performance
. For less money than the 6800 GT, yet with more performance this videocard just is a kickass product.
Never forget the more broader functions of a GeForce series 6 graphics card. When you buy an NVIDIA series 6 product it means full support for HDR, PureVideo (optional as you still have to cough up 20 bucks to get it supported, NVIDIA please make this feature free !!), Shader Model 3.0 and downwards and of course SLI compatibility.
You can hook up your HDTV to the card, digital over DVI towards HDMI if you like, decode and enhance video quality with standard media files over the GPU and offload plus the CPU with the help of PureVideo and of course have a speedy and crispy sharp 2D desktop displayed. I've tried this card on my 24" TFT @ 1920x1200 where is was perfectly sharp.
During all our tests, the card was 100% stable and enjoys the benefit of drivers that have been developed for the Series 6 for over a year and a half now. Good stuff as we did not have one stability issue whatsoever.
The XFX GeForce 6800 GS
will offer you a very nice package. In terms of the card design we did not see anything special as I think it really is a green colored NVIDIA reference board with only the cooling shim changed to XFX. The value kicks in at their included bundle and default faster clocks for sure. The included two fulll software titles are really good value and a fantastic choice to include in the box. Next to that it's a complete kit with all the cables and video output stuff you need to get started.
The nice bundle forces me to give this card an editor's choice.
Titles such as Far Cry and Quake 4; Half-life 2, Splinter Cell 3 have no problems at all with this card even with the best IQ settings enabled. The heart of the beast has been fitted with a 222 Million transistor GPU doing 485 MHz and can be clocked even higher. The XFX GeForce 6800 GS is a pleasure to own and play games with.
In the end it's all about price versus performance versus image quality and the resolution you want to play in. The manufacturer suggested retail price for this product is roughly 249 EUR/USD for the 256 MB model, which means you'll likely get it even cheaper in e-tail my friends.
We already spotted it for you for 220 USD/EUR (look below), and t
hat makes this a truly grand graphics card and we can recommend it a lot. And hey .. believe me when I say that this is what you want to find under that Christmas tree ! :-D
Thanks to Joost over at XFX for his great support.
** Update Dec 8, 2005 - Interesting news, an AGP version will be available in two weeks also.
** Update Dec 12, 2005 - As it seems COD2 has been removed from the game-bundle. Rather dissapointing news.
| Product: |
GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition |
| Manufacturer: |
XFX |
| Information: |
XFX Graphics |
| Street price: |
249 USD/EUR |
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