NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

GeForce 6800 GS is the latest mid-range graphics chip from NVIDIA, competing directly with Radeon X800 GTO from ATI. In this review we will compare not only GeForce 6800 GS against its main competitor, but we will also compare its performance against other GPUs available on the market.

Figure 1: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS reference board.

GeForce 6800 GS is the latest member of GeForce series 6 from NVIDIA. It runs at 425 MHz, 75 MHz more than GeForce 6800 GT. GT model, however, can process 16 pixel shaders per clock cycle, while GS model can process only 12. Both access memory at 1 GHz.

You can see in our tutorial “NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table” the difference between this new chip and the other chips from NVIDIA, while on our tutorial “ATI Chips Comparison Table” you can compare it to its competitors from ATI.

Let’s now take a closer look at the GeForce 6800 GS reference board we’ve got from NVIDIA.

[nextpage title=”The GeForce 6800 GS Reference Board from NVIDIA”]

On Figures 2 and 3 you can see NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 GS reference board.

Figure 2: GeForce 6800 GS reference board.

Figure 3: GeForce 6800 GS reference board, back view.

We disassembled the video card cooler to take a look and we found out that its heatsink is made of copper, as you can see in Figure 4.

Figure 4: GeForce 6800 GS reference board heatsink.

This video card uses eight GDDR3 256-Mbit 2 ns chips from Samsung (K4J55323QF-VC20)to give it 256 MB of video memory (256 Mbits x 8 = 256 MB). These chips can run up to 1 GHz. Since this video card accesses the memory also at 1 GHz, there is no headroom for overclocking the memory inside its specs. Of course you can try overclock it over its specs.

Figure 5: 2 ns GDDR3 memory chip used by NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS reference board.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

• Graphics chip: GeForce 6800 GS running at 425 MHz
• Memory: 2 ns 256-bit 256 MB GDDR3 memory from Samsung (K4J55323QF-VC20), running at 1 GHz.
• Bus type: PCI Express 16x.
• Connectors: One VGA, one DVI and one mini-DIN for S-Video output.
• Number of CDs that come with this board: N/A.
• Games that come with this board: N/A
• Programs that come with this board: N/A.
• More information: https://www.nvidia.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 180 (there are factory-overclocked models being sold at a higher price).

* Researched on Shopping.com on the day we published this review.

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the video card being tested.

Hardware Configuration

• Motherboard: DFI LAN Party 925X-T2 (Intel 925X, Sep. 20th, 2004 BIOS)
• CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz LGA 775
• Memory: Two 512 MB DDR2-533 CM2X512-4200 CL4 from Corsair memory modules
• Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus (40 GB, ATA-133)
• Screen resolution: [email protected] Hz

Software Configuration

• Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
• Service Pack 2
• Direct X 9.0c
• Intel inf driver version: 6.0.1.1002
• ATI video driver version: 4.10 (6.14.10.6483)
• ATI video driver version: 4.12 (Radeon X850 Platinum Edition)
• ATI video driver version: 5.3 (Radeon X800 GT)
• ATI video driver version: 5.9 (Radeon X800 GTO)
• ATI video driver version: 6.1 (Radeon X1600 XT from HIS)
• ATI video driver version: 8.173 beta (Radeon X1000 series)
• ATI video driver version: 8.203.3.0 (Radeon X1900 XTX)
• NVIDIA video driver version: 66.93
• NVIDIA video driver version: 77.72 (GeForce 7800 GTX)
• NVIDIA video driver version: 78.02 (GeForce 7800 GT)
• NVIDIA video driver version: 81.98 (GeForce 6800 GS)

Used Software

• 3DMark2001 SE
• 3DMark03 Business 3.50
• 3DMark05 Business 1.10
• Doom III
• Far Cry 1.3

We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.

[nextpage title=”3DMark2001 SE”]

3DMark2001 SE measures video card performance simulating DirectX 8.1 games. It is very effective software for evaluating the performance from previous-generation games, programmed using DirectX 8. In this software we run six tests. We run the software in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and with no frame buffer, then we put the antialising at 4 samples and the frame buffer at triple-buffering. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.

You may be asking yourself why we added an old program in a review of a latest generation video card. To us, it is as important to know the performance of a video card with the latest games as it is to know its performance in an older game. That’s why we kept this software in our methodology.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 7.80% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 12.32% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 15.35% faster than ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, 22.96% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 38.96% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 42.12% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 60.10% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, HIS Radeon X800 GTO and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 14.54% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 14.61% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 15.80% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 16.20% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 16.66% faster and HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 23.48% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 3.68% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 7.66% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 8.30% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 9.30% faster than ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, 16.45% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 18.38% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 30.79% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 60.55% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 62.38% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 93.27% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and HIS Radeon X800 GTO, its rival.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 14.92% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 13.99% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 9.77% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 7.98% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 6.33% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 6.87% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 7.05% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 14.56% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 16.47% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 21.15% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 30.21% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 38.98% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 83.13% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 104.08% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 146.54% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and ATI Radeon X1900 XTX.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 20.47% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 16.83% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 14.45% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 10.85% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 9.34% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 3.54% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 7.06% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 23.62% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 42.59% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 73.45% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 88.80% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 105.31% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, HIS Radeon X800 GTO and HIS Radeon X800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 23.30% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 21.04% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 16.70% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 13.95% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 8.78% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 9.01% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 10.44% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 10.46% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 12.52% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 21.97% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 43.80% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 75.45% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 118.08% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 149.30% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 162.03% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 28.34% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 22.33% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 19.56% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 13.53% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 8.10% faster and ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 6.47% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 4.82% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 9.42% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 23.35% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 38.37% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 43.42% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 76.18% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 123.56% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 227.80% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 263.90% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 347.54% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 55.11% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 39.75% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 39.01% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 34.91% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 31.72% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 23.62% faster.

[nextpage title=”3DMark03″]

3DMark03 measures performance by simulating games written to DirectX 9, which are contemporary games. We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 18.01% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 20.67% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 23.50% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 23.55% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 40.08% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 54.69% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 71.58% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 132.82% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 173.38% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 225.40% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 46.60% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 38.51% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 32.96% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 21.93% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 16.47% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 13.27% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 17.56% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 24.79% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 26.52% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 29.77% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 45.41% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 64.16% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 79.78% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 148.28% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 193.78% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 250.38% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 58.11% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 48.51% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 39.33% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 25.19% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 21.48% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 17.42% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 18.43% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 32.86% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 34.77% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 36.13% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 51.62% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 78.64% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 88.45% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 162.70% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 230.13% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 291.49% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 66.03% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 52.82% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 43.95% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 39.62% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 24.28% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 19.56% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 25.82% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 37.42% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 42.67% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 45.77% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 63.78% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 97.32% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 100.56% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 187.68% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 247.97% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 308.66% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 69.22% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 60.63% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 45.14% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 36.31% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 31.55% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 18.52% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 26.03% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 34.11% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 38.85% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 44.60% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 97.29% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 104.77% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 105.02% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 235.67% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 271.95% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 314.60% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 88.40% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 80.10% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 53.89% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 44.26% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 36.14% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 24.94% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 24.91% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 45.37% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 50.64% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 50.88% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 110.98% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 113.91% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 124.87% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 275.95% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 427.46% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 464.47% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 103.37% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 90.73% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 59.23% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 52.11% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 50.40% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 30.12% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 4.07% faster.

[nextpage title=”3DMark05″]

3DMark05 measures performance by simulating DirectX 9.0c games, i.e., using the new Shader 3.0 model. This programming model is used by Far Cry game and other games to be launched in the future. This new programming model is used by GeForce 6 and 7 series from NVIDIA and Radeon X1000 series from ATI.

We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our benchmark, allowing direct comparison between them.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 8.90% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 14.88% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 23.74% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 71.21% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 72.04% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 87.87% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 190.48% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 244.80% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 261.98% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 46.16% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 41.31% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 37.40% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 30.97% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 28.37% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 16.01% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 10.28% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 18.71% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 29.39% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 83.31% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 96.57% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 111.04% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 228.04% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 297.12% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 316.33% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 62.20% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 58.21% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 46.90% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 34.48% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 33.27% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 14.77% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 4.03% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 11.78% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 20.97% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 42.18% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 93.12% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 97.88% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 173.34% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 266.00% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 324.45% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 387.99% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 88.51% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 69.67% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 55.46% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 38.52% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 38.49% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 13.78% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 3.48% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 11.03% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 12.39% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 16.61% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 84.05% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 100.00% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 219.19% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 295.76% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro, 339.36% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 354.93% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 65.24% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 63.51% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 47.32% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 42.99% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 35.32% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 21.01% faster.

To run at 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements on 3DMark05 the video card must have at least 256 MB of memory, because of that some video cards couldn’t run this test. Here NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 10.68% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 13.66% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 30.92% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 90.82% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 104.23% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 309.22% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 465.58% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 99.97% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 83.81% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 57.82% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 49.57% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 41.94% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 22.58% faster.

To run at 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements on 3DMark05 the video card must have at least 256 MB of memory, because of that some video cards couldn’t run this test. Here NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 14.73% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 62.66% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 77.52% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 279.46% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 555.43% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 179.78% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 136.60% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 88.14% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 86.49% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 67.61% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 48.77% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 18.30% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 15.75% faster and its rival, the HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 5.82% faster.

[nextpage title=”Doom 3″]Doom 3 is one of the heaviest games available today. As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions: 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and high. We ran demo1 four times and wrote the obtained number of frames per second. The first result we discarded at once, since it is far inferior than the other results. This happens because at the first time we run the demo the game must load all textures to video memory, fact that doesn’t happen from the second time we run the demo on. From the three results left, we consider as our official result the middle result, i.e., we discard the highest and the lowest values. Curiously almost all times the values obtained at the second round on were the same.

A very important detail that we must mention is that Doom 3 has an internal FPS lock: it is only capable of generating 60 frames per second, even if your board is able to produce more frames per second than that. This is done in order to make the game to have the same “playability” sensation independently from the video card installed on the PC. This lock, however, is disabled in the game benchmarking mode.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Doom 3, read our tutorial on this subject.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 8.17% faster than ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., 10.52% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 18.55% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 20.42% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 31.13% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 33.24% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 37.24% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 38.28% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 64.39% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 68.95% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 195.79% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 262.70% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT and ATI Radeon X1800 XL.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 5.80% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 4.92% faster and MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 3.39% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 29.38% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 40.65% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 54.08% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 65.60% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 73.38% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 74.94% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 107.77% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 111.75% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 295.41% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 384.38% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to Radeon X850 XT P.E da ATI and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 21.16% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 17.94% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 16.65% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 12.90% faster and ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 4.26% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 38.13% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 62.98% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 72.28% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 100.00% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 101.27% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 102.56% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 139.25% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 148.63% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 383.97% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 498.11% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to GeForce NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon X1800 XL and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E..

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 36.59% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 27.44% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 22.24% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 20.19% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 6.22% faster than ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., 8.69% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 20.33% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 25.42% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 35.57% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 35.78% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 45.57% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 47.02% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 76.19% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 82.34% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 219.42% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 287.77% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 7.32% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 6.31% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 5.41% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 3.83% faster and ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 3.38% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 33.15% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 40.49% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 55.25% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 66.44% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 77.22% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 79.37% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 114.83% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 121.26% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 301.63% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 392.67% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E. and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 28.28% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 22.06% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 20.03% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 17.32% faster and ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 5.82% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 39.63% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 60.74% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 71.67% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 98.69% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 99.34% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 102.00% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 142.40% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 151.45% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 422.41% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 488.35% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1800 XL, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E..

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 45.87% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 31.85% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 25.08% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 24.09% faster.

[nextpage title=”Far Cry”]

Far Cry is a game based on the new Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model available on series 6 and 7 from NVIDIA and series X1000 from ATI graphics chips. We’ve updated the game to version 1.3.
 
As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and very high. To measure the performance we used the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH), available at https://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/farcry-pcgh-vga.php. We run this demo four times and made an arithmetical average with the results. This average is the result presented in our graphs.

This game has a very important detail in its image quality configuration. Antialising, instead of being configured by numbers (1x, 2x, 4x or 6x) is configured as low, medium or high. The problem is that on NVIDIA chips both medium and high mean 4x, while on ATI chips medium means 2x and high means 6x, making the comparison between ATI and NVIDIA chips completely unfair. Because of that we configured antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 8x manually at the video driver control panel.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Far Cry, read our tutorial on this subject.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 3.45% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 9.17% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 11.92% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and 19.92% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, ATI Radeon X600 XT and factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 7.88% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 7.84% fasterthan its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 7.77% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 7.58% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 7.52% faster, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 7.41% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 7.12% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 7.05% faster and ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 6.74% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 3.77% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 4.15% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 12.9% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 48.63% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 50.88% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 81.63% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT and ATI Radeon X1900 XTX.

GeForce 6800 GS da NVIDIA was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 8.05% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 7.89% fasterthan its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 7.46% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 6.95% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 6.18% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 6.01% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 5.76% faster and Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 4.46% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 3.10% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 3.65% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 9.33% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 11.76% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 21.04% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 25.74% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 48.63% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 108.77% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600,121.16% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 170.83% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT and ATI Radeon X1900 XTX.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 8.53% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 7.56% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 7.20% faster and HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 5.28% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 4.11% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 12.16% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 29.00% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 47.61% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 50.31% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 73.67% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 84.74% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 90.26% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 198.77% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 246.50% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 277.37% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1900 XTX.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 8.33% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 8.24% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 7.72% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 7.21% faster and MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 6.59% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 4.42% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 17.49% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 40.02% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 51.19% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 58.68% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 90.82% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 108.40% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 117.68% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 257.07% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 280.28% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 295.08% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 39.90% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 32.19% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 30.09% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 27.47% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 26.24% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 24.68% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was 16.45% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 17.23% faster than its rival HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 43.94% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 62.91% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 66.24% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 99.55% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 104.45% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 131.61% faster than factory-overclocked GeForce 6600 256 MB from XFX, 253.99% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 396.64% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 469.61% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 80.02% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 71.85% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 48.66% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 45.50% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 35.81% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 31.10% faster.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

GeForce 6800 GS is faster than its main competitor, Radeon X800 GTO. On our benchmarking GeForce 6800 GS was up to 26.03% faster than Radeon X800 GTO, depending on video configuration and software used (Doom 3 excluded). On Doom 3 the performance difference was even higher: GeForce 6800 GS was up to 63% faster than its competitor, showing us that Doom 3 is really Radeon X800 series Achilles’ Heel.

Compared to GeForce 6800 GT, something interesting happened. They achieved the same performance on 3DMark2001 SE and 3DMark03, and achieved very similar performance on Doom 3. But on 3DMark05 GeForce 6800 GS was up to 11.78% faster than GeForce 6800 GT and on Far Cry it was up to 16.45% faster. To us, this means that GeForce 6800 GS is clearly optimized to DirectX 9.0c (shader 3.0) games.

Looking for GeForce 6800 GT prices, we think online pricing is outdated. On Shopping.com GeForce 6800 GT is being listed at a higher price than GeForce 6800 GS (USD 230~270 range). Go figure.

So, between GeForce 6800 GT, GeForce 6800 GS, Radeon X800 GT and Radeon X800 GTO, GeForce 6800 GS is the best one, and it is our recommendation to users that can’t stand an entry-level VGA performance and don’t want to pay more than USD 200 on a decent video card.