E-Vga 6800GT = junk.

Wiredzero · Nov 30, 2004, 11:47 AM

For the past couple days, I'd been playing with my 6800GT, trying to get the annoying graphical artifacting in Windows to go away...last night...the problem had progressed to DOS as well. Yay. Decided the card was bad, but wanted to check in another machine...and did so. Still the same problem.

That's the second time in a row I'd been burned by an nVidia card.

Good thing I saved the box and the reciept. Took 'em back to the store...talked to the guy, and swapped up for an ATi X800 Pro. Why? Cause I'm not a 3 strikes kinda guy...nVidia had thier chance. Time to give ATi at least one try.

PoopyTheJ · Nov 30, 2004, 12:11 PM

Oh man sorry to hear that, I'm still loving my eVGA 6800GT, I hope you're happy with the x800, the way you play OGL though........

MiDKnYtE · Nov 30, 2004, 06:53 PM

For the money, the x800pro ain't as good as a GT. you should have just exchanged for the same thing.

what drivers did you use? did you have the video on it's own power line?

Wiredzero · Nov 30, 2004, 08:52 PM

For the MONEY (which is the same amount) I'd have to say that so far, the X800 Pro is just as good (and in some aspects better) than the 6800GT. (and since I've owned BOTH now...I think I'm entitled to that opinion...as much as it might hurt to hear/say.)

Now, for while I was running the 6800GT....
E-VGA 6800GT (256MB GDDR3) @ Stock specs
Drivers Used: Omega 1.6177 (Performance mode)

Now, for a bit of news you'd might want to think about: The peeps @ E-VGA made a little booboo. They'd THOUGHT that the 6800GT was FINE on the aluminum heatsink that they'd ALSO used for the 6800. Nope. Hence the release of their copper heatsink that you could go BUY as an upgrade? Bah. If it doesn't work right outa the box, why would you want it?

Now...how do I know this? Cause when I'd went to take the videocard back to MicroCenter here in Kansas City (the local computer parts shop I go to) They'd told me that they'd had 5 of the SAME CARD returned in the last 5 days for the SAME PROBLEM. When I'd got home with the new ATi card in hand, I'd had this gnawing thought at the back of my head..."I wonder if E-VGA knows about this little screwup."...so I called 'em...sure enough...they know. 1 in 25 cards is doomed to fail from their estimates. Now, the good news is, they're not sending anymore of the Aluminum heatsinked ones out. They're being refitted with copper heatsinks. (of course, that leaves the little gamble of whether or not the cards that've been bought already by nVidia faithfuls will fail or not.)

Me, I decided to give the other guy a try for a change....I figure, I've had 3 nVidia cards. All have had problems of some sort...some worse than others.

Cards owned in the last 5 years:

Hercules "Prophet II" GTS (32MB, GeForce 2): S-Video IC burned out on videocard, VGA still worked fine.

BFG GeForce4 Ti4200 (128MB): GPU fan called quits after 1 year ownership. Replaced with ThermalTake Aftermarket Cooling set...no further probs.

E-VGA 6800GT (256MB GDDR3): GPU Failure, Manufacture Design Flaw. Underestimated the needs of the GPU...and nVidia couldn't seem to bother with releasing a driver that pulled the performance outa the card. (and hasn't pulled a GOOD driver set out for a long time now. The only good thing about the Series 6 cards was the SLi feature...but lets face it...how many people wanna shell out 800$ for twin videocards for just a "little" more performance?)

ATi X800 Pro (256MB, Current): No problems, and currently delivering the best system stability and performance I've seen thus far in a videocard. (hell, the damned thing even shaved 3 seconds off the boot time.) Will it stay that way? Only time will tell.

Nacht · Nov 30, 2004, 10:39 PM

well, mine ran on the aluminum heatsink and i ran it at 400/1.1 with no artifacts whatsoever. Also, you should try not to confuse NVidia with the card manufacturers. NVidia has had nothing to do with your problems, they've all been manufacturer related. As for the drivers being good...if youve only used up through omega's 61.77, you're missing out on a lot.

MiDKnYtE · Dec 1, 2004, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nacht

well, mine ran on the aluminum heatsink and i ran it at 400/1.1 with no artifacts whatsoever. Also, you should try not to confuse NVidia with the card manufacturers. NVidia has had nothing to do with your problems, they've all been manufacturer related. As for the drivers being good...if youve only used up through omega's 61.77, you're missing out on a lot.

Agreed. The aluminum heatsink is Nvidia reference design. Other companies use the same design. 61.77s are really outdated. I don't even bother using Omegas anymore since there are so many betas coming out.

As for bang for the $, all my friends that bought a GT have gotten at least Ultra speeds out of it. Mines goes way higher than that, but I only run it at Ultra for now. No matter how much you OC a non-vivo X800, you will never match a X800XT because of the difference in pipelines.

Wiredzero · Dec 1, 2004, 03:15 AM

One, If ya think that the Omegas were all I used with the card...you're nuts. They're just the ones that gave the best consistent performance and least mouselag with the games I play. (and yes, you can get mouse lag from havin' the wrong video drivers in place, cause it's happened to me on more than one occaision.) However, I've TRIED just about every driver that's been leaked, or officially released since I'd owned my Ti4200.

Two, it's kinda an "understood" thing that there's only two companies that really make videocards/GPUs for the End User anymore. nVidia...and ATi. So when I use the terms...I use 'em loosely...like MOST people do.

Three, as I'd already mentioned...MY 6800GT failed on the stock cooling. And E-VGA told me on the phone, that they'd expect about 1 in 25 of the one's that're out right now and have already been purchased...to fail. So ya got one that works (diff manufacturer or not) ...hey great...cookie for you. I'd already made MENTION that it was the manufacturer's problem. However, I'd also made mention that it was the 3rd "nVidia" card that's screwed with me. (and yes, I know it's a manufactuer based thing) I've been playin this game with computers for 15 years, and I know a thing or two.

I'd heard different things one way and the other...and being the testing kinda guy that I am (*and Judas and PoopyTheJ will tell ya I DO like to test stuff, and occaisonally come up with my own tweakings...like I did for Unreal Tournament*) I decided to give an ATi Card a try. Don't like it?...oh wah. I give credit where credit's due...reguardless of what manufacturer it is.

And FYI. I don't OC anything. Why? Because I don't care for voidin' a warranty, and it still worked fine for me and my game playin' purposes NOT to OC. Just my personal preference. Just like you have yours TO OC.

marcus a64 · Dec 1, 2004, 04:22 AM

Wiredzero is right, credit where credit is due.

Every ATI card i've had (9200, 9600XT, 9800XT, X800XT) have all worked faultlessly straight from the box and performed extremely well with even the standard drivers from the ATI website, i have never had a problem with any ATI card.

The 6800 Ultra is my first nvidia card and although is working great now, took 2 months to get that way, i was about to throw it in the bin.

People i know who have had nvidia cards have got them working well and they do work great, but they do seem to take quite some time getting drivers, settings etc right and you don't expect this from cards that cost around $1000 AUD.

I bought the X800XT from a friend who sold it to me to get himself an Ultra 6800 and he is having a hell of a time getting his working as well.

The X800XT worked perfectly in his system also right from the first time he tried it !! and it out performs my 6800 Ultra in all the benchmarks, I don't OC the cards at all either though.

Go Figure.

Mattey · Dec 6, 2004, 11:36 AM

I also havent been too impressed with my 6800GT, had it for about 4 months now & it still isnt as stable as my old 9800pro or the 9700pro i brought for my mate (checked it worked in my pc x-mas pressie

). Im unable to break 75hz on my monitor with this card but with the 9800/9700 it would do 100hz easy without forcing e.t.c. I get horrible tearing e.t.c

I really do not like nvidias drivers they really do suck compared to ati's which imo are great, even when people had problems with thier drivers i had non. Wish i could go back to ati but i dont have the money to do so

Unlucky about your bad luck with the card.

PoopyTheJ · Dec 6, 2004, 12:41 PM

Hmm, so how is the X800 shaping up for you Wired?

Yallrun · Dec 6, 2004, 02:58 PM

Did you get the X800 pro VIVO that you can flash to XT? That would be sweet! Last ATI i HAD WAS THE 9800xt and has enough problems to sell it and get the 6800GT, works flawlessly. But I have heard the X800 are real sweet cards!

John

h4l0x · Dec 6, 2004, 03:03 PM

I used to have that same problem wiht my x800 xt with graphic artificing it would look like matrix stuff scrolling up and down on the screen? hehee cept they werne't 0's and 1's.. anyway with a bit of tinkering and all that i came to the root of the problem and that is power. sometimes when the card gets initialized it doesn't power up fully and when it finally powers up later there are problems.. my artifacts would go away when i rebooted sometimes and sometimes not.. i switched the molex connector from my psu and just used a different one and no more problems.. also if that doesn't work for you your molex connector on your card might be messed up and the card has a power management problem. you may just have a faulty card.. heh it happens.. thiis is just speaking from personal experience you may have another issue.. hope this helps!

HawgsHead · Dec 11, 2004, 10:48 PM

I had an X800 Pro and my 6800GT runs circles around it.Dont get me wrong,the X800 Pro was a good card.But it only ran on 12 pipelines and the 6800GT runs on 16.

lodni · Dec 20, 2004, 09:59 AM

well i have both the 6800 gt and the x800 pro in identical systems(ones mine and the other my brothers) and well in games the difference i c is nothing.

But i have to say i do prefere playing d3 on the gt even tho i can play d3 on the x800 max with 4af ingame settings
o and the fact that i have and 6800 gt and x800 pro is becuase 4 some reason we got both of them cheaper then getting 2 x800s or 2 6800s dont no why.
and i only trust my benchies

Wiredzero · Dec 20, 2004, 11:27 AM

To Answer your question, Poopy....So far, it's the best card for the price. Definately more stable, and much better lookin. (Kinda funny that games that have the "The way it's meant to be played" nVidia logo....run better on this ATi card for me.) lol oh well.

And btw. "Benchies" are no substitute for judging for yourself and letting your own eyes decide what's smoother, and looks better.

X800 Pro Looks better, Runs as fast (if not faster) on it's 12 rendering pipelines, runs 20C cooler all around, AND it'll FIT in just about any system because it's not some horrendusly long POS.

Daishi · Dec 23, 2004, 04:01 PM

i have an eVGA 6800 Ultra and its been good to me no problems what so ever i also had an evga 6800 GT i used the step up program both have been VERY stable no problems AT ALL. and i game ALOT.

PoopyTheJ · Dec 23, 2004, 05:45 PM

How does that stepup program work?

MiDKnYtE · Dec 23, 2004, 06:59 PM

http://www.evga.com/stepup/

c'mon poopy! it wasn't that hard to find.

PoopyTheJ · Dec 23, 2004, 11:23 PM

Ah I was busy, had to go swim a 100 Breastroke at this alumni meet, man am I beat.... thanks MiDKnYtE....

technonerd · Dec 23, 2004, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiredzero

To Answer your question, Poopy....So far, it's the best card for the price. Definately more stable, and much better lookin. (Kinda funny that games that have the "The way it's meant to be played" nVidia logo....run better on this ATi card for me.) lol oh well.

And btw. "Benchies" are no substitute for judging for yourself and letting your own eyes decide what's smoother, and looks better.

X800 Pro Looks better, Runs as fast (if not faster) on it's 12 rendering pipelines, runs 20C cooler all around, AND it'll FIT in just about any system because it's not some horrendusly long POS.

Welcome to ATI world

............and they're even Quiet.

GeneralClaymore · Dec 24, 2004, 12:15 AM

thats one of the reasons i didn't go for the nvidia card, i had nvidia problems in the past. i want something work out of hte box. not something that i gonna have take days to fix.

i went for the X800pro i got my oced at 510/560 . though i wasn't about to be a clone and follow every one esle into the 6800Gt bus, just getting it cuz they are.

i got the X800pro cuz i wanted and i am happy with mine, and thats all that count as long YOU are happy.

CDsDontBurn · Jan 2, 2005, 06:02 AM

i've had both nVidia cards and ATI cards in the past.....all worked fine for me right out of the box. In order: I've had Gainward GF 3 ti200 Golden Sample (gosh i miss that card), BBATI 8500 275/275, GF 2 mx400 (worst trade ever), BBATI 9700pro, and now my 6800GT. All cards have worked fine for me, no problems. Out of all those cards, my 9700pro is the one that died. The only thing i don't like about nVidia cards though, is that they are really long. On a performance stand point, the 6x00 cards perform just as good as the x800 series cards do pretty much. the 6x00 cards own x800s in OGL and x800s own 6x00 cards in D3D.

pr0digal jenius · Jan 2, 2005, 02:22 PM

nVidia TNT 2 Pro, Intel Extreme 2 integrated GPU, BBATi Radeon 8500 128MB(Non LE), Sapphire Radeon 9200 Pro, VisionTek Geforce 4 Ti 4600, Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB, XFX 6800GT 256MB

must say, i LOVE my 6800 GT...by far the best card I've had since the 8500(which is in my mind, the best card ever made)