Asus FX6800 Ultra versus the Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum

AS X800XT PLATINUM AND 6800 ULTRA marchitecture become available, we had the chance to compare two cards from Asus, based on the stuff that ATI and Nvidia make.

We don't want to get into details about the X800XT Platinum or Geforce 6800 Ultra tech, as we've already said enough about them - just to say that the Asus ATI based card is hidden under AX 800XT name while Geforce based card is called V9999 Ultra Deluxe.

Asus X800XT
The AX800 is clocked to a 520MHz core and 1120MHz memory like all the Platinum editions and is a faster ATI tech. It is a shader 2.0 card with sixteen pipelines while the memory interface is 256s. As for the bundle, you get a huge box full of nice gadgets. You will get a free plastic CD case filled with Counter Strike Condition zero - pale perhaps compared to Half Life 2 but a good game, DeusX Invisible war, Asus DVD XP, Ulead Cool 3D 2.0 + Express 4.0SE, Power Director, Media Show and the Asus driver CD.

As for the other gadgets you get 9 pin S video to Composite VIVO cable, a DVI dongle and ATX power cable. There's also a slender manufal that tells you how to plug the card in and install the drivers.

Oh, you also get a nice USB web cam that works just fine even without this card. The camera has a microphone and works OK under messenger and with some other applications.

Cooling is not a stuck on ATI reference cooler as with Club3d or Power Color cards - it's slightly different.

Installation was easy - plug the card in AGP, plug display cable install drivers restart and benchmark. No problems there.

Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999Ultra Deluxe
The Geforce card was also packed in a huge box and was clocked 400MHz core and 1100MHz for memory and Nvidia default speeds. When you turn it on it glow's with the magic blue crystal colour which is OK if your case has a window. You need two power cables and we were shocked not to get them with the card but maybe they were just missing from the pack we reviewed.

I have to admit that the game bundle was a little bit slimmer than in the Radeon case. You get Deus Ex but no Half Life Condition zero as this is an "ATI only game". The second game you get is Battle Engine Aquilla, Gun Metal TWIMTBP game and a six in one games collection of demos. As for software you get Asus DVD XP, Media Show and Asus driver and utility. Asus does have its own drivers but we used Nvidia and ATI drivers for the test.

You also get a nice camera 300 K Pixel USB with microphone, 30 FPS capable with magic snap shot button. It works fine and delivers what you need from this kind of camera.

The cooling solution is Asus' but again similar to Nvidia's reference concept. It's definitely noisier than the Asus Radeon card but not significantly.

It's very easy to install the card. You need two power plugs and need DVI dongle if you use a VGA display. Install the drivers and you are ready.

Test
We tested with:

Athlon 64 3400+ clocked at 2200 MHz
EPOX HDA3+ K8T800 board
2x512 MB Corsair DDR 550 PC4400 CL2
Western Digital 8 MB cache 80 GB Drive
Titan Athlon 64 cooler

Results

Far Cry 1.1	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	64.05	64.17	63.1
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	67.47	68.05	62
Unreal Tournament 2004	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	158.1	161.5	152.4
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	164.3	176.9	165
Quake 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	417.6	389	360
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	408.5	410.9	383.5
3Dmark 2001SE Nature	Nature	1024x768
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	238	25225
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	179.5	23751
UT 2003 FLY	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	292	287	269.4
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	292.1	278	255.9
UT 2003 BOT	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	101.4	101	100.3
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	104.1	103.9	103.6
Serious Sam 2 FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	165.6	154.1	125.3
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	164.6	158.7	126.8
Aquamark 3			1024x768
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz			57
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz			64.69
Halo PS 2.0 benchmark	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	57.1	59	54.6
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	63.2	66	58.1
Far Cry FSAA 4X + 8X aniso	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	64 .5	54.4	39.1
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	60 .5	46.42	35.8
Quake 3 FSAA 4X + 8X aniso	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	411 .9	296.1	218.3
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	424 .9	410.9	252.8
Composite Figures 3Dmark03	3Dmark03	game 2	Game 3	Nature
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	11857	91.1	74.1	76.8
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	11792	93.8	77.7	64.3
Composite Figures 3Dmark03	Single Texturing	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel sharer 2.0
Asus Radeon X800XT Platinum AX800XT 520 / 1120 MHz	3081.9	7160	37.8	153.9
Asus Geforce 6800 Ultra V9999 Ultra 400 MHz/ 1100 MHz	3196.6	6178.9	32.7	164

Results
Finally some action as actually these two cards do compete against each other. In Far Cry Geforce is better at 10.7 and 12x10 but loses by a small amount at 16x12. Unreal tournament 2004 is definitely Nvidia's game as Nvidia wins with up to 12+ FPS even at 16x12 including all other resolutions. Quake 3 is definitely 6800 Ultra's "pet" as it wins in all resolution even by 20 FPS more then ATI.

3D mark 2001SE is an application where ATI card shines and leaves Nvidia in the dust with almost 1500 marks in overall score and magnificent 58.5 FPS in beautiful nature test. UT 2003 has mixed emotions as ATI wins at higher resolutions and goes up to 15 FPS faster while Nvidia gets better in bot mode by modes 3 FPS.

Nvidia is still faster in Halo while ATI plays faster in Far Cry FSAA 4X and 8X anisotropic filtering. Quake 3 with FSAA 4X and 8X anisotropic filtering still gives Nvidia a huge advantage.

3dm03 again brings mixed emotions as ATI wins overall. In game 2 and 3 Nvidia is faster but then loses catastrophically on the Nature test. I don't know what's with Nvidia and nature test but this test just likes ATI cards better than its major competitor. In Vertex shader ops ATI is faster while Nvidia can do Pixel Shader 2.0 faster. Then again, Nvidia is faster in single texturing while ATI can do multi texturing faster.

Conclusion
Whatever you pick depends on what you want to do with the card, because the actual difference between both is cases marginal. Asus's cards are well built so it's horses for courses, without a fancy bag to tip the scales one way or another. µ