XFX Geforce 6800GS demolishes Radeon X1600XT

XFX IS ONE of Nvidia's most lovable partners. In the last few months it sold many cards and so Nvidia loves XFX too. This company managed to get itself a quite nice reputation as it's selling cards that are clocked even higher than Nvidia's recommendation and can get them on time. XFX managed to be one of the first to retail with its just announced 6800GS mainstream cards. It will be also one of the first to launch 7800 GTX 512MB cards, later today.

Nvidia didn't have any other choice than to reach for its previous high end generation, modify the chip, cut it to 12 pipelines, increase the clock speed and sell it for super mainstream market where cards are not supposed to cost more than $249. It called it the Geforce 6800GS and it's available in the shops as we speak. It has to fight ATI's upcoming Radeon X1600XT chip that is expected in two to three weeks from now. ATI had a lot of problems with both R520XT and RV530 chips as it could not clock them at more than 500MHz and the R530, Radeon X1600XT needed more than that to be competitive. The RV530, now known as the Radeon X1600XT, ended up with a 590MHz core and 1400MHz memory speeds. ATI's card has twelve pipelines but it has the unusual number of only four TMUs. ATI claims that it actually doesn't need more than that but we are not so sure.

Nvidia's Geforce 6800 GS mainstream card works at 425MHz core and 1000MHz memory clock, is equipped with twelve pipelines, has 256MB of memory and is built on a 110 nanometre process. It's based on a new NV42 chip produced at TSMC that is an improved version of the NV41 core. This chip is native PCIe so there's no need for AGP to PCIe bridge that it used to need with the previous generation of cards. NV41 also eliminated this bridge but it was produced back at IBM. Now Nvidia decided to return to the safe hands of TSMC.

Geforce 6800GS uses a 256 bit memory interface and this is why it actually has a significant advantage over ATI's X1600XT with only 128 bit memory support. Don't think ATI will be able to stick more to 128 bit memory interface but Nvidia is pushing ATI really hard and it will have to react.

XFX Gefroce 6800GS at 485MHz/1100 MHz

XFX, on the other hand, decided to push Nvidia's default specification. The company managed to ship its cards clocked to 485MHz core and 1100MHz memory. This increase can help it to differentiate itself from other Nvidia partners. We got one of 6800GS card it its X wing box shape, not so easy to transport I guess but looks great in the shops. The retail package includes Far Cry full retail game that definitely adds some more value to this package. XFX offers user manual, multi language quick installation guide, driver CD, S video cable, DVI to AGP adaptor, six pin power cable and S video cable.

X fighter shaped box

Benchmarketing:
We used :
XFX Geforce 6800GS at 485 MHz / 1100 MHz
ATI reference Radeon X1600XT 590 MHz / 1400 MHz
Dual core Athlon 64 4800+ clocked at 2400 MHz
Abit Fatal1ty Nforce 4 SLI motherboard
2x512 MB OCZ PC4800 Elite platinum edition
Western Digital 8MB 160GB SATA drive
Stock Athlon 64 cooler
OCZ Power Stream 600W PSU

Far Cry 1.3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	85.74	85.59	78.25
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	75.59	66.83	49.73
FEAR	1024x768	1280x960	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	66	47	33
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	43	30	21
Doom 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	119.7	91.8	70.5
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	69.6	45.8	32.2
Half Life 2	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	74.04	68.50	62.43
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	65.87	58.81	51.95
Quake 4	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	83.4	61.1	46.0
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	68.3	46.1	34.1
Battlefield 2	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	344.098	268.798	179.445
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	173.624	103.309	66.446
Doom 3 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	73.7	50.9	37.6
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	47.8	32.5	21.0
Half Life 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	72.38	54.77	45.27
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	50.98	34.23	27.55
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	65.3	46.7	35.7
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	51.16	47.23	41.62
Battlefield 2 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	65.3	46.7	35.7
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	52.9	36.7	25.4
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Nature
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	13464	101.6	82.8	77.3
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	9615	69.3	57.2	64.8
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel Shader 2.0
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	3569.6	5692.5	35.3	192.5
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	1963.5	2342.2	40.0	72.5
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game3
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	5816	26.9	16.4	28.5
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	5258	24.6	15.0	24.4
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS /VS complex
XFX GeForce 6800 GS 485/1100 MHz	4157.0	5708.0	160.6	52.2 / 40.5
ATI Radeon 1600 XT 590/1400 MHz	2153.4	2377.9	116.2	78.7/48.6

As you can see from the scores, Nvidia's card with a 256 bit memory interface scores a bit more. At 1600x1200 no AA and no AF Nvidia is almost 30 FPS faster than ATI and that is a lot. In newcomer on our benchmarketing suite F.E.A.R, XFX 6800GS manages to be a bit faster than Radeon X1600XT card, in 1024x768 is 23 FPS faster on average frames. In Doom 3 XFX 6800GS is more than twice faster in 1600x1200, a nightmare for ATI.

Even in Half Life 2 XFX 6800GS is still faster but scores are not that bizarre, it's "just" averagely 10 FPS faster than X1600XT. Our custom Quake 4 test shows Nvidia's supremacy in every single test while in Battlefield 2, XFX 6800GS slaughters X1600XT as its at last twice or sometimes even three times faster in this test. This really hurts.

In FSAA 4X and Anisotropic 8X XFX 6800GS is still faster in Doom 3 and Half Life 2 tests but Radeon X1600XT is showing its teeth in Quake 4. In 1280x1024 and 1600X1200 ATI can manage to run faster than XFX 6800GS which is a huge success of ATI new memory controller. It's tight at 1280 but at 1600 ATI has lead in 1600x1200. ATI looks much better in Battlefield 2 benchmark but Nvidia 6800 GS is still faster.

Both 3Dmarks are on XFX 6800GS side and 6800GS is significantly faster in all tests in 3Dmark03. You can clearly see that XFX 6800GS can pull twice as much textures in both single and multi texturing. Is ATI suffering from its decision to use only four texture memory units for RV530 chip? It has to have some effects on the scores plus Nvidia has twice as fast memory or at least almost twice as fast than ATI's. In 3Dmark05 ATI looks better but it's still loosing from XFX 6800 GS card clocked at 485 / 1100 MHz. A Geforce 6800GS can pump up much more pixel Shader test while ATI is clearly winning in Vertex Shader test.

Conclusion
Without a doubt XFX 6800 GS 485 MHz core and 1100 MHz memory is the best mainstream card that we tested so far. The whole of Geforce 6800 GS generation is beating ATI's upcoming X1600XT cards clocked at 590 MHz core and 1400 MHz memory and what ATI needs now is the card with 256 bit memory interface.

As far as we know RV530 has 128 bit memory controller and ATI can not do anything about it fast. XFX 6800 GS is faster in every single scenario, it's available now for €249 in €uroland, $249 in USA and £176.50 in the island of UK. All the prices include VAT or taxes of course. For the price you will get a hell fast card that can actually even be overclocked to higher speeds, it won't cost you a fortune and will let you play all upcoming games at nice speeds. It's a great price for a great card. µ