[Pc_Support] Re: For-Sale: Loaded LAN Party Cube (6800GT/256MB, A2600+, 1GB, 160GB, DVD-R/RW/RAM)

[Bryan J. Smith]

On 10/1/06, Bryan J. Smith <thebs413 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> - KICK-ASS:  PNY GeForce 6800GT 256MiB GDDR3 AGP video
> [ Sucker bests the GeForce 7600GS and ATI X1600 series, only a 7600GT,
> ...
> The "diamond" in this system is the GeForce 6800GT 256MiB GDDR3 AGP
> video ... the sucker overclocks well (I never
> needed to though), runs Doom3/Quake4 great, and just about anything
> else you can throw at it.  It bests virtually all PCIe video cards
> under $150 (or $130 after rebates), and you have to go a 7600GT to get
> slightly better performance (like with 10-15%), or a 7800+ or ATI
> X1800+ to do better (it still beats a ATI X1600 Pro -- sans maybe
> Half-Life which runs on ATI better).

For those of you who with FX or cheaper 6000 series cards, here's what
this card does:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page9.html

Now what is shown "at the bottom" is the FX 5700.  The FX 5700 "LE" is
only 55% of that card.  The FX 5200/5500 _suck_ even harder (well
sub-10fps) where this card does over 100fps.  The GeForce 61x0
chipset-integrated GPUs won't break much beyond 20fps either -- a nice
"intro-GPU" but nothing like this sucker.

It's AGP, which is a "dead-end" essentially.  Other than the
6800Ultra, this was the Cadillac of the AGP products -- even PNY only
sells _slower_ 6000 series now (6200, 6600 and the slower/crippled
6800"GS").  That's why I have no use for it, and have gone PCIe ($400
7800GTX and, more recently, that 7900GS for my wife).  But I figured
there are plenty of you that do.  If it wasn't for the Woot deal on
the 7900GS (which is $200+ normally), my wife would still be using
this card.

You might look at the clock and say 350MHz isn't fast.  But it's a
full 256-bit memory bus, with 1GHz GDDR3 memory.  The 7600 series uses
a 128-bit memory bus and the 7600GS, even overclocked, can't match it.
 It takes a 7600GT running at 560GHz with 1.2-1.4GHz memory to get
about 15% more, because of the 128-bit memory.  And beyond that,
you're talking a $200+ GeForce 7800 series or ATI X1800 series to get
25+% more.

Again, just looking for someone who wants to upgrade and use this
system for 2+ years.  I have no use for a 3rd system with such 3D
capability.  If I don't get a price I like, I'll pass it on to my
brother.  But I'd rather give it to someone who wants to kick Linux
3D.