6800 Ultra Brands

[Calzinger]

eVGA doesn't have the greatest bundles, but I have to agree with the others. eVGA has a reputation for reliability and great overclocking potentials. And since you are looking to overclock it yourself, eVGA is definitely a good choice.

I know Asus also has good overclocking capabilities on their motherboards, but I'm not sure about their video cards. It should be equally capable.

XFX has good software bundles with their card, as well as MSI. They tend to be somewhat overlooked given the success of MSI's nForce 4 Ultra motherboard, the K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Like said earlier, BFG has great stock overclocking but it can be easily matched even without a lot of OC'ing knowledge.

Manufacturers like Leadtek or AOpen, I really have no clue about but given their popularity, you may be better off going with the more well known manufacturers.


By the way, have you considered getting a 6800 GT? They're incredibly cheaper and can be clocked to a 6800 Ultra fairly easily. Then again, I guess the 6800 Ultra can be overclocked quite a bit.

 

[Lasrix]

My 6800 is a eVGA. I have to say, they're a great company. I mean, when you purchase, they send six french models over to your house for gratuitous sex as a bonus.

...What? It hasn't happened to anyone else?

sorry but.. hahahahha

ah, much better

 

[diabloII]

512mb is dumb

we'll never use up to 512 currently and it costs ~$1000

 

[Calzinger]

512mb is dumb

we'll never use up to 512 currently and it costs ~$1000

I could not agree more. I like what ATI is doing with their new 512mb version, but that is one reason why I decided not to wait for it. What is the sense in paying so much when you don't even have a game to push that much. Is this card coming too early? Should it be waiting for the right game for it?

 

[diabloII]

eVGA doesn't have the greatest bundles, but I have to agree with the others. eVGA has a reputation for reliability and great overclocking potentials. And since you are looking to overclock it yourself, eVGA is definitely a good choice.

I know Asus also has good overclocking capabilities on their motherboards, but I'm not sure about their video cards. It should be equally capable.

XFX has good software bundles with their card, as well as MSI. They tend to be somewhat overlooked given the success of MSI's nForce 4 Ultra motherboard, the K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Like said earlier, BFG has great stock overclocking but it can be easily matched even without a lot of OC'ing knowledge.

Manufacturers like Leadtek or AOpen, I really have no clue about but given their popularity, you may be better off going with the more well known manufacturers.


By the way, have you considered getting a 6800 GT? They're incredibly cheaper and can be clocked to a 6800 Ultra fairly easily. Then again, I guess the 6800 Ultra can be overclocked quite a bit.

so you buy cards for their bundle?

meh, i haven't even touched the splinter cell and prince of persia my leadtek came with

and yea, all the records are broken with the 6800gt (i think they have lower memory timings), and plus they are cheaper

edit: you'll also need a better psu

 

[Calzinger]

I don't buy cards for their bundle, nor did I state that I do. I bought an eVGA 6800 GT over the XFX even though the XFX came with 3 games while the eVGA came with nothing. However, software bundles can be convincing when they come with actual abusive games. eVGA threw in Doom 3 with one of their 6800 Ultra I think which is definitely a good add-in considering the amount of detail that Doom 3 can bring with a 6800 Ultra.

But somehow the software bundles that come in most games nowadays are garbage like the splinter cell & prince of persia package that also comes with one of MSI's bundles. XFX also had some garbage bundles.

Nevertheless, getting 3 games with your card can save you $70 or more which can be very convincing for someone that doesn't need a top end OC'ing card.

 

[dale5605]

I think splinter cell is a great game, so is prince of persia. Prince of Persia is one of the highest rated and most graphical games on the xbox, not sure about the computer though. But from all the reviews I thought it would be sweet.

 

[Calzinger]

I think splinter cell is a great game, so is prince of persia. Prince of Persia is one of the highest rated and most graphical games on the xbox, not sure about the computer though. But from all the reviews I thought it would be sweet.

They just aren't games that really take advantage of the card that it is bundled with. I'd like to see games like Far Cry (bundled on the BFG 6800) or Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom 3, or maybe even Half Life 2. Sure the games they come with are great, but they don't really prove anything about the card.

MSI bundled that cell-shaded game XIII, and when I heard that, I laughing like crazy. I honestly don't think it takes 8 megs of integrated graphics to power a cell-shaded game. But then again, it can't be that bad of a game.

Does anyone know what the eVGA 6800 GT PCI-E video card comes with? I don't think it has any bundled software. The eVGA website made it hard enough to find anything. I read on a website that it comes with Far Cry. Can anyone confirm this? The picture doesn't appear to have any game CDs on the picture at newegg.com. All retail video cards should come with at least driver CDs and if they aren't even visible, then perhaps the game won't even show up. That can be incredibly misleading considering I bought Far Cry, HL2, & Doom 3 with my computer. Two copies of Far Cry won't do me any good!

 

[ShoobieRat]

eVGA threw in Doom 3 with one of their 6800 Ultra I think which is definitely a good add-in

Bah, it wasn't an add-in! The price clearly made for the D3 bonus.

It's been a while, but if I remember right, the plain 6800Ultra was about $410, and the one bundled with D3 was $445. Hmm...doesn't sound free to me.

Eh, what am I complaining about. I bought an eVGA 6800GT, OC'd it to an Ultra (like most other people), and saved myself the grief.

 

[Calzinger]

I also found that on newegg, the eVGA 6800 GT AGP is $360. The eVGA 6800 GT AGP w/ FREE DOOM 3 BUNDLE was $400. But I do remember eVGA throwing in free games earlier as a part of their package. It just seems that lately they charge more than the actual game value.