6800GT and 6800GS headache!

[~Rob]

I had up untill a few days ago decided a 6800GS would sit in my new rig (AMD 3500+, 1GB Ram, Asus SLI, etc, etc). I wasnt 100% sure, so as I knew my bits would take a few days to arrive I held off, what a fool I am!

I did start thinking maybe I could buold the system down to a price a bit and go with a 6600GT, with a future view to SLI but TBH I'm not overwhelmed with the benchmarks I've seen or the fact its such an old card these days, Any one have any input on 6600GT's?

Anyways....
XFX 6800GS 256MB DDR3 Extreme Gamer - £170
Leadtek 6800GT 256MB DDR3 (those who shop around find amazing offers ) £170

I know about the whole 12 vs 16 pipes and clock arguments, but I'm looking for opinions from people who have more of an idea than me!?

On a side note, I've seen sites etc that are claiming to have run to 6800's from seperate manufactures in SLI mode with no problems, Nvidia tweaked some drivers that we all need to know about?

Sorry its such a long post and thanks as always.

 

[jac006]

What's your max budget? It depends on that. If you can, I would go with the 6800gt. Of course, the 6800gs is still good enough. I would go with a 6800gs and go sli later on.

 

[~Rob]

I have to draw the line at £170ish, otherwise its never ending..LOL!

Way I see it.. I'd probally be very happy with GS performance but with the GT at the same price, it seems silly to not consider it, even more so when its supposedly a "faster" card (and around £60 more usually), but then you read the reviews where it keeps up or even beats the GT's.... Grrrrrrrrr!

On a side note, can someone please tell me what is considered a playable FPS rate, as ideally I'd like something thats gonna give me the likes of Half Life 2 at max everything without too much complaining, but the benchmark graphs at Tomshardware are lame and I've never had the pleasure of a link that actually gives some insite into FPS!

Thanks as always..

 

[mr.monger]

6800 vanilla can be unlocked and ocd... otherwise gs i suppose. its newer.

 

[mech1]

my 6800GT 256Mb AGP XFX puts out half-life 2 at 60FPS with everything fully loaded. Pumps out FEAR at 30-40FPS with some uber-advanced things off. Definitely a sweet improvement from my old 9800Pro. Maybe someone with a GS will chime in with their fps's

 

[kchi55]

if you plan on going SLi i think you would probably be better off getting the gt, i heard that they're alot better in SLi than the gs is in SLi.. if you dont go SLi i would go with GS

 

[~Rob]

Thanks all. Decided to go with the 6800GT.

Suppose if I do go SLI I'll stand a better chance of picking up a good deal on a second card in the future as more of them will have obviously been sold, as opposed to the GS. Also very happy with the price... I could stick it on Ebay when it arrives and make more than I paid for it!!!

Suppose now I gotta start praying I end up with a good overclocker, right? mmmm... Ultra speeds!