mothow,

We'll deal with your issues one by one. Here goes:

1) Your higher 3dMark '01 score is because of your CPU. You are oc'ed to 3.5GHz, opposed to my CPU oc'ed to 2.1GHz (3000+). As I have stated before, 3dMark '01 also scores you on your CPU, not just your video capabilities. It's more of a system benchmark, than a video benchmark.

2) You ponder about why I do better than you in '05. I have a much higher OC than you. Simple as that.

3) The eVGA 6800LE you're referring to is, I'm guessing, the 6800 Limited Edition. Other 6800LEs (such as those from Apollo and XFX and the bunch) are NOT in fact Limited Editions. They are simply nVidia's naming for budget cards (such as the 5700LE).

These cards, the eVGA 6800 Limited Editions are, for the most part Ultras. They have all the characteristics: dual-slot, the same capacitors, the same dual-molex, the same RAM. Yes, that's right. The eVGA 6800 Limited Edition does use the 1.6ns GDDR3 RAM. I have heard of people opening the Limited Edition up to 16x1,6vp. I feel that yes, this is in fact an Ultra with a 6800nu BIOS. A simple BIOS flash will up the 6800nu voltage from 1.2v to the Ultra's 1.4v. With the voltage update, you should be able to increase the speed of the core.

LCF
never mind...lol

Hey Lordcoldfire what was your you 3Dmark05 score i just got 4118 after reinstalling it.Now who has the faster card...lol
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=253489

I have updated the chart.

LordColdFire

Have you tried the vod on the bios yet .I have tried to flash mine but i cant not get the flash to work.I have tried all versions of nvflash..It just wont flsh my card.But i know its flashable.Also if you do flash it you only only change the throttle volts to 1.4 or 1.5 for the best results.Let me know if you have tried this or are going to

I have a Gainward 6800LE and I have ahd some sucess soft modding it, i get the full unlock and with some help from the very helpful Lord Coldfire I have applied a over clock to the fsb, agp clock and the core / mem on the card. results to follow

Thanks very much for the help, great work

Maybe I'll forget the 6600GT and go straight to 6800nu. Few extra bucks... *adds topic to favorites*

Results as promised for the Gainward 6800LE
3dmark 2005 = 4178
Card core = 399MHz
Card memory = 847MHz

CPU = AMD64 3200+ clocked to 2332MHz with a 212Mhz fsb
memory = 1 Gig of corsair TwinX
Mobo = MSI Neo 2 platinum....

The score seems to go up and down by its self, but its a great improvement over the standard settings
I may be able to clock the CPU up some more if i relax teh memory timings which are currently 2 2 5

That's what I would do, bonfire.... oh wait... that's what I did, isn't it?

Yeah, I really recommend the BFG 6800OC if you're going to get one... I had pretty good success with it.. It's only about $280 at newegg.com right now

Ah, I have 5 bucks. Canadian. Payday is next week. 60 bucks. If I'm lucky.
However, if the USD keeps dropping and CND keeps rising, pretty soon I'll be able to compare prices in the US without having to use xe.com currency converters...

And Newegg doesn't ship internationally.

Gah... seems like the local computer place only has the Asus Ultras. Expensive AND crappy. Wait... does Asus make good video cards?

I wouldn't trust them, personally. Not to sound like Calc or anything, but they're too expensive for the same performance. You say you live in Canada.... How close to Michigan do you live? I might be able to Newegg one here for you, and we can meet at, or across, the border somewhere.

Michigan Michigan... *Checks map*... (Canadians are NOT as ignorant as Americans but we can't rattle off the 50 states on a whim)... No. Too far away as I'm in Alberta. And I'm too young to drive at 15. Thanks for offering... Tigerdirect.ca has some badass sales though.

Don't worry bonfire... I can only say on Providence, and that's Quebec. I dunno all the others.... I only know Quebec 'cause my family had a farm up there back in the day. Here's a REEEALLY easy way to remember what Michigan looks like:

1) Hold your left hand completely flat
2) Look at the back of your hand

That's it... That's Michigan.

Yah americanmaps.com costs money so I went to the government site... I'm in the west. You're in the east. No good.

Unless you're willing to pay express overnight international shipping for like 50 bucks...

Yeah, you could pay for the shipping too... no way I'm payin' for it.

Nah there's 20-30 small compter places in Edmonton, 10 min from where I live. Home of West Edmonton Mall... largest mall on Earth! HA! And last time I checked... 5 computer stores in the same area *drool*. As in same area of the mall *DROOL!*

So... I'll PM you with my unlock sometime within the next 2 1/2 months or so... that paper route only nets so much money... $100 a month... Christmas ca$h!

Hello,
I am considering getting some good videocard after all the MXes I had so far... the $200-250 range seems like my max right now.

I would like to ask for your oppinion on which card to get - Right now in the local shop they have
MSI 6800LE for $250
ASUS 6800 for $285
MSI 6800 for $300
ASUS 6800GT (128MB 700MHz DDR1 though) for $330
and some more expencive 6800GTs too, as well as a few Radeon variants... but i think the LE and NU are what i should chose from.

What can you advise me about the LE vs. NU variant cards in general? Is there usually slower memory in the LEs or other differences than the disabled pipelines?

Also what can you say about these particular models? Are ASUS or MSI bad brands for a vidcard?
Also I noticed the "cheep" GT card there... is a DDR1 card, somewhat "fake-GT"? At the price of $330 its quite over my budget now, and if its nor "real" GT i guess its not worth it... maybe its just an unlocked NU?

Right now I'm thinking of getting the cheapest of the listed (even it is a bit too expencive for me...) and hope on unlocking and maybe overclocking it...
I'm pretty sure the LE will mod to at least NU (especially as i can talk with the shopkeeper to return a card that doesn't mod)
But if you think any of the other cards is worth the extra price, I'd like to read your comments.

I have a math test in about 45 minutes, so I'm going to try and make this quick...

The LE series only has the disabled pipelines (8-pixel piplelines and 2-pixel pipelines are disabled). Other than that, it's the exact same card as a 6800nu. The reason the 6800LE is cheaper, though, is because not only does it have the disabled pipes, but it seems to be that you can't open as "many" of them, per se. There is not slower memory in the LE than the 6800nu. It's just a 6800nu without the number of pipelines I mentioned above.

The MSI is good, but stay away from the ASUS board. They went with a weird naming scheme this time around, and I just don't trust their boards. For whatever reason, I've heard of 16-pipeline 6800GTs with DDR and 12-pipeline 6800nus with GDDR3. It's frickin' weird. And I just really, really don't trust it. Stay AWAY from ASUS this time.

If I were you, I would save up a bit more if you're really stuck on getting one of the 6800-series cards. BFG and MSI are, obviously, some of the cards that are known for unlocking. If you wanted good performance for sub-$250, though, I would ask the computer store owner if he could get you a 6800GT for the AGP interface. Those are fast, but they're limited by their 128-bit memory bandwidth (versus the 256-bit of the 6800 series) and 8-pixel pipelines and 3-vertex pipelines (versus the 6800nu's 12x1, 5vp architecture). Either way, I'm sure you'll be happy with nVidia this time around. ATi kind of went overkill on their prices, but I'll forgive them. Good luck on your decision!

Thanks for the reply
I assume you ment to recommend a 6600GT where you typed 6800GT... anyway, typoes happen.
The thing is, there are no 6600s for sale here, not even for PCIe. Its really nasty... I live in Bulgaria. Its like I live on the edge of the world or something - we never get the new tech on time in local shops. And none of the good online shops ship to here, except if I pay a heap of taxes and shipping fees... anyway, enough complaining
I'm even lucky that there are these 6800s already - and the prices seem not much higher than in the "real world" too

I guess I'll go with the 6800LE now... though I still think I will wait a while more. This new PCIe thing poses a hard decision too... I'm not sure if it won't be better to get a motherboard and vidcard (a whole new comp in fact) for the new interface instead of buying such expencive card for an old PC that'll soon need upgrading anyway.
Well, this is way off-topic now...

If I decide to go with an AGP card, it'll be the MSI's LE and I'll make sure to give you modding results.
Thanks for the response once again